"Remember how the Lord your God led you on this long journey..." (Deuteronomy 8:2)

It was a quiet birth. The South African Council of Churches (SACC) came into the world without a fanfare of trumpets or any special form of celebration.

The event is simply recorded in the minutes of the seventeenth biennial meeting of the Christian Council of South Africa, held in the Observatory Congregational Church in Cape Town on May 29th 1968:

"6. Name of the Council: It was agreed that the name of the Council should be changed to The South African Council of Churches."

It is the shortest sentence in the four pages of minutes. The name is not even spelt out in capitals. It seems that, even if modem word processing formats and typefaces had been available, no special effects would have been used.

Yet this simple change of name, followed by item 7 on the agenda that took the delegates through a long series of constitutional phrases, was a dramatic act that was to change the face of ecumenical co-operation, witness, and service in South Africa. It was as important to the Churches of South Africa as the later establishment of the World Council of Churches' Programme to Combat Racism was to the world Church.

The story of the SACC over twenty five tumultuous years in South Africa is the story of a small name change decision that led to the growth of a major player in the battle against an evil system at home, and a widely acclaimed place for the South African Church in the fellow-ship of Churches throughout the world.

It is in many ways a dramatic story filled with deep emotions, much pain, lots of celebration, and very human beings. At the same time, there is an inexorable pattern of movement throughout, a natural progression of words and actions as this co-operative of Churches seeks to be faithful to the gospel in a time of trial and tribulation in the land. As already mentioned, none of this was evident when the proposal was adopted and the minute placed on record.

Bishop Bill Burnett, General Secretary of the Christian Council of South Africa at that time and the first General Secretary therefore, of the SACC indicates that the name change was not seen as a momentous event. "It just happened," he says. The impression given is that changes in the constitution were being made so it was decided to change the name as well. This may well have been the general view of the event. The minutes and Bill Burnett's recollection suggest it was so.

The late Rev Joe Wing, on the other hand, spoke of it as a "very historic event." But he also added that those present, of whom he was one, did not realise how historic the event would actually prove to be. The member Churches were canvassed beforehand about the proposed name change along with a number of constitutional amendments that would alter the character of the association Churches held with one another through the Council. They came prepared for the changes to both name and organisational structure and voted, without much discussion, for both.

The natural progression began many years before 1968. The pattern of events, decisions and commitments that created a Council of Churches strong enough to stand for truth and justice against the demonic system of apartheid goes back a century.

The SACC was third in a specific line of ecumenical organisations. Its creation came out of a history of change in the model of mission during the present century.

The early missionaries of the late 18th and the 19th centuries, cut off from one another by home language barriers and long distances, kept to their own areas of work and activity. Their link to the wider world was in their connection to the missionary society they represented. News, reflections and interpretations of events were not shared with other missionary neighbours but with the sending society. South Africa was one of the most intensive areas of missionary activity in the world. Sixteen different missionary societies were operating throughout the land, crossing each others paths, creating and building Churches, operating the same kind of services such as hospitals, schools, and the almost inevitable printing press, and making their mark in their own designated geographical areas of activity upon which other groups dared not encroach.

From the vantage point of a century of advances in communication techniques and interchurch co-operation, the picture seems ludicrous. Missionaries of different countries, employed in their task of conversion alongside one another without relating to one another. Each about their own business with an umbilical cord stretching to a far away missionary society.

And it seems that it was often the country of origin as much as the Church affiliation that helped draw the lines of demarcation. So you would have German Lutheran missionaries and Norwegian Lutheran missionaries in separate Churches, and the same for British and American Congregationalist missionaries. This legacy of national denominations has been a cause of much confusion, and a source of further division in a land where division is woven into the fabric of its history.

It is not many years since it was laughingly said that you could tell the Church of a locally trained minister from the accent used to say God. "Gawd”, "Gott”, and "Gard" were signs of particular national Churches as much as any distinctive clothing or clerical garb!

Proliferation of missionary activities within close proximity to one another forced at least some of the societies, toward the end of the 19th century, to make contact with one another and begin what was a painfully slow process of co-operation.

