Church Family Research Articles

Van 1619 na 1857 en 1986: 'n Lyn van Dordt na Belhar?

The fourth centenary celebration of the Synod of Dordrecht 1618/19, as well as the twenty fifth commemoration of the birth of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa—both having been celebrated in 2019—naturally leads to the question of the relation between the two historical events. In the historical development leading to the formation of separate churches in the “Dutch Reformed Family of Churches,” a distinct interpretation of election based on grace alone, as decided upon by the Synod of Dordrecht, played a major role. In this historical process of the formation of separate churches the 1857 synod decision by the Dutch Reformed Church has been a watershed moment; it not only brought a separation between people around the Lord’s table, but also a division between confession on the one hand and the practical ministry embodying the confession on the other hand. The 1857 decision eventually led to the necessity of the Belhar Confession in 1986. The Belhar Confession deliberately seeks a linkage to the central Reformed doctrine of “election by grace alone.” The Dutch Reformed Church’s inability and unwillingness to accept the Belhar Confession remain a tragic reality.

From Cottesloe (1961) to Trondheim (2016): The journey of the Dutch Reformed Church back into the ecumenical family of the World Council of Churches

This article presents an analysis of the journey of the Dutch Reformed Church (South Africa) back into the ecumenical fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The first part contains a brief historical review of the relationships between the WCC and the Dutch Reformed Church family, underlining the fact that the Dutch Reformed Church family in South Africa is a founding member of WCC and that it was never excluded from WCC fellowship; rather, this church itself resigned membership in the WCC after the Cottesloe Consultation (1961) at the pressure of the South African government of that time. The last part presents in detail the process of the readmission of the Dutch Reformed Church into the WCC fellowship (2012–2016) as well as the way this church was active in the WCC after readmission (2016–2018).

Traditional Plants Used by Remaining Healers from the Region of Grande Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Although the traditional use of medicinal plants is a very widespread practice in Brazil, there are still few studies aimed at native prescribers, known as healers. The aim of this work was to catalog the medicinal species prescribed by remaining healers of the Grande Dourados region, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with support of a standardized questionnaire for remaining healers selected using the "snowball" technique. The medicinal species selected were collected, identified, and classified according to the British National Formulary. Remaining healers were identified in seven municipalities in the region of Grande Dourados. Family, divine revelation, and participation of the Catholic Church were the most important sources of knowledge. Seventy-one medicinal species, mainly herbaceous belonging to Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Amaranthaceae, and Verbenaceae families, were the most prescribed. Most species are used in the treatment of digestive and cardiovascular diseases, in addition to immune and respiratory diseases. Healers from the region of Grande Dourados maintain considerable ethno-knowledge about the medicinal properties of different medicinal species. Sharing this information values their culture and preserves the knowledge for future generations.

CULTURAL CONTEXTS IN WORLDWIDE CONTEMPORARY ANGLICANISM: BEYOND THE ANGLICAN COVENANT

This research study attempts to explore the role that the notion of culture has played both, in the recent crisis within the Anglican Communion over issues of human sexuality, and in Anglican self-understanding more generally. I pay particular attention to the cultural transitions and clashes in different geo-social contexts, and to the dynamics between postmodern and postcolonial worldviews. The methodology employed here follows an inductive comparative analysis of the documents connected with the Anglican Covenant (2009). To date, there is no other academic investigation that has offered an in depth analysis of these texts as culturally contextualized identity articulations. The findings reveal a diversity of approaches to culture and a complex series of cultural clashes and alignments within this family of churches.

