Apartheid divided many churches in South Africa along racial lines. But the struggle against apartheid also caused tensions and splits in South African churches. One such church is the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa.

Now leaders in the EPCSA have committed themselves publicly to bring healing and reconciliation to their church and to work together towards unity and renewal. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches warmly welcomes this development.

The EPCSA (formerly the Tsonga Presbyterian Church) resulted from the work of the Swiss Mission in South Africa which began in the Northern Transvaal in 1875. The church became autonomous in 1962, but continues to have close links with the Swiss churches.

In the 1980s, some of the EPCSA leaders were jailed by the apartheid government because of their opposition to the regime. In 1988, when the South African Council of Churches launched its "Standing for the Truth" campaign, some EPCSA members called on the church to adopt a similar stance. They felt that there was a need within the church to "clean house"; others felt that whatever house cleaning was needed should be done within and through the existing church structures.

By 1991, division in the church was a reality. Congregations which remained under the jurisdiction of the church synod were loosely referred to as the "Establishment", while those who found themselves outside the structures of the church became known as the "Standing for the Truth Movement" of the EPCSA.

A mediating team led by Dr Setri Nyomi, general secretary of the Alliance, brought the opposed leaderships together for a three-day meeting at the end of June. In a memorandum of understanding signed by all participants, they affirmed that "we all belong to the one Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa" and acknowledged that the division of the last decade had brought "pain, suffering and much hurt to many".

In a process of "open and honest sharing", they confessed "individual and institutional responsibilities", and asked for, offered, and received forgiveness. This time of sharing and confession of "pain suffered and caused" played an important role in the process of healing and renewal.

"The commitment of both groups to working for reconciliation was remarkable," Setri Nyomi says. "It was clear that the issues that have maintained the division were not personal, although many people had tried to personalize them. Thus the three-day encounter stayed focused on the issues that have divided the church and the principles by which healing can come."

"The mutual confessions were the high point of the encounter," he adds, "and led to the turning of a new page."

The conference, held in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, agreed to appoint a joint commission for unity and renewal in the EPCSA, with leading representatives from both groups. The commission will develop a strategy for church renewal, including an action plan in relation to decline in the church, its finance, administrative structures and departments, and its diaconal services and outreach. It is also expected to review worship in the church and the training of ministers. Its work may result in a revised church constitution.

The joint commission will report to the synod of the EPCSA in October 2002, by which time the groups which emerged in the last decade will have been unified.

Earlier attempts to heal the division within the church - whether by setting up an internal commission or by asking for help from their partner, the DM Échange et mission (the former Département missionnaire of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches) - had proved unsuccessful.

During a visit to South Africa in October last year, Setri Nyomi discussed the division with Rev. Sydney Ngobe, general secretary of the EPCSA, and with leaders of the Standing for the Truth Movement. These discussions and other follow-up contacts led to the Kempton Park conference. The mediating team, whose other members are Rev. Majaha Nhliziyo (coordinator of the Southern Africa Alliance of Reformed Churches) and Rev. Eugène Roy (DM Échange et mission), will accompany the joint commission in its work.

The conference ended with a celebration of the eucharist in the context of an agape meal. The celebrants - good friends and colleagues in the 1980s, until the break - were Rev. Sydney Ngobe, Rev. Jean-François Bill (chair of the Standing for the Truth Movement), and Rev. MD Ngawo.

The EPCSA has been a member church of the Alliance since 1988.

For the full text of the memorandum of understanding, click here.