Natal provided the first attempt at ecumenical co-operation. Nine of the 16 Missionary Societies were operating in the Province, so they did not only cross one another's paths, they bumped into each other. It was impossible to escape from contact.

It was on the initiative of members of the American Board Mission that moves were first made to create some form of ecumenical co-operation. This initiative resulted in 1884 in the formation of a Natal Missionary Conference. Its aim was not so much co-operation as a sorting out of divisions of responsibility and spheres of influence. It was a loose association of missionaries intending to make their own work more effective.

It took another twenty years to establish a national organisation, The General Missionary Conference. This was, according to David Thomas in his thesis on "The history of the SACC", (and to whom the writer is deeply indebted for so much of this pre-1968 section) the "founder body of the ecumenical movement in South Africa."

The General Missionary Conference

As its name suggests, the Conference was a discussion forum for missionaries intent upon converting the indigenous people of South Africa to the Christian faith. It met at irregular intervals and was made up of personal members rather than delegates of societies or Churches. Members were listed alongside the name of their Church or society but did not represent that Church or society

At the start, at least, and to only a slightly varying degree throughout its life, it was not a meeting WITH black Africans. It was a meeting of white missionaries ABOUT black Africans. A tendency of format and operation that took a long time to eradicate in the South African ecumenical movement.

The aims of the Conference were set out in an agreed constitution which was as notable for what it did not allow as for its attempt to promote "co-operation and brotherly feelings" to strengthen mission activity for the sake of the "native races." Matters normally placed under the heading of "faith and order" were taboo. There was to be no mention of Church union or debates about doctrine. There was one direction and one direction only, the "speedy and effective evangelisation of the Native races of South Africa."

There was some attention given to activity in the socio-economic sphere. Missionaries had always seen themselves as champions for the rights of those in their charge. They would speak to the authorities on behalf of their members. This was accepted as a solemn duty of their office.

One of the aims of the General Missionary Conference was: "To watch over the interests of the Native races and, where necessary, to influence legislation on their behalf. "

It has to be remembered that the Conference was beginning to operate in an era of political legislation that was setting the pattern for the political and social norms of South Africa for a long time to come.

Apartheid did not arise in a vacuum and create a new pattern of society for South Africa. It built upon the legislation already in place and sharpened it to the final degree. It did not provide contrast with what had gone before so much as take it to its dreadfully logical conclusion.

These were the days of industrialisation with its need to draw on labour from the rural areas and the growth of cities in which all races had to live together to service the needs of the gold and diamond mines and the other industries that developed around them. It is out of this situation that many of the discriminatory laws of South Africa were born. These included the infamous Land Act dispossessing so many Africans of their own property the Pass Laws to control labour flow, and the Mines and Works Act legalising job reservation for whites.

Child of the Nation

Black townships and single sex hostels were starting to arise around the new centres of mining and industry The Union of South Africa was established in 1910 making way for a whole new wave of legislation at national and provincial level. Legislation that saw the African as the child of the nation and a source of cheap labour, with no place in the legislative bodies themselves apart from paternalistic representation through a few selected whites.

The Conference seemed to be aware of its responsibilities on behalf of its charges. David Thomas quotes the Rev R H Dyke of the Paris Evangelical Mission speaking at the 1912 meeting:

"Whether we will it or not, and however much we may dislike the idea of being mixed up in what may appear to be party politics, the purely social aspect of the Natives' case is so prominent that we cannot escape the responsibility of taking our legitimate share in the safe-guarding of the welfare of the people."

That was said, along with a number of agreed resolutions condemning pro-posed legislation, just one year before the passing of the notorious Land Act of 1913 giving black people right to ownership in only a small portion of South African land. Yet, it was not until thirteen years later in 1925 that anything further was said about the Act to condemn it and its crippling effect upon the social and economic life of black people.

True, there had been the interruption of a terrible world war in between. That dreadful event, for the white nation at least, turned the world upside down and called for all energy to be directed to its own spine chilling agenda. However, this does not serve to provide good reason for taking so long to speak out on a local issue once more, but rather prove the priorities of choice for the white missionary when it was called for.

