Academic literature on the topic 'African Orthodox Church of Kenya'

"Abstract The African Orthodox Church of Kenya was formed as an African Instituted Church in 1929, with considerable cultural and liberative connotations, before officially joining the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa in 1956. The journey of being faithful to the rich and ancient Eastern Orthodox tradition, history, and heritage as well as grappling with the local cultures is been an ongoing tension for this church. The tension is better appreciated from the eye view of non-Kenyan Orthodox and young theologians in comparison with that of the locals. Some contextualization practices within this church were ecclesiastically sanctioned, while others have never been reviewed, even though both are practiced with no distinction. This Orthodox Church in Kenya continues to be regarded as one of the staunchest and first growing Orthodox Church in Africa, influencing many upcoming African dioceses and the theologians they form in the main Patriarchal seminary based in Nairobi. This paper seeks to document this tension and struggle of the church and local community traditions and cultures, and with it seek to justify some of the contextualization that is realized and practiced in this church at present. Keywords: African Orthodox Church of Kenya, contextualization, tradition, culture, mission"

Abstract Thomas Nganda Wangai’s personal account of the beginnings of the Orthodox Church in Kenya gives a first-hand narrative of the Kikuyu resistance to mission Christianity and mission-imposed education that led to the break with the mission churches and colonial-approved mission schools. The subsequent creation of the Kikuyu Independent Schools Association and the Kikuyu Karing’a Education Association as well as independent churches attempted to create a new identity outside the mission church establishment in colonial Kenya. This desire to remain Christian while throwing off the yoke of Western versions of Christianity led Nganda and other early leaders to seek out a nonmission form of Christianity that reflected the ancient purity of the early church. Nganda tells the story of how a schismatic archbishop of the African Orthodox Church provided the initial leadership for the nascent Orthodox movement. Nganda charts the interrelatedness of the search for an ecclesiastical identity and the decision to align with the Alexandrian Patriarchate and the growing political conflict with the Kenyan colonial authorities. The paper concludes with Nganda’s description of the Orthodox Church’s response to the declaration of Emergency in 1953, along with the hardship and suffering that the subsequent ten years of proscription imposed.

“The Church of Alexandria,” the Coptic Church of Egypt, is the ancient African church established in apostolic times around A.D. 42 by Saint Mark, the Gospel writer. In the ensuing two thousand years Coptic Christians practiced their faith fervently. The Coptic Church, a missionary church since its earliest times, was known to be the first carrier of Christian faith to Ireland, Switzerland, Ethiopia, Nubia, and North Africa. Since geographically and ethnically the Egyptians belong to Africa, the Coptic Church found fellowship with Christian movements in Africa. Two historical meetings of leaders of such churches led to the formation of the Organization of African Independent Churches.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a fascinating study in indigenization. Its deep rootage in the lives of the people is evidenced by the way in which the Church has been preserved since the fourth century in spite of repeated threats from enemies within and outside of Ethiopia. The church has Christianized important aspects of Old Testament and Hebrew culture as well as certain remnants of primal religion. It adapted beliefs and symbols which reflected and reinforced African traditions, and either absorbed or transfigured that which suited its purposes. The Ethiopian Church is an indigenous church, not an indigenized one. The process of its indigenization is described and important lessons from this rather natural development are identified that help in understanding the importance of critical contextualization. The successes and failures of the Ethiopian Church provide perspective for contemporary attempts at contextualization. This study is significant for understanding African Christianity but also has missiological implications for the wider world.

The African Orthodox church, an expression of religious autonomy among black Americans, had its genesis in the work and thought of George Alexander McGuire, a native of Antigua, whose religious journey and changing ecclesiastical affiliation paralleled his deepening interest in and commitment to the cause of Afro-American nationalism and racial consciousness. Born in 1866 to an Anglican father and a Moravian mother, George Alexander McGuire was educated at Mico College for Teachers in Antigua and the Nisky Theological Seminary, a Moravian institution in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (then the Danish West Indies). In 1893 McGuire, having served a pastorate at a Moravian church in the Virgin Islands, migrated to the United States, where he became an Episcopalian. In 1897 he was ordained a priest in that church and, in the succeeding decade, served several parishes, including St. Thomas Church in Philadelphia, which was founded by Absalom Jones. His abilities and skills were recognized, and in 1905 he became the archdeacon for Colored Work in the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas. Here he became involved with various plans—none of which bore fruit—which would have provided for the introduction of black bishops in the Episcopal church to assist in that church's work of evangelization among black Americans. It is believed, however, that McGuire was influenced by the different schemes which were advanced, and that he “almost certainly carried away from Arkansas the notion of a separate, autonomous black church, and one that was episcopal in character and structure, as one option for black religious self-determination and one avenue for achieving black independence.”

