Church seeks to reconcile African practices with Western beliefs
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) has launched a discussion document in a bid to protect its members who are amathwasa (sangoma initiates) and traditional healers from being discriminated against within the church ranks.
The discussion document, launched by the church on a virtual platform last week, had many talking and praising the church for the initiative.
The discussion document mandated by the church’s conference last year, was researched and prepared by the doctrine, ethics and worship committee of the church and is titled “Ukuthwasa (ancestral calling) and the practice of being a traditional healer: A conversation within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa.”
According to the document, the MCSA, with its more than two-century footprint in Southern Africa, had no theological position on the existence of ancestors and how societies should pastorally deal with members who have an ancestral calling.
“With no theological position, Methodists have either judged and excluded people with ancestral calling or timidly leaned towards their personal cultural heritage and theological persuasion.
“The lack of a theological position and pastoral guidance has subjected ministers and lay people with an ancestral calling to a substantial amount of judgment, suspicion and exclusion.
“In some instances, they were forced to convert or choose between their Christian discipleship, ministerial calling and ancestral calling.”
Cultural practices, such as ukuthwasa, needed to be understood within the historical timeline of African Christianity, the document said.
“It is also critical to recognise that African Christianity has been historically shaped by the dominant imperialistic mindset of the missionary enterprise.
“The missionary mindset (with exceptions) has been characterised by cynicism and alienation of African cultural practices, while seeking to universalise Western Christian expressions and value systems.
“The underlying view is that, for one to be authentically Christian, they must relinquish their cultural identity, abandon their cultural practices and consequently set the gospel and Christ against culture,” the document reads.
MCSA spokesperson Bonginkosi Moyo-Bango said the document was intended to inform and explain what ukuthwasa was “because it has become an issue for members in the church”.
“The discussion document is to be used to inform and guide conversations around the issue of ukuthwasa.”
“The document notes that theologians and biblical scholars have the task of confronting and deconstructing long-accepted stances that denigrate African ways of life and culture to allow voices from the margins to find their way into the centre”.