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Articles

Radical Change in Zambia’s Christian Ecumenism

Pages 331-343 | Published online: 24 Jan 2018
 

Abstract

This account of religious change in Zambia discloses shifts in the ideas and practices of Christian unity since independence. It shows that state-backed appeals, at times repressive, under the slogan ‘one nation, one church’ gave way to a series of alternatives in institutional ecumenism, leading towards a challenge to the very nature of ecumenism, grassroots as well as institutional. The new stress is on individual choice and personal services, and yet membership in congregations persists – a complex, even contradictory, situation here conceptualised as ‘multiple devotions’. The disclosure in this article calls into question conventional views of the importance of schism in churches and brings certain current tendencies – ‘multiple devotions’, ‘charismatic transmission’, ‘mushrooming churches’ – into focus in relation to wider, even global, religious movements, including the impact of neo-Pentecostalism and the striking new efflorescence of evangelical bodies self-labelled as ‘Ministries International’, in an imported style. The analysis suggests that in many of the ‘Ministries International’ there is a turn from church membership with fellowship in a solidary congregation to an individualistic patron–client relationship between pastor and believer. Each Ministry presupposes an asymmetrical relationship: one person ministers to another. Instead of a group of people coming together, a Ministry International offers services to whomever is interested, often on a casual basis; and, although without any drive for older forms of church unity or usual aspirations for past forms of grassroots ecumenism, the Ministries International are widely perceived to be a force for interdenominational tolerance.

Notes

1 While a lecturer since 2011 at Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, Zambia, I carried out the research for this article, primarily in urban settings. All interviews for this article were conducted by the author. The interviews were informal and with colleagues, students, pastors, and church members whom I came to know reasonably well. In addition, I attended and observed a number of diverse churches and ministries.

2 On ‘dual membership’, see J. Kangwa, ‘Pentecostalisation of Mainline Churches in Africa: The Case of The United Church of Zambia’, Expository Times, 127, 12 (2016), pp. 573–84.

3 See B. Udelhoven, ‘The Changing Face of Christianity in Zambia: New Churches of Bauleni Compound’, FENZA Documents, May 2010, pp. 1–21.

4 Ibid., p. 4.

5 Kangwa, ‘Pentecostalisation’, p. 7.

6 See L.R.K. Soko, ‘Pentecostalism and Schisms in the Reformed Church in Zambia 1996–2001’ (PhD thesis, University of Stellenbosch, 2010).

7 C-S. Song, ‘From the Ends of the Earth’, presidential address to the 2004 WARC General Council, in O.P. Mateus, The World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Modern Ecumenical Movement (Geneva, WARC, 2005), p. 123.

8 E.M. Conradie, ‘Notions and Forms of Ecumenicity: Some South African Perspectives’, in E.M. Conradie (ed.), South African Perspectives on Notions and Forms of Ecumenicity (Stellenbosch, Sun Press, 2013), p. 67.

9 Ibid., p. 67.

10 Ibid.

11 United Church of Zambia Synod, ‘UCZ History’, available at http://uczsynod.org/about/ucz-history, retrieved 29 November 2016.

12 Kangwa, ‘Pentecostalisation’, p. 3.

13 A.M. Cheyeka, Church, State and Political Ethics in a Post-Colonial State: The Case of Zambia (Zomba, Kachere, 2008), p. 27.

14 Ibid., p. 58.

15 Ibid., p. 76.

16 Song, ‘From the Ends of the Earth’, p. 124.

17 J.N.K. Mugambi, ‘Ecumenism in African Christianity’, in E.K. Bongmba (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Christianity in Africa (New York, Routledge, 2016), p. 250.

18 In D. M’Passou, Mindolo: A Story of the Ecumenical Movement in Africa (Lusaka, Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation, 1983), p. 2.

19 Ibid.

20 Interviews with theology student, Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, 7–11 November 2016.

21 Panel at the Council of Churches in Zambia, 21 February 2014, Lusaka.

22 A. Yong, The Spirit Poured Out On All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology (Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2005), pp. 180–81.

23 Ibid., pp. 181–2.

24 M.K. Banja, Faith Of Many Colours: Reflection On Pentecostal and Charismatic Challenges in Zambia (Ndola, Mission, 2009), p. 82; Banja refers here to a personal communication with someone called Sakala in 2008.

25 Yong, The Spirit Poured Out, p. 183.

26 R.G. Munyenyembe, Christianity and Socio-Cultural Issues: The Charismatic Movement and Contextualization in Malawi (Zomba, Kachere, 2011), pp. 110–11.

27 Ibid., p. 111.

28 Ibid., p. 60.

29 Interviews with theology student, Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, 10–21 May 2015.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32 Interview with Ministry International pastor, Lusaka, 12 June 2015.