The trending African theological discourses in the context of the varied realities which have become the face of Christianity in Africa present a significant theological impact to the nature of orthodox Christianity. The pragmatic nature of the emerging trends in African Christianity cannot go unnoticed in the context of community formation and social development today. The intensity and spontaneity of African Christianity is a clear testimony of theological renaissance at work in the African Church scene. As African Christianity becomes more vibrant and believers become more determined to express their faith; the art of worship has become more and more innovative to the extent that theological discourse has clearly become influenced by pragmatic African values and spirituality thereby resulting in a clear manifestation of a defining paradigm shift in theology. This paper is a qualitative research study in which the theological discourses of the African pragmatic faith expressions are engaged premised on the grounded theoretical framework. This paper, therefore, explores the new conceptual theological thought patterns evolving around the life and work of the Church in Africa by ways and means of analysis to produce explanations and potentially new interpretations. The research concludes by pointing out that the revolutionary wave manifest in the worship life of the Church in Africa has grave political, cultural, and social implications for ‘traditional’ theology since it has the potential to radically change the face of orthodox Christianity for generations to come. Finally, this paper provides a fundamental synopsis of the nature, context and content of African Christianity in an environment where religion has tended to be a pivotal centre for social development and community formation.

Abstract This article looks at how contemporary African American converts to Orthodox Christianity, specifically the members of the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black,1 use religion to understand and remember the struggle of Black people against racial discrimination in the United States. As I examine how practitioners interpreted and preserved African American history—the attempts to abolish slavery, the fight to end lynching, and the Civil Rights movement—through Orthodox forms of materiality, I demonstrate that African Americans drew on an established tradition to authorize new ways of practicing Orthodoxy and being Orthodox. I argue that by using icons of the Theotokos to tell stories about her intervention during a lynching, memorializing lives of Black American martyrs in cemetery stones, and engaging with relics of African American saints, these practitioners followed in the footsteps of other Orthodox people—who creatively adopted the ritual life of the Church to their own needs while making an effort to adhere to its traditional dogmatism—and therefore should be considered as a paradigmatic and not an exceptional example of Orthodox Christians.

In 1919, three Ugandan Anglicans converted to Orthodox Christianity, as they became sure that this was Christianity’s original and only true form. In 1946, Ugandan Orthodox Christians aligned with the Eastern Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Since the 1990s, new trends in conversion to Orthodox Christianity in Uganda can be observed: one is some growth in the number of new converts to the canonical Orthodox Church, while another is the appearance of new Orthodox Churches, including parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. The questions we raise in this article are: Why did some Ugandans switch from other religions to Orthodox Christianity in the first half of the 20th century and in more recent years? Were there common reasons for these two developments? We argue that both processes should be understood as attempts by some Ugandans to find their own way in the modern world. Trying to escape spiritually from the impact of colonialism, post-coloniality, and globalization, they viewed Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Islam as part of the legacy they rejected. These people did not turn to African traditional beliefs either. They already firmly saw their own tradition as Christian, but were (and are) seeking its “true”, “original” form. We emphasize that by rejecting post-colonial globalist modernity and embracing Orthodox Christianity as the basis of their own “alternative” modernity, these Ugandans themselves turn out to be modern products, and this speaks volumes about the nature of conversion in contemporary Africa. The article is based on field evidence collected in 2017–2019 as well as on print sources.

For sixteen centuries, Christian faith has been interacting with Ethiopian culture. This setting offers rich resources for theological vocabulary insofar as it is embedded in African images and symbols, poems, hymns, and chants. Since the material world holds an important place in Ethiopian religious expressions, four dominant symbols found in nature—fire, water, soil, and oil—deserve particular attention. The reflections given in this article are predominantly drawn from study of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. We show that various values are discernable in the four symbols mentioned here, as well as in the cross, the central Christian symbol.

Abstract:In this article I use oral and documentary evidence gathered during recent fieldwork and archival research in the UK and Kenya to explore the ways in which the Church of Scotland Mission to Kenya attempted to use sport to “civilize” and “discipline” the people of Central Kenya. I make a case for the important contributions the topic of sport can make to the study of African and colonial history, and offer a comprehensive critique of the only book-length work which explores the history of sport in colonial Kenya, John Bale and Joe Sang’sKenyan Running(1996).

