The Congress on Mission and Evangelism Held in Durban
Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI
My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban
W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries
Nicholas
Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching
- Bhengu
and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of
God
– His Departure
Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden of
His Heart
President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana
William
Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts
of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan
Paul
O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts
in South Africa
Billy
Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries
from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese
Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission
Station
Colin
La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and
Reunion Island
Special
Answers to Prayer – 1
Special
Answers to Prayer – 2
A
Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within
the Group
The
Split of 1981 – Part One
The Split
of 1981 – Part Two
The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa
The
Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal
The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies
Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with
the Holy Spirit
APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu
APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981
APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in 1973 in Durban was a catalyst for political change in South Africa. It was seminal for the thinking and constitutional development of the Assemblies of God. For the first time in our history, Assemblies of God ministers sat with ministers from across the spectrum of theological persuasion and social conviction to discuss the racial situation prevailing in South Africa. The mixing of ‘status quo’ Evangelicals and Pentecostals with radically minded non-evangelical liberal churchmen brought about a heated atmosphere where discussion sometimes was less than cordial.
Alfred Gumede, Nicholas Bhengu,
Gideon Buthelezi.
I found the experience traumatic. Having at that time served on the
General Executive of the Assemblies of God for about 13 years, and
having actually been General Chairman for five years, I thought I
knew the feelings of black Christians from the inside. I had spent
many hours learning from black leaders like Gideon Buthelezi, Alfred
Gumede and Nicholas Bhengu. In fact I had often had some of these
stay in my home as honoured guests. Moreover, for several years,
forced by economic necessity, I had worked in Clermont native township
near Pinetown as a health inspector, associating closely with African
staff. In doing so I felt I had gained an insight into the African
mind through close contact and even friendships across the cultural
divide. More than once I had stood up to the authorities in the form
of Native Affairs officials who were applying restrictive rules to
Assemblies of God ministers and members.
One such case related to Gilbert Mxego, later to become ambassador
for the Ciskei in Durban. Mxego’s wife had contracted cancer.
As a result she was ordered by the medical authorities to go to East
London, her home district, for an amputation of her leg. Because
Mxego in these circumstances no longer occupied with his family the
house rented to him by the Native Affairs Department in Inyanga,
Cape Town, he was instructed to vacate his home, which in fact was
the church manse. Pleas for compassion made by me on Mxego’s
behalf were largely in vain. Eventually I found myself in angry confrontation
with the powers-that-be. Ultimately the township manager, a refined
sort of person who was obviously embarrassed by the attitude of his
subordinate (who wanted to apply the book rigorously and arrogantly)
gave Mxego a respite of one year’s occupancy in which time
the church was told it had to build a minister’s house on the
site it already owned. Within a year Mrs Mxego was dead from the
cancer that ailed her.
I had been involved in other cases as well, so that I felt I had
more than once been a champion for the downtrodden and oppressed,
far from being an upholder of the status quo. It was thus galling
at the congress to be stigmatised as a typical South African who
needed enlightenment or even chastisement for what was assumed to
be my ungodly attitude to the oppressed. One delegate, a young man
from Kenya, rejected my friendly approach to him and would not so
much as greet me or shake hands with me.
My own attitude was not particularly humble, I fear, and I was very
naive. As a fool, I rushed in where angels would fear to tread. I
thought some of the delegates were fly-weights jumping onto the bandwagon
of the conference.
On the other hand I was awed by several men of calibre who spoke
from depths of scholarship with deep dedication. Men like Marcus
Barth, Bishop Jacobs of Uganda, and of course Billy Graham and his
son-in-law, Leighton Ford. I did feel irked when Bishop Jacobs warned
the South African church that they needed to become aware of what
was developing among the Africans in our own land, but the man’s
obvious spirituality outweighed my passing sense of irritation.
Then of course there is Beyers Naude. My opinion was that Beyers
Naude, with his Christian Institute, was doing a good and necessary
thing, but that he should not be doing it from within the church.
I used to theorise about the difference between “Christian
action” (involving the churches) and “action by Christians” (individual
actions by Christians). Foolishly I tried to express my view in the
two minutes allocated to each speaker from the floor, but I was shouted
down by “liberal” elements in the meeting. The Chairman,
the Reverend Habelgaan, remonstrated with the hecklers, but unfortunately
my attempted statement was never clarified. It was rather taken as
an attack on Beyers Naude. Later, when he was placed under house
arrest, I keenly regretted that I had opposed a man of such courage,
integrity and dedication.
The greatest shock in the Congress came from our own ranks. When
time was allowed for personal interaction for those of the same denomination,
it was heart-rending to hear of the hidden fears that lurked behind
the facade of our own fellowship. It had been shocking to hear blacks
of other denominations express themselves bitterly in almost demonic
tones with such growling sentiments as “get your foot off my
neck”. But one dismissed that as a word from the unregenerate
even though the author of it wore a dog collar. But when our own
brethren recalled how as children their mothers had scared them by
saying, “Look out, here comes a white man!”; and then
they confessed to a continuing apprehension scarring their relationship
even with us, it struck like a whip. Some said they were reticent
to extend a hand to shake hands in case their white brethren rejected
it.
I believe the Assemblies of God, and in fact the whole church in
South Africa, owes an immense debt of gratitude to Michael Cassidy
and his Africa Enterprise who with the South African Council of Churches
orchestrated the Congress on Mission and Evangelism. The event was
without precedent. It required immense faith, courage and vision
even to conceive of it. At times the atmosphere became explosive.
The whole thing could have backfired with destructive effect. But
it did not blow up. It was a success. It did lead to a train of other
events like SACLA and the charismatic conferences which took place
in the seventies. They all had their effect on the church. They showed
it was possible for the races to worship together and they brought
about a basis of fellowship which culminated in the great prayer
rally in 1994 when 25000 Christians of all races and denominations
prayed in the Kings Park stadium in Durban. At the same time vital
decisions were taken by the politicians thus making elections possible,
and the expected blood-bath was averted. Man’s diplomacy had
failed. Defeated and frustrated, Henry Kissinger and Lord Carrington,
the mediators imported to steer events forward, had each decided
that they had to surrender South Africa to anarchy. But Michael prevailed
on the gentle giant from Kenya, Professor Washington Okumu to help.
Okumu applied the wisdom of Africa, enlightened by Jesus Christ,
to bring about an African solution to what was essentially an African
problem, and a miracle occurred.
The conference made us see that the tricameral pattern set by the
suggestion of Brother H C Phillips to Alfred Gumede whereby we had
three executives, three conferences and three sets of bylaws, all
overarched by a united General Conference, General Executive and
Constitution could not be allowed to continue in our country where
a tricameral system of government was being used to safeguard white
dominance, giving a cosmetic appearance to what would be largely
an unchanged system of racial oppression. The Assemblies of God abolished
the racially based interim conferences in 1973, as soon as possible
after the congress experience.