Living in poverty, living with poverty: the community workers\u2019 conceptions on child poverty in Greece

The recent debt crisis in Greece severely affected the Welfare State, as well as the overall social policy of the country. Families facing severe material deprivation and depending on the local soup kitchens have grown rapidly in number over the past decade. In drawing upon the given risks, this paper explores the church community workers’ and volunteers’ conceptions of poor children’s living conditions. It is worth noting that the volunteers reflect on the situation of the poor beneficiaries as they often are at risk of poverty themselves. The analysis is based on a mixed methods study (Quan–Qual) that was conducted in 2016–2017, and which covered the area of Thessaloniki (northern Greece) with a special focus on the neighborhoods suffering the most from the impacts of recession. The results show how the children living in “new poor” households experience the degradation of their well-being, as perceived by the volunteers, and what the main social services are they are receiving through the church family support. According to our findings, the pressure of the economic crisis broke the traditional welfare networks and left children vulnerable to risks in terms of their cultural, social, biological and psychological development. Furthermore, the results reveal how traditional family support is reaching its limits as the economic crisis gets more complex and prolonged.

Strengthening the Identity of Converts from Islam in the Face of Verbal Assaults: A Study with the Background of Turkish Society

Abstract The study focusses on converts from Islam to the Christian faith in Turkey. Converts are confronted with special challenges. Based on Islamic theology and Turkish nationalism most Turks cannot think of positive reasons to choose Christianity. So verbal assaults with social consequences like ostracism, prejudice, suspicion, and very low esteem are very common. The First Letter of Peter provides advice for strengthening new Christians by defining their identity as chosen und loved people of God. Personal caring for converts from Islam is crucial to provide a new “home” in assuring them of their new identity. They have to learn to evaluate accusations honestly, and from a faith-based position, and to integrate their new faith with their old environment. In the context of modern Turkey a fresh look at history can be meaningful: There were Turkish Christians before Islam, and there are still Christian Turkish people today. More important however is a genuine spiritual approach that understands verbal assaults within the framework of God’s history with his people. Converts should find their identity “in Christ”. At the same time, being in Christ must become practical in finding a new family in the local church and seeing themselves as part of the worldwide multinational body of Christ.

Influence of Religion on Later Burden and Health of New Black and White Caregivers.

Objective: We assessed the relationship between positive aspects of religiosity and reduced stress in caregivers, and negative aspects of religiosity and increased caregiver burden. Method: Using data from the Biopsychosocial Religion and Health Study, we performed multiple linear regression analysis on 584 caregivers. Results: Mental health, but not physical health, was predicted by caregiver burden. Caregivers who viewed God as loving and not controlling and felt a sense of community with their church family had less burden. Caregivers who engaged in negative religious coping had a greater decline in mental health than those who saw God as loving and not controlling and who gave emotional support to others. Discussion: Some aspects of religion appear to play an important role in alleviating the mental stresses of being a caregiver.

Emergence and establishment of a charismatic church within the framework of Javanese self-perception in Surakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACTThe article focuses on the Javanese Christian community in Surakarta and that of the charismatic Gereja Keluarga Allah (Family of God Church). Until recently, Surakarta was known for its mix of Javanese traditional court life with a Javanese way of Islam (abangan) as well as its radical Muslim community. Less known is that about 40% of Surakarta’s inhabitants are Christians and the biggest Christian church there is Gereja Keluarga Allah. Some 20 years ago, this church was dominated by Indonesian Chinese, as were most Pentecostal and charismatic churches in all Indonesia, but within Gereja Keluarga Allah in Surakarta, there has been an increasing number of Javanese and now it has more Javanese than Chinese members. As a result the Javanese cultural norm of harmoniously living together (rukun dan hormat) is frequently strained by members of this church because of their refusal to join in other aspects of Javanese ritual life. However, many Javanese church members regard this church as especially attractive because they are experiencing rasa for the first time in their lives. By mentioning rasa they intend to put their transcendental church experience on a level with Javanese mysticism.

Ewangeliczna wartość rodziny w Kościele i świecie według Synodów o Rodzinie

Autor ujmuje wartośc malzenstwa i rodziny jako wspolnoty osob tworzących naturalne i eklezjalne środowisko przyjmowania i przepowiadania Ewangelii. Artykul dotyczy zadan rodziny chrześcijanskiej wynikających z jej tozsamości ludzkiej i ewangelicznej, ktore staly sie tematem obrad synodu z 1980 roku i adhortacji Familiaris consortio oraz z relacji synodow z udzialem papieza Franciszka i w adhortacji Amoris laetitia.