Many African Independent Churches emerged during the colonial era in central Kenya and western Nigeria. At times they were opposed by government officials and missionaries. Most scholars have limited the field of enquiry to the flash-points of this encounter, thereby emphasizing the relationship at its most severe. This study questions current assumptions about the encounter which have derived from these studies, arguing that both government and missionary officials in Kenya and Nigeria exhibited a broader range of perspectives and responses to African Independent Churches. To characterize them as mainly hostile to African Independent Churches is inaccurate. This study also explores the various encounters between African Independent Churches and African politicians, clergymen, and local citizens. While some scholars have discussed the positive role of Africans in encouraging the growth of independent Christianity, this study will discuss the history in greater depth and complexity. The investigation will show the importance of understanding the encounter on both a local and national level, and the relationships between the two. It is taken for granted that European officials had authority over African leaders, but in regard to this topic many Africans possessed a largely unrecognized ability to influence and shape European perceptions of new religious movements. Finally, this thesis will discuss how African Independent Churches sometimes provoked negative responses from others through confrontational missionary methods, caustic rhetoric, intimidation and even violence. These three themes resurface throughout the history of the encounter and illustrate how current assumptions can be reinterpreted. This thesis suggests the necessity of expanding the primary scholarly focuses, as well as altering the language and basic assumptions of the previous histories of the encounter.

This study examined the similarities and differences between John S. Mbiti's analysis of African religion and the theology of the Pan-African Orthodox Christian Church (P.A.O.C.C.). The study sought to establish whether the similarities represent African retentions and conscious adaptations within the P.A.O.C.C. Five aspects were considered in the analysis of African Religion and the P.A.O.C.C. They are: revelation, god, humanity, savior/messiah and church. The researcher found that within the theology of the P.A.O.C.C. there exist significant African retentions and learned adaptations of African religion that parallel Mbiti's analysis of African religion. The P.A.O.C.C. consider themselves a theological institution with Afrocentric practices and tradition. The conclusions suggest that the Pan-African Orthodox Christian Church is an institution of contemporary Afrocentric religious expression.

African American Studies
Ph.D.
While examining the theology of Black Liberation and its contemporary relevance there are several questions that must be explained. Is there still a need for Black Liberation Theology within Christianity? What makes Black Liberation theology different from other Christian theologies? In recent years Christianity has had to dispute the notion that it is the "White Man's religion" and that Black People cannot benefit from the faith. How is this so if the majority of Black people in the United States identify Christianity as their faith? How have Black people benefited from this religion in the past and present? My research is two-fold. The first part of my research will focus on the history of Black Liberation Theology, its concepts and the historical and contemporary relevance. Black Liberation Theology, as an intellectual enterprise began in the late 1960's. Many credit James Cone with bringing a theology of Black Liberation into the forefront of intellectual discussions at educational institutions. Black Liberation theology seeks to answer the question "What does it mean to be Black and Christian in America?" James Cone posed the question and attempted to answer it in his first two books, Black Theology and Black Power, (1969), and A Black Theology of Liberation, (1970). Although Cone is often times seen as one of the pioneers of the Black Theology of Liberation, in actuality this movement has a very long history and its beginnings can be found in the freedom acts of Black people and the Black Religious experience in America from the time of enslavement (David Walker, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Gabriel Prosser to name a few), through the abolitionist movements (James Forten, Henry Highland Garnett, William Wells Brown, Harriet Tubman, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones), continuing through the early to mid 1900's (Noble Drew Ali of the Moorish Science Temple, Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X of the Muslim Mosque Incorporated), the Civil Rights Era (Martin Luther King, Vernon Jones, Fred Shuttlesworth, Pastors of Baptist Churches in the American South), the Black Power/Black Arts Movements (Albert Cleage, Jr. of the Shrine of the Black Madonna). It stills functions in contemporary times with the recent resurgence of interest in the subject matter through the media's emphasis on the rhetoric of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ in the south side of Chicago, whose remarks were seen as controversial and almost jeopardized the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama to the Presidency. Black Liberation Theology holds the position that one's faith should encourage one to fight injustice and oppression on behalf of those who are oppressed and downtrodden. Christianity must be examined holistically which means that the religion carries a socio-political component as well as a spiritual one. Black Liberation Theologians believe that one cannot be concerned with reaching a "heavenly ever after" if he/she has not worked to heal his/her society from the social ills that exist. Working toward freedom and liberation is Christian work. These two must be seen as one and the same; you can't have one without the other. The second part of this study aims to examine a church that has made claims to preaching and putting Black Liberation Theology into practice. The Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (PAOCC) is a Christian denomination that seeks to utilize its religious institution as a tool to implement social change. Followers of this denomination believe the Black Church must utilize its resources and take advantage of its independent position, in order to bring forth freedom and liberation for people of African descent, and they attempt to do this within their place of worship. Dr. Martin Luther King best summarized the mission of the PAOCC best when he stated: [A]ny religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried. It well has been said: "A religion that ends with the individual ends (Clayborne, 18). My research aims to indicate that there is still a need for a theology of Black Liberation in the United States. Through careful analysis of Black Liberation Theology and the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (PAOCC) this research will demonstrate how Black Liberation Theology has been the way that most men and women of African descent have traditionally accepted Christianity on those terms until two important events in African American history occurred: the end of the institution of enslavement; and the end of the Civil Rights Era. My research demonstrates how the PAOCC exemplifies a Black Liberation Theology. Lastly my research will also show that it is possible to be Christian and Afrocentric, which goes against the prevailing dictation of Afrocentric thought. There are Afrocentric scholars who make the claim that one cannot be both Afrocentric and Christian. My research ultimately intends to state that Afrocentricity should not antagonize the faith, but the Western practice of Christianity and its dominant theology as well as its practice.
Temple University--Theses

