Crossing the wilderness frontiers: A passionate challenge to grow the UCCSA

Cultural Heritage

Pathisa Nyathi

IN addition to the examples that we furnished in last week’s instalment, there were more examples that bore testimony to the use of indigenous decorative icons. Apparently, this complements the portrayal of Jesus Christ as the Rock of Ages. African perceptions of rock are well known. Rock is associated with solidity which translates to eternity or endlessness. Indeed, elements of African aesthetics embrace this idea of eternity but rendered in an aesthetic form.

The circle and chevron, with the latter being a twodimensional representation of a three-dimensional reality and therefore also a circle, are renditions of eternity. The circle, as we have often said, has no beginning and no end. Implied in its design is rhythmic movement, with rhythm being associated with renewal and regeneration associated with regeneration, seasonality and periodicity.

In the Njube church where the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA), the successor church to the London Missionary Society (LMS), which was celebrating its golden jubilee last week, chevrons predominated in decorative fabrics donning tables and walls. I only hoped the congregants appreciated the enduring theme brought out in more ways than one. African decorative icons are an artistic form of rendering a prayer, one that seeks continuity of all human beings, their institutions and their endeavours.

The same theme was rendered on Ndebele reed baskets, izingcebethu, that were used during church collections. Once again, chevrons were dominant. There were aesthetic icons that some people refer to as ibhayisikili, patters on a bicycle tyre. Quite obviously, this is a misplaced perception. The bicycle tyre and its numerous patterns is a recent creation which came after the invention of a wheel and the use of latex to make rubber.

The design in question has been in existence for thousands of years and is not even unique to the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. The first nations (Red Indians) in Canada share the same decorative icon. Interestingly, these first nation’s people do execute other decorative designs on coiled rather than woven baskets. Essentially, the ibhayisikili patterns comprise concentric circles joined by vertical lines, thus making them in essence, circles bearing the same prayerful message.

“Let the UCCSA be sustainable by living eternally,” this seems to be the pervasive theme. No church wishes to stagnate or decline in membership. As it turned out, from the preacher’s message, the UCCSA is on the decline in membership terms. Yes, it is the oldest church in Zimbabwe and yet its membership, in particular with regard to the recruitment of younger members, paints a gloomy picture as brought out by Reverend Doctor Sifiso Mpofu when he preached the Word of God.

The first indication of lack of commitment by church members was brought to the fore when one pastor said they were not going to announce how much money had been collected. It was too little in relation to the population of congregants in attendance. In a church collections are boosted by young executives in employment or running their own commercial or industrial concerns. When a church is dominated by the elderly who have been pensioned off, it suffers the consequences of a narrow revenue base.

As I listened attentively to the preacher, I recalled some occasion when Reverend Paul Bayethe Damasane and I went to attend Prophet Makandiwa’s church service one evening in Harare. Those who lined up to collect money had huge plastic pails. These were filled to the brim with money which they went to surrender to a team of young accountants equipped with computers! The age of the majority of church goers was very low. Clearly they were executives of various companies. They gave abundantly in the hope they would receive equally.

In preparation for the preaching of the Word of Go, Reverend Marambi read from Deuteronomy Chapter 2: verses 1-3 and also from Matthew Chapter 11: verses 8 and 29.

Reverend Doctor Mpofu’s sermon was titled, “Crossing the Wilderness Frontiers.” He brought out the theme of his sermon by referring to the journey of the Israelites from Egypt, the land of bondage, to Canaan the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. He linked the growth of the church to the 218 years since Van Der Kemp arrived at the Cape in 1799.

“Njube Church is the only church building we have built through our own initiatives,” he lamented from the very beginning. “The rest were built by abanali, the missionaries.” It all amounted to self introspection and accepting blame for the church’s failure to grow. “Statistics indicate that the UCCSA was three times bigger when it joined the World Council of Churches (WCC) than it is today. The question is ‘what are you doing when the church is dying?’”

The Reverend Doctor did not mince his words, “The Church could not sponsor the travel of one idiot from Harare to Bulawayo.” Apparently, Reverend Doctor Sifiso Mpofu lives in Harare where he is principal of the United Theological College.” The church invited him to come to Bulawayo for the celebrations. However, getting money to sponsor his travel was quite a challenge. “We have no church building at Emganwini. Just take a look at the United Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church, how they have expanded over the years. We are still a Matabeleland Church. We can’t attract the youth. We can’t cross the frontiers. You rather choose to change God because you do not want to change. Let us change the way we conduct ourselves in church in order to grow the church.”

He noted that the church was the oldest and yet the smallest with a following of less than 10 000 church goers. He went on to cite a church member in one assembly where a man said if he tithed, he expected to land a leadership post in church. “If not, I would rather leave the church.” “What you do is immaterial unless you please God,” he went on. “Yes, the UCCSA was formed 50 years ago in Durban, but what have we to show as visible fruits in the post-independence period?”

A good product should never be confined to one region. “Let’s turn to the north and if we do that the Bulawayo Region will never be the same again. Our church collection is a pittance and we are so ashamed, we will not announce it.”

The turning north he was suggesting meant expanding beyond the church’s comfort zones of Matabeleland: “Yes, initially established in Matabeleland but must venture to the north.” Apparently, the travelling Israelites who got lost in the desert were advised to turn north.

The sermon was full of advice, advice that may grow the church, a feature well nigh impossible when resources are not available. A cocoon mentality requires abandonment. Purse strings require untying while human resources require harvesting and investing in. Why is the oldest church still without a university? There has been talk in that regard and to date the frontiers of talk have not been traversed. We can only hope that the church will take the preacher’s well-meaning exhortations and challenges in a positive frame of mind and do some soul searching and introspection and begin the onerous task of charting a new path and begin to cross the wilderness frontiers.