33 Interviews with theology student, Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, 7–11 November 2016.

34 A full discussion , taking account of gender differences in leadership, is beyond the scope of this article. For an illuminating account of a new church founded and led by an inspiring woman, see F. Klaits, Death in a Church of Life (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2010).

35 Interview with Ministry International pastor, Lusaka, 23 October 2015.

36 Ibid.

37 V-M. Kärkkäinen, ‘The Church as the Fellowship of Persons: An Emerging Pentecostal Ecclesiology of Koinonia’, PentecoStudies, 6, 1 (2007), p. 7.

38 B. Meyer, ‘Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal–Charismatic Churches’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 33 (2004), p. 453.

39 A. Anderson, ‘Foreword’, in J.K. Asamoah-Gyadu, Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity: Interpretations from an African Context (Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 2013), p. xii.

40 See also O. Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 62, 83, 101.

41 Banja, Faith of Many Colours, p. 64.

42 Ibid., p. 80.

43 Cheyeka, Church, State and Political Ethics, pp. 27, 41.

44 Banja, Faith of Many Colours, p. 63.

45 Ibid., p. 64.

46 Interviews with Ministry International pastor, Lusaka, 23 October 2015.

47 Interview with Ministry International pastor, Lusaka, 12 June 2015.

48 Interview with Ministry International pastor, Mpika, 16 June 2015.

49 Interviews with theology student, Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, 7–11 November 2016.

50 Interview with Ministry International pastor, Lusaka, 12 June 2015.

51 Interview with Ministry International pastor, Mpika, 16 June 2015.

52 Interview with theology student, Justo Mwale University, Lusaka, 7–11 November 2016.

53 Asamoah-Gyadu, Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity, p. 60.

54 Banja, Faith of Many Colours, p. 56.

55 Ibid., p. 57.

56 See H. Kroesbergen (ed.), In Search of Health and Wealth; The Prosperity Gospel in African, Reformed Perspective (Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 2014).

57 Munyenyembe, Christianity and Socio-Cultural Issues, p. 129.

58 Ibid., p. 129.

59 Kalu, African Pentecostalism, p. 114; N. Wariboko, Nigerian Pentecostalism (Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2014), p. 284.

60 Asamoah-Gyadu, Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity, pp. 143, 141; P. Gifford, ‘Healing in African Pentecostalism: The “Victorious Living” of David Oyedepo’, in C.G. Brown (ed.), Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 260.

61 Of course, as many southern African scholars agree, the prophetic figure has remained hugely popular in southern African religion from before the arrival of Christianity. ‘As many individuals struggle’, Ezra Chitando reports, ‘they seek the services of prophets to empower them to cope with the challenges. Others seek the services of prophets in the hope that they can improve their employment opportunities’ (E. Chitando, ‘African Initiated Christianity in Southern Africa’, in Bongmba (ed.), Routledge Companion, pp. 290–91). See also R. Werbner, Holy Hustlers, Schism and Prophecy: Apostolic Reformation in Botswana (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2011), and, for a contemporary discussion of prophecy in southern Africa within its historical context, see H. Kroesbergen (ed.), Prophecy Today: Reflections from a Southern African Perspective (Wellington, CLF, 2016).

62 According to Jonathan Walton’s description of a black mega-church in the USA, ‘[t]he organizational structure of World Changers and the overall aesthetic of the ministry convey a corporate rather than an ecclesial identity’ (J.L. Walton, Watch This!: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism (New York, New York University Press, 2009), p. 157.

63 Banja, Faith of Many Colours, p. 56.

64 J.N.K. Mugambi, ‘Ecumenism in African Christianity’, in Bongmba (ed.), Routledge Companion, p. 241.

65 Ibid., p. 239.

66 For long-term observation of conflict and struggles between anti-ecumenical born-again students and the Catholic missionaries in a Catholic boarding school, see A. Simpson, ‘Half-London’ in Zambia: Contested Identities in a Catholic Mission School, (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, 2003).

67 Munyenyembe, Christianity and Socio-Cultural Issues, p. 110.

68 Ibid., p. 110. There is, of course, a global sweep of charismatic influence in the Catholic Church. For influential accounts, see E. O’Connor, The Pentecostal Movement in the Catholic Church (Notre Dame, Ave Maria Press, 1971); T. Csordas, Language, Charisma, and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious Movement (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997).

69 Munyenyembe, Christianity and Socio-Cultural Issues, p. 110.

70 Asamoah-Gyadu, Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity, pp. 10–11.

71 A.H. Anderson, ‘Pentecostalism in Southern Africa’, in Bongmba (ed.), Routledge Companion, p. 324.

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