One of the reasons for the continuation of the General Missionary Conference, if not for its original establishment, was the meeting of the different missionary societies in the muddy streets of the new black townships. Geographically designated areas of operation were no longer possible. Members of the different Churches were now working and living side by side in the cramped and cluttered shanty areas centred on the industrial growth points of the Cape, Durban and, especially, the fast growing city of Johannesburg. Missionaries and people had to learn together how to cope with this new form of living without much space, and usually without the amenities of sanitation, health care, and education. The people were separated from the traditional pattern of social life, shipwrecked on a strange island which demanded their hard labour but denied them a share of its rich fruits.

This experience, along with the continued activity in the rural areas, certainly gave the missionaries a taste of the deprivation and oppression that faced the black people. The meetings of the General Missionary Conference reflected a growing concern for the social well being of their people and a growing frustration that their voices were not being heard as they tried to draw attention to the plight of their constituency

The Great Memorials

Much energy and effort went into providing the hospitals and clinics, schools and training institutions, Churches and social centres that could alleviate the desperate plight of the new black city dwellers. These, without doubt, are the great memorials to the work of the missionaries of the first decades of the 20th century.

Much was done in this way to try and reduce the pain of the people through the creation and maintenance of much needed social services. In later years even these, however, fell prey in the majority of cases to the onward march of the apartheid regime and its draconian laws that took all power to itself.

The missionary voices were not loud enough or, possibly, not strident enough about the injustice and hardships suffered by so many of the population. And there was no consideration of calling for a different order of society. The requests, for they can hardly be termed demands, were for a more humane administration of the system of Government. They were certainly not for a change in the overall system itself.

More things need to be said about the General Missionary Conference and its period of history before we move on to its successor, the Christian Council of South Africa. The missionaries and, indeed, the missionary societies they represented, spoke with one voice about establishing indigenous Churches that would belong to the people themselves and reflect the Christian faith as practised by the converts.

The London Missionary Society stated this aim very clearly in a fundamental principle not to send any form of Church order or Government with its missionaries but only "the glorious gospel of the blessed God", and that the formation of any Church government "shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the minds of the persons whom God may call into the fellowship of His Son from among them..."

Its missionaries were charged with this principle up until the mid-sixties, despite the fact that the London Mission Church was by then firmly established with its own form of Government and order. It was an impossible principle for the missionaries of the London Society as well as for all others to uphold.

The basic ideal of creating indigenous Churches, rather like the Pauline acts of the New Testament, was commendable but impractical. It was inevitable that the missionaries of a particular denomination should point their converts in the direction of their own ideas concerning Church structure. It was certainly inevitable that this should be so when the finances were supplied by denominational supporters in the sending countries who wanted in their heart of hearts not only to see the glorious gospel of the blessed God be proclaimed but their own style of Churchmanship extended.

And when the established Churches, such as the Methodist, Catholic and Anglican denominations, began their own specific mission activity it put paid to any ideal of creating "native Churches." To lead people to the gospel and let them create their own form of Church government was one thing. To lead them to the gospel and let them be taken over by other western denominations was another!

The Churches that were established, therefore, were western in Government, orientation and doctrine. They were often founded by a denominational society of one nation and some, as many Church buildings in townships such as Soweto showed, were in competition with their own denomination from another western country. The talk was indigenous nationalism. The practice was western denominationalism.

The next facet of the story that needs to be mentioned in this brief examination of the General Missionary Conference is that it lived through a time of growth in international ecumenical activity. Much was happening in the international arena that had bearing on missionary activity throughout the world.

New Movement

In 1910, the same year as the Union came into existence in South Africa, a World Missionary Conference was held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Out of this came a new movement in missionary activity that was to have a profound effect upon the thinking and practice of the missionary exercise throughout the world.

The Conference was, as its title suggests, an endeavour to bring different missionary societies together to inspire them to co-operate in the missionary movement with the aim, obviously, of ensuring a greater impact on the non-Christian world. Apart from bringing so many groups into contact with one another, it did take an important step forward by giving impetus to united action among both Churches and missionary societies. The division between missionary activities and established Churches may seem difficult to understand in our age where they are closely intertwined. Mission is an activity of the Church. This was not so for many years when the majority of the Missionary Societies were not tied to specific denominations and there was a clear separation between the two.