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2007.
Title from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 25, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0713. Adviser: John H. Hanson.

Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2008.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In response to the declining interest and participation of youth in urban churches in Africa, with a specific focus on churches in Nairobi, this study investigates a missiologically related problem of ecclesial praxis that seems to ignore or fail to address the social needs of youth, particularly concerning the need to belong. The churches in Nairobi, as in other parts of Africa, have inherited ecclesial praxis that was shaped in the dualistic cultural context of the Western Enlightenment and the clerical paradigm of Christendom. This dualistic view of reality has dichotomised the understanding of the gospel by compartmentalising it into a spiritual sphere while failing to address the social and cultural dimensions of human life. Consequently, the church hermeneutically understands its primary mission as saving souls and meeting the spiritual needs of its members through the institution of clergy and laity. In order to address the problem, the study proposes the praxis of discipleship based on a community approach that correlates three integrated dimensions of mission (worship, fellowship, and intentional mission) with a community structure guided by specific urban context, cultural values and missional theology. This constitutes the thesis of this research study and also provides a methodological framework for organising the study. In the first chapter, discipleship is conceptualised in the comprehensive missional understanding of the church as missionary in its nature and calling, sent by Christ into the world for the redemption of the world. In that sense, the proposed discipleship community must be understood as missionary in nature. The second chapter focuses on understanding the urban context. It examines some of the urban features of Nairobi that could be typical of other African cities, like rapid urban growth, high proportion of youth in the population, housing problems, unemployment, increasing poverty, family disintegration, crime, violence and disease. In that context, the study assessed the church’s youth ministry by gathering primary empirical data through observation and personal interviews with youth pastors and leaders. The findings confirmed that most youth ministries are based on the clerical paradigm and are driven by programmes. Participation by youth has been found to be low in most churches. Many churches do not seem to address their real needs. Often the youth ministry is seen as a marginal ministry in the church. In response to understanding the community from an African cultural perspective, the study investigated the traditional African community on the basis of literature and by using the ancestral anamnesis (remembrance of ancestors) as the interpretative framework for analysis. In traditional African society, the community is understood as the heart of the culture, the stage where the whole of life is dramatised. Even those who live in modern urban contexts carry with them African community values which have their origin in the traditional African community. Some of the African community values were measured among the urban youth through a survey questionnaire; most of the young people regarded these as important in their lives (Chapter Five). Empirical findings have shown the validity of considering cultural factors in constructing any kind of model for community-based discipleship. The importance of community was also validated theologically and missiologically by demonstrating the normative praxis of discipleship through community structure in the life of the early church. Theologically, the early church understood itself as the community of Christ on the basis of the concept of koinonia, a fellowship based on common faith in Christ. Missiologically, the church perceived itself from its inception as a missionary community sent into the world to witness to the gospel. The research demonstrated that community was the means through which the normative praxis of discipleship formation was carried out in the early church. There was no sense of dichotomy between the spiritual and social dimensions of the gospel as it is normally understood in today’s church. The importance of community as a means for the formation of identity and character was demonstrated through this having been the cultural norm in traditional African society and the theological norm in the life and praxis of the early church. Through the empirical research, the study also confirmed the positive perception of community values among the urban youth. Based on the evidence that was gathered, the study confronts the church in Nairobi and elsewhere to examine its present praxis critically and consider approaching its youth ministry from a community perspective in response to the present missiological problem in youth ministry. In order to construct youth ministry on community foundation, the study suggests a model called the covenant model. It takes the form of a small group existing as a part of the local church but coming together specifically as a community guided by a discipleship covenant that integrates three missional dimensions. The group seeks to adapt in its specific urban context and integrate cultural values that complement the gospel. The covenant model assumes that the urban context is complex and diverse. It allows each group to develop its own shape and features, informed by its context, culture and tradition. It calls for diversity in cultural and contextual expression while maintaining unity as God’s people in Christ. The early church exemplified it in being one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In reaksie op die afname in belangstelling en inskakeling van die jeug in stedelike kerklike aktiwiteite in Afrika, toegespits op gemeentes in Nairobi, wil hierdie