Protestantism in South Africa
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Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an settlement on the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
in 1652. Since then, Protestantism has been the preponderant religion of the European settlers and today, of all South Africans, regardless of ancestry.
Composition of Protestants in South Africa
According to the CIA Factbook, while the majority of South Africans are Protestant, no sect dominates in terms of Protestants. The largest Protestant sect in the country is PentecostalismPentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
, followed by Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
, Dutch Reformed
Dutch Reformed Church
The Dutch Reformed Church was a Reformed Christian denomination in the Netherlands. It existed from the 1570s to 2004, the year it merged with the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands to form the Protestant Church in the...
and Anglicans.
Protestant denominations in South Africa include:
- Afrikaanse Protestantse KerkAfrikaanse Protestantse KerkThe Afrikaanse Protestantse Kerk , commonly abbreviated APK or AP Kerk is a South African conservative Reformed Church federation with about 44,000 adherents...
(Reformed/Calvinist) - Anglican Church of Southern Africa
- Apostolic Faith Mission of South AfricaApostolic Faith Mission of South AfricaThe Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa is a classical Pentecostal Christian denomination in South Africa. With 1.2 million adherents, it is South Africa's largest Pentecostal church. Dr. Isak Burger has led the AFM as president since 1996 when the white and black branches of the church were...
(Pentacostalist) - Baptist Union of Southern AfricaBaptist Union of Southern AfricaThe Baptist Union of Southern Africa is a union of Baptist churches from all South African ethnic and cultural groups.-History:Baptist families were among a group of some 4500 British emigrants that left England for South Africa in 1820. Upon their arrival in South Africa, William Miller was...
- Church of England in South AfricaChurch of England in South AfricaThe Church of England in South Africa was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It is an Anglican church but it is not a member of the Anglican Communion. However, it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself...
(outside the Anglican Communion) - Die heilsleerDie heilsleerDie Heilsleër is the Afrikaans branch of The Salvation Army. In South Africa some Corps may conduct all or part of their services in Afrikaans whereas other Corps, which are in more English speaking areas, may conduct services in English....
(Salvation Army) - Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern AfricaEvangelical Lutheran Church in Southern AfricaThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa is a Lutheran church in South Africa. The Church has 580,000 baptized members. in seven Dioceses in South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland. It became a member of the Lutheran World Federation in 1976 after it was formed out of four previous Synods in...
- Methodist Church of Southern AfricaMethodist Church of Southern AfricaThe Methodist Church of Southern Africa is a member church of the World Methodist Council.Methodism in Southern Africa began as a result of lay Christian work by an Irish soldier of the English Regiment, John Irwin, who was stationed at the Cape and began to hold prayer meetings as early as 1795...
- Nazareth Baptist ChurchNazareth Baptist ChurchNazareth Baptist Church is an African Initiated Church founded by Isaiah Shembe 1910....
- Nederduits Gereformeerde KerkNederduits Gereformeerde KerkThe Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk is a Reformed Christian denomination in South Africa. It also has a presence in neighboring countries, such as Namibia, Swaziland, and parts of Botswana and Zimbabwe...
(Reformed/Calvinist) - United Congregational Church of Southern AfricaUnited Congregational Church of Southern AfricaThe United Congregational Church in Southern Africa began with the work of the London Missionary Society, who sent missionaries to the Cape colony in 1799. Congregationalist missionaries from the American Board of Foreign Missions began work in KwaZulu-Natal in 1830, and several congregations of...
- Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern AfricaUniting Presbyterian Church in Southern AfricaThe Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa was formed and constituted in 1999 as the outcome of the union between the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa and the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa .These two churches shared the same origin dating back to the 19th century...
- Uniting Reformed Church in Southern AfricaUniting Reformed Church in Southern AfricaThe Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa was formed by the union of the black and coloured Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk mission churches.-Main markers in the URCSA'S history:...
- Zionist ChurchesZionist ChurchesZionist Churches are a group of Christian denominations that sprang from the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, Illinois. Missionaries from the church came to South Africa in 1904 and among their first recruits were Pieter Louis le Roux of Wakkerstroom and Daniel Nkonyane of Charlestown,...
(Pentacostalist)
See also
- Afrikaner CalvinismAfrikaner CalvinismAfrikaner Calvinism is, according to theory, a unique cultural development that combined the Calvinist religion with the political aspirations of the white Afrikaans speaking people of South Africa....
- Apostolic Church of South Africa - Apostle UnityApostolic Church of South Africa - Apostle UnityThe Apostolic Church is the South African branch of the United Apostolic Church. It has roots in the Catholic Apostolic Church in the early 19th century. It was founded in 1955 as a schism of the New Apostolic Church...
- Huguenots in South AfricaHuguenots in South AfricaA large number of people in South Africa are descended from Huguenots. Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony, but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans population, thanks to sharing a similar religion to the Dutch colonists.-History:Even before the large...
- Roman Catholicism in South AfricaRoman Catholicism in South AfricaThe Roman Catholic Church in South Africa is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome. There are 26 dioceses and archdioceses, plus an apostolic vicariate....
- Islam in South AfricaIslam in South AfricaIslam in South Africa pre-dates the colonial period, and consisted of isolated contact with Arab and East Africa traders. Many South African Muslims are described as Coloureds, notably in the Western Cape, including those whose ancestors came as slaves from the Indonesian archipelago...