We'll Be Takin' Him Home.

We'll Be Takin' Him Home.

Language as a barrier to ministry of the Word with special reference to sign language in ministry: Human dignity perspective

This article is born out of my participation in the General Synod Ministerial Formation for theological training of Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA), when a decision was taken to license a student with a disability to be a minister of the Word in URCSA. Furthermore, my experience and observation of the licensing of the two candidates with hearing impairments to the ministry of the Word and Sacrament in URCSA and Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (DRCSA) has encouraged me to conduct this research. This article is made up of four important parts: Firstly, the researcher will discuss Belhar Confession as the confession that emphasises unity (inclusivity), reconciliation and justice. Secondly, Belhar Confession and disability from the human dignity perspective will be discussed. Thirdly, the ecclesiological practices and shortcomings from the human dignity perspective will be highlighted. Fourthly, pastoral care as the affirmation of human dignity will be discussed.Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The fields involved in this article are Systematic Theology, Sociology and Psychology. The author challenges classification of people with a disability under the category of limited competence by the Dutch Reformed Church when they license the ministerial candidates. The future results will reveal the inclusivity in terms of licensing and calling of ministers in the Dutch Reformed Church Family. This research calls for the change in the traditional discourse within ecclesiological, sociological and psychological fields, which exclude the people with a disability from the ministry of the Word and Sacraments.

The limited public good of a confession. A public theological reflection on enhancing the (public) good of the Belhar Confession in the Reformed Church family of South Africa

Public theology takes on many forms, generally seeking some public good by interpreting Scripture, trying to reveal the social relevance of the theological truth concerned. In this framework the Belhar Confession can arguably be deemed a public theological tour de force as it spoke out against, amongst others, social injustices based on wrongful Biblical exegesis. Speaking to different “publics” over the last three decades, the good resulting from this confession, ironically, seems extremely limited – especially in the Reformed Church family (public) of its native land, South Africa. It would even be safe to allege that this confession has had a polarizing effect, rather than a unifying one. As public theology is regarded as an intra-disciplinary venture, this article will reflect critically on the limited good of this confession and will ponder the notion of enhancing its good as a form of public theology by means of a public-theological reflection. It is suspected that several possibilities reside within a public-theological reading whereby the good this confession is capable of can be enhanced.

The unification process in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) family and Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA): The confessional basis of the Belhar Confession

This article consists of five mains parts. Firstly the author gives a brief overview of the history and origin of the Belhar Confession as a corner stone for URCSA’s arguments for church unity. Secondly, the discussion focuses on church unity in general in relation to the Trinity, Eucharist and the Word of God. Church unity is a given, as a fruit of the cross of Christ. Thirdly, the article discusses the unification process within the DRC and URCSA. Fourthly, the author explores the Belhar Confession as the corner stone of church unity from URCSA’s perspective, and the challenges around accepting this confession by the DRC. Fifthly, the author deliberates URCSA’s position on the Belhar Confession as fundamental to URCSA’s identity and life.

‘Satis est — Necesse est’

The task of the current paper is to compare two important, ecclesiological documents to each other, namely, the document The Church of Jesus Christ (cjc, 1994) of the Leuenberg Church Fellowship to the Faith and Order document The Church: Towards a Common Vision (ctcv, 2012). The first one, cjc, outlines an ecclesiology of one, specific confessional church family and church fellowship, in a geographical area. ctcv, on the other hand, reflects the global situation, and seeks to express convergence between churches living in very different societies and cultural spheres. By comparing the two documents, this paper explores themes such as church as a community of Saints, the Leuenberg methodology of unity, legitimate diversity, apostolic succession and requirements for unity. The paper argues that the Leuenberg model of ‘reconciled diversity’ could be understood as a step and a practical tool on the way to the full, visible unity, which, according to ctcv, is the ultimate goal of the ecumenical movement.