studie ’n missiologiesverwante probleem ondersoek. Die vraag is of die ekklesiologiese praksis daarin slaag om te beantwoord aan die die jeug se sosiale behoeftes en spesifiek die behoefte aan gemeenskap, om te behoort aan ‘n sosiale groep. Die kerke in Nairobi, soos in ander dele van Afrika, het ’n ekklesiologiese praksis geërf wat gevorm is aan die hand van die dualistiese kulturele konteks van die Westerse Verligting en die geestelike paradigma van die Christendom. Hierdie dualistiese uitkyk op die werklikheid het ’n tweeledige karakter aan die evangelie verleen. Aan die een kant is daar ’n spirituele sfeer, aan die ander kant word die sosiale en kulturele aspekte van menslike bestaan kwalik verdiskonteer. Gevolglik interpreteer die kerk haar primêre missie hermeneuties as synde die red van siele en die aanspreek van die spirituele behoeftes van haar lidmate met die gevolg dat lidmate leke bly en die kerk institusionaliseer. In ’n poging om hierdie probleem aan te spreek, stel die studie ’n praksis van dissipelskap gebaseer op ’n gemeenskapsgeoriënteerde benadering voor, waardeur drie geïntegreerde dimensies van gestuurdheid (aanbidding, gemeenskap van die heiliges en die bewuswording van gestuurdheid) aan die orde kom. Die gemeenskapsgeoriënteerde benadering se strukturele ontwikkeling word ontwikkel op grond van die ter sake konteks, kulturele waardes en missionale teologie. Dit vorm die basis waarop die navorsing van hierdie verhandeling gerig is, insluitend ’n metodologiese raamwerk vir die aanpak van hierdie studie. In die eerste hoofstuk word die begrip dissipelskap gedefinieer teen die agtergrond van ‘n omvattende missionale verstaan van die kerk as synde missionêr in haar aard en roeping. Christus het die totale verlossing van die wêreld in die oog en die kerk het daarin ‘n wesenlike rol. In dié sin word die dissipelskapsgemeenskap beskou as wesenlik missionêr. Die tweede hoofstuk fokus op die verstaan van die stedelike konteks. Daarin word tendense kenmerkend van Nairobi wat ook ten opsigte van ander Afrika-stede tipies kan wees, ondersoek. Voorbeelde hiervan is versnellende verstedeliking, pro-rata ’n hoë persentasie jong mense, behuisingsprobleme, werkloosheid, toenemende armoede, gesinsverbrokkeling, misdaad, geweld en siekte. Binne dié konteks en aan die hand van empiriese data verkry deur observasie en persoonlike onderhoude met jeugdiges, pastors en leiers, het die studie die kerk se jeugbediening ondersoek. Dit het aan die lig gebring dat die jeugbediening basies binne ‘n predikantskerkparadigma asook programgedrewe funksioneer. Deelname van jongmense in kerklike aktiwiteite is laag. Gemeentes spreek nie die jeug se basiese behoeftes aan nie. Die jeugediening skyn eerder ‘n terloopse bediening te wees. Ten einde gemeenskap vanuit ’n kulturele Afrika-perspektief te verstaan, is voorvaderlike anamnese (terugroeping in die herinnering) as interpretatiewe raamwerk in hierdie studie aangewend. Dit is gedoen op grond van ’n toepaslike literatuurstudie. Volgens die tradisionele Afrika-samelewing word die gemeenskap beskou as die hart van die kultuur, die plek waar die lewe sigself afspeel. Selfs diegene wat hulself in moderne voorstedelike omgewings bevind, dra die Afrika-gemeenskap se waardes wat hul oorsprong in die tradisionele Afrikagemeenskap het met hulle saam. Van hierdie waardes is geïdentifiseer deur vraelyste wat onder die voorstedelike jeug versprei is - die meeste van die jongmense het hierdie waardes hoog aangeskryf (Hoofstuk vyf). Empiriese bevindinge het getoon dat die inagneming van kulturele faktore noodsaaklik is vir die skep van ’n model vir ’n gemeenskapsgeoriënteerde dissipelskap. Die belangrike rol van die gemeenskap is ook teologies en missiologies gestaaf aan die hand van die normatiewe praksis van dissipelskap in die gemeenskapstruktuur van die vroeë kerk. Teologies het die vroeë kerk haarself beskou as die gemeenskap van Christus op grond van die begrip koinonia, ’n gemeenskap gebaseer op ‘n gedeelde geloof in Christus, Missiologies het die kerk haarself van die begin af ervaar as ’n missionêre gemeenskap wat in die wêreld ingestuur word om die evangelie uit te dra. Navorsing het getoon dat die normatiewe praksis van dissipelskap in die vroeë kerk binne gemeenskapsverbande uitgedra is. Daar was nie toe sprake van ’n tweeledigheid tussen die spirituele en sosiale dimensies van die evangelie soos dit vandag algemeen in die kerk voorkom nie. Die belangrike rol van die gemeenskap ten opsigte van vorming van die identiteit en karakter van sy lede is gedemonstreer deurdat dit die kulturele norm in tradisionele Afrika en die teologiese norm in die lewe en praksis van die vroeë kerk was. Deur empiriese navorsing is die positiewe gesindheid van die voorstedelike jeug aangaande die gemeenskapswaardes gestaaf. Op grond van bewyse versamel, konfronteer dié studie die kerk in Nairobi en elders om die heersende praksis krities te ondersoek en dit ernstig te oorweeg om in die lig van die heersende missiologiese probleem ten opsigte van die jeugbediening, dié bediening vanuit ’n gemeenskapsgeoriënteerde perspektief te benader. Ten einde die jeugbediening op ’n gemeenskapsbasis te vestig, stel hierdie studie ’n model bekend as die verbondsmodel voor. Dit kom daarop neer dat ’n kleingroep as deel van die plaaslike gemeente as ’n gemeenskap saamkom, saamgesnoer deur ‘n dissipelskapverbond wat die drie geïntegreerde missionale dimensies van die kerk se roeping verdiskonteer. Die groep streef daarna om aan te pas in hul bepaalde voorstedelike konteks en om kulturele waardes wat by die evangelie aansluit, in hul lewenswyse te integreer. Die verbondsmodel maak voorsiening vir die kompleksiteit en diversiteit van die voorstedelike konteks. Dit laat elke groep toe om ’n eiesoortigheid op grond van konteks, kultuur en tradisie te ontwikkel. Dit vereis diversiteit ten opsigte van kulturele en kontekstuele uitdrukking, terwyl die eenheid as God se mense in Christus gehandhaaf word. Dit is deur die vroeë kerk gedemonstreer in die funksionering as een, heilige, katolieke en apostoliese kerk.