We Intend to Move Together

The story of women's participation in the ecumenical movement can indeed be described as a pilgrimage of justice and peace, as well as a story of mission. From the earliest days of ecumenism--whether in its formal, institutional structures or in the lively work and witness of local communities around the globe--questions about women's role in the churches have been intertwined with questions about the social, economic, and cultural forces that affect women's lives. With changing emphasis shaped by particular time and context, the consistent thread in the journey has been a will to respond to the call to participate in God's mission in the world in ways that contribute to wholeness and fullness of life for all God's people and to the flourishing of creation. While not always named or recognized as such, gender justice has been at the heart of this journey. Consistently, women have been seeking ecumenical space in which the diverse experiences of women, their voices and visions, and the conditions of injustice and oppression that have been the lot of many women around the world can be lifted up and addressed. And in that space, women have claimed their own agency of resistance and transformation. The story of women's work and witness in the World Council of Churches (WCC) is only one facet of this journey. Each church family and world communion could tell its own story and each local context has had times of ecumenical witness and action--often connected with global programs, but also representative of particular local needs and issues. Nevertheless, the WCC has played a key role since its inception in linking ecumenical women in local contexts with international networks and global currents. A review of WCC programmes and structures committed to the journey of gender justice reveals both the rich heritage of ecumenical women's work and the challenges and gaps that continue. Affirming the "service and status of women" In the 1940s, when the WCC was still in the process of formation, Twila Cavert, a Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) leader from the US, together with other women, gained the support of WCC leaders for a pre-assembly women's meeting and a survey of woman leaders worldwide about their vision for the work of women in the whole church. (1) The questionnaire netted detailed replies from women in 58 countries, and prompted the Reformed Church of France to request that the question of women's role be placed on the agenda of the first assembly in Amsterdam in 1948. There, the study report on "The Life and Work of Women in the Church" was received and its recommendation for a permanent commission to undertake ecumenical inquiry into issues related to women's ministry was accepted. Susannah Herzel writes of the significance of these first steps for the participation of women in churches around the world: "So the infiltration had begun. Member churches of the ecumenical movement had agents of change in their midst, and the troubling questions would be increasingly difficult to ignore." (2) The material generated by the study was developed into a book by Kathleen Bliss, published in 1952 as The Service and Status of Women in the Churches, (3) Interpreting the reports through the framework of women's various types of service--voluntary, full-time and professional, ordained, and participation in church governance--Bliss examined the contributions and limitations of each area of endeavour. She asked whether the churches were making the best use of women's gifts, or helping women to participate as Christians in the changes taking place in society as a whole. Writing during a period of flux in women's public and private roles, Bliss urged churches to recognize the implications of changing family and employment patterns. She asserted that "what is needed is ... an imaginative act of understanding ... [of the] ... revolutionary change in the place of women in society." (4) These reports from around the world provided evidence that responses to women's ministries ranged from indifference to active opposition. …

A new approach to studying worship

No abstract available

Faith, Loyalty, and the Limits of Neutrality in the Crisis of the Union

Faith, Loyalty, and the Limits of Neutrality in the Crisis of the Union April Holm (bio) Timothy L. Wesley. The Politics of Faith during the Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013. xi + 273 pp. Notes and index. $45.00. Just as Abraham Lincoln famously asserted that slavery was “somehow” the cause of the Civil War, historians of nineteenth-century American religion have reached a consensus that religion, particularly evangelical Protestantism, is somehow essential to a complete understanding of the conflict. The exact mechanism of that “somehow,” however, remains difficult to define. Over the past twenty years, historians have taken on the challenge of formulating a satisfying and complete account of the connection between the pervasive religiosity of the nineteenth-century United States and the great political and military upheaval of the era. Historians agree upon the centrality of evangelical Protestantism to nineteenth-century American culture.1 Americans North and South interpreted the traumas of war and its aftermath through this evangelical Protestant lens. The Civil War era saw a religious people using their faith to make sense of an all-consuming military, political, and interpersonal struggle. As George Rable writes in his recent synthesis, God’s Almost Chosen Peoples, “many people on both sides of the conflict turned to religious faith to help explain the war’s causes, course, and consequences.”2 Both Northerners and Southerners, Rable argues, saw Providence at work in the drama of secession, the ordeals of the battlefield, and the revolution of emancipation. Still, many questions about the war and religion remain unresolved. Historians of religion and the Civil War grapple with two categories of questions. One category seeks to identify the role religion played in the war itself, from secession to emancipation: did religion affect secular events? A second line of inquiry asks how the war affected American religion: did secular events fundamentally alter the American relationship with the divine? A subset of this latter line of inquiry concerns how the war affected the lives of people of faith—specifically clergy, active church members, and the denominations to [End Page 655] which they belonged. Timothy Wesley takes up these problems in his thought-provoking and ambitious volume, The Politics of Faith during the Civil War. Wesley begins with the observation that antebellum clergy could influence millions. Preachers, he writes, were “the most politically determinative force within affiliated American Christianity, the only members of the greater church family who exercised significant yet immediate authority over others” (p. 42). Patriotic civilians, church leadership, and secular authorities recognized this powerful potential influence. Consequently, ministers acquired heightened political significance during the Civil War. Observers from all three groups monitored clergy to ensure loyalty to the Union. They expected and enforced patriotic messages from the pulpit. Wesley argues that the narrative of a monolithically pro-war and pro-Union Northern clergy has obscured the number of ministers in the North who strongly opposed such “political preaching.” Supporting his argument with evidence from church records, religious periodicals, and military documents, Wesley draws three conclusions: that white Northern ministers did not uniformly support the government; that, nevertheless, the boundary between church and state was much more porous in the Civil War era than historians currently assume it was; and finally, that the censure of nonpolitical preachers constitutes an important untold part of the story of civil liberties in the era. The book is a welcome contribution to the growing body of work on religion during the crisis of the union. Wesley draws attention to an overlooked point of conflict between religion, politics, and church and state in American history. His work prompts instructive new ways of thinking about civil liberties, loyalty, and the divide between the moral and the political in the fraught atmosphere of the Civil War North. The Politics of Faith during the Civil War is structured both chronologically and thematically. Wesley begins with a discussion of the familiar political events of the 1850s and concludes with the end of the Civil War. The first two-thirds of the volume primarily concern white Northern clergy and their struggles over religion and politics in the time of war. Wesley admirably includes clergy from outside the evangelical Protestant mainstream...

Educational and Pastoral Care and Communication with Multicultural Family

Nowadays, South Korea is a multicultural society. While transition to multicultural society has taken place in Korea, immigrant family have gone through difficulties due to the lack of effort to understand and prejudice upon another cultures. That is because Korean society has identified itself one people with one culture holding stereotype of other nation and people. There is no difference on the perception of multicultural family between Church and Korean society. Such a stereotype of immigrant family makes an impact on the adjustment of the immigrant family in Church. The immigrant family encounter similar circumstance such as stereotype, language barrier, and cultural differences in Korean Church. Simultaneously, they are expected not only to assimilate themselves to the culture of Korean Church, but also to abandon their own language, lifestyle, custom, and values. In this sense, it is indispensible to concern about and study the issue of multicultural family and their children as the one that need a pastoral care by local church pastors. This study has a good reason to discuss a pastoral care in terms of communication on the presupposition that the method of the pastoral ministry for multicultural family and their children, needs to be improved. Therefore, main purpose of this study is to seek a proper direction of multicultural pastoral ministry acknowledging the issues of the multicultural ministry and accommodating the demands of the change. For this purpose, this study will investigate not only the reality and issues of multicultural family from the sociocultural perspective but also the reality and its alternate solution in the context of local church. The second will explore the biblical communication that God initiated and wanted and the communication for multicultural family in the context of church. Finally, this paper will suggest a way of communication and its pastoral strategy for multicultural immigrant family. This study will play an important role in seeking the proper way of pastoral care for multicultural family and their children.