This thesis examines the relationship between the Africa Inland Mission (AIM) and the Africa Inland Church (AIC) in Kenya between 1939 and 1975. AIM began laying plans for an African denomination in Kenya in 1939 and established the Africa Inland Church in 1943. The mission did not clearly define the nature of its relationship with the church it founded. The arrangement was informal, and evolved over time. In addition, the relationship between the AIM and the AIC between 1939 and 1975 was often troubled. African independent churches were formed in the 1940s because of dissatisfaction over AIM policies. The mission opposed devolution in the 1950s, even when other mission societies were following this policy in preparation for independence in Kenya. AIM continued to resist a mission church merger in the 1960s and did not hand over properties and powers to the church until 1971. The study focuses on how the mission’s relationship with the church it founded evolved during this period. It considers how mission principles and policies created tension in the relationship with the church it founded. First, it examines how mission policy contributed to significant schisms in the 1940s, giving rise to African independent churches. Second, it looks at how AIM interpreted and responded to post-war religious, political and social changes in Kenya. Third, it explores the reasons for AIM’s rejection of a proposed mission-church merger in the late 1950s. Fourth, this study investigates mission motives for resisting increased African pressure for devolution after independence in Kenya even while it helped establish the Association of Evangelicals in Africa and Madagascar. Fifth, it considers what happened to the mission and the church in the aftermath of a merger in 1971.