Šeimos kaip „namų Bažnyčios“ ugdymosi principai

Christian marriage according to John Paul II creates natural environment, in which persons integrate into the big Church family and create the Church. The family is able to create the Church only when it turns into the so called “miniature church” or “domestic church”. The Pope Paul VI has said that various aspects of the whole Church have to be found in every Christian family. Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses the Church as the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Family as the People of God. Spiritual relationships are more important than natural ties and are earlier and deeper than the relationship of benefit. Apostles and theologians maintain that love is most important in the spiritual life of the family. To achieve that, love has to be based not only on natural ties; it is important to help each other in the road to holiness. This stimulates the emergence of relationships of common good and common goal that relate persons. Domestic church carries out its mission by: a) integrating into the family of the Church; b) being “a small oasis of love” for all of its members; c) acting as an apostle in the world. Family as the Body of Christ. Three characteristics of the Church as the body of Christ are particularly distinct: Unity of all of its members through uniting with Christ (with the help of sacraments). Unity requires a certain sacrifice: “Like Christ, we have to give ourselves, die for our hostility every day, and share our dee­pest subsistence with others”. The family can grow only if its every member grows, if the needs of everyone, particularly of the one who lacks the most, are considered; Christ as the Head of the body . In the Christian family, which acknowledges limitations of its members, the most important place is given to the Creator. This approach helps parents both to bring up children ba­sed on the authority that is higher than theirs, to perceive mistakes, to seek perfection, and to acknowledge the importance of learning from children themselves; Domestic church as the bride of Christ. St. John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila and others speak about the man’s spirit as the bride of Christ. F. J. Parrella discloses this relationship discussing the essence of the sacrament. The family is understood as a sacrament only when relationships of its members are discussed as a visible expression of relationship of Saint Trinity which is love. Love, which creates the community of the family, turns the family into bride of Christ. The family as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Script states: “That what remains in me and me in it, gives many fruits” (Jn 15, 4, 5). Acknowledgement of human weakness and limitation, which encourages relying on the divine mercy, seeking theological virtues, seeking to ground life and activities on obedience, trust and search for God’s will, acquires particular importance in every family. All of this enhances spiritual relations within the family and between the family and the Creator. The main purpose of the community is to help one’s personality grow. Personal and communal im­provement, approaching sanctification and salvation, can take place only in natural medium. R. Leitner, A. Steinbock describe the family as an ideal “feeding medium” for developing religious behaviour and per­sonality. The family that nourishes Catholic values creates natural conditions for development of children’s spirituality and its likely improvement. Such insights enable formulating guidelines of Catholic education for the family. This is a short presentation of them: The family is naturally united for sanctification and salvation of one another. Catholic education is based on care for every family member’s dignity and freedom. Unconditional love teaches to rule, and not to be ruled by things. Children’s love, respect and obedience to parents are important. Religious education is based on general conditions: parents’ relationships, common psychological at­mosphere, attention to and time spent with every child, endeavour to recognize everyone’s personal pecu­liarities. But religious education requires much more – to integrate faith into family’s life as inseparable part is to find a personal relationship with God. Common prayer creates unity and Christian spirituality in the family. The family is liable for education of autonomic, responsible, able to choose, and seeking for truth per­sonality. Educational exchanges should occur in the family between parents and children under Christ’s autho­rity. Domestic church should be built on the foundation of peace, confidence, and joy. Religion in the family should be used as creative learning and neighbourhood evangelization, but not as an instrument. According to all those guidelines, the family should be discussed not as existing domestic church, but as the one that is turning into a domestic church.

Diversity in unity – Voices from the past, the focus on Belhar and the on-going quest for unity

This contribution focuses on the on-going ecclesiological quest by the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) family to become a visible, living and practicing diversity in unity. It highlights remarkably clear and foundational theological contributions with regard to this matter, by trustworthy voices from inside (e.g. individuals like Botha, Durand, Jonker as well as by several church meetings and synods) and outside (e.g. theologians like J Calvin and K Barth) the DRC Family, in opposition to wrong ecclesiological convictions and practice. In relation to this the core focus of the confession of Belhar on the church as visible and as diversity in unity, is emphasised as foundational to the character of the church of Christ. Guiding perspectives on this fundamental truth are also drawn from important contributions by Dirkie Smit, in particular from his thoughts on the ecclesiology in the confession of Belhar.