The fundamental objectives of their existence were different to one another in emphasis at least. Missionary Societies, obviously, were for missionary activity amongst non-believers whilst the Churches held the faithful together in the stronghold of true doctrine according to their own particular denominational beliefs. Even when, as already mentioned, the denominations moved into missionary activity they did so through special missionary organisations of their Churches or, in the case of the Catholic Church, through religious orders dedicated to the specific task of mission.

The Edinburgh Conference, which did include both Church and missionary society delegates, eventually led in 1921 to the establishment of the INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY COUNCIL (IMC). It took eleven years to fulfil the plans of the 1910 Conference because the first world war had interrupted the planned timetable for action.

The IMC, although predominantly consisting of representatives of Missionary Societies, did count a considerable number of Churches among its membership. It was the first formal international ecumenical body with its own secretariat paid for by subscriptions from its membership.

The IMC, as with the General Missionary Conference in South Africa, was concerned with mission, spreading the gospel, bringing more and more people under the influence of the faith. Its constitution prohibited it from any items of "faith and order." The participating Churches shied away from any suggestion of an ecumenical talking shop on Church union or doctrine. The separation of Church and Mission was still very much in evidence.

It was not long afterwards, however, that an international LIFE AND WORK movement was founded. This was started in 1925, as a result of the Edinburgh Conference of 1910 and the subsequent setting up of the IMC. This movement was concerned about united action on social services as provided by and through the Churches and Missionary Societies.

It was followed only two years later by the launching of a FAITH AND ORDER movement that began to examine specifically those subjects, previously taboo, of doctrine and possible Church union.

Not all the same Churches or Missionary Societies belonged to all the movements, but there was this general mixture of discussions and practical programming throughout the international Church and Mission leadership.

In the meantime, throughout the world, especially because of the energetic activities of its travelling president Dr John R Mott, the IMC initiated National Christian Councils, which would bring both Missionary Societies and Churches in one country together in co-operative consultation and action.

These Councils, although again predominantly concerned with missionary activity, could, and did, take to themselves matters of mutual concern within their geographical areas of operation that may not previously have been accepted as falling within the narrow confines of "mission." They also brought together on an equal footing and within one national organisation both national Churches and Missionary Societies. This was a major step toward placing decision making mechanisms within the country of operation rather than with the overseas sending agencies.

South Africa was very active in that international arena, claiming to send more delegates to gatherings than most. On the other hand, it was slow in implementing policies about ecumenical co-operation which were being implemented in other parts of the world.

There was a strange dichotomy. South African Churches and Missionary Societies were well represented at international gatherings, played a major role in the decision making and forward looking thinking, but moved slower than most on their own home ground. Again, there was a discrepancy between what was said and what actually happened.

Christian Council

In 1926 the secretary of the IMC, The Rev J H Oldham, visited South Africa to raise the issue of starting a Christian Council in South Africa. Another ten years were, however, to pass before the General Missionary Conference was succeeded by THE CHRISTIAN COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA.

Before we come to that stage of the story just one more aspect of the account of the early years of the century needs mention.

It has been said that there were many contexts in which the General Missionary Conference and its members were operating. There was the context of the worldwide ecumenical movement creating its international pressure on national activities; there was the context of societal changes demanding engagement in social activities; there was the context of discussion about creating indigenous Churches alongside the actual establishment of western developed denominations; there was the context of a rising African nationalism.

The African National Congress (ANC) was launched in 1912 in opposition to the tyrannical nature of the racist legislation enacted at the formation of the Union two years previous. It was not a popular mass movement at that time, but did carry the eloquent voice of educated black leaders in the community. It expressed the political demands for participatory rights by blacks in the country of their birth. It reflected a growing tide of nationalist feelings in black South African society.

There are indications that some members of the General Missionary Conference took the ANC seriously and gave it credit for its work in addressing some of the same social issues as the Missionary Conference itself. Indeed, one adopted resolution described the ANC as a "moral, spiritual and social force.”

Moral, Spiritual

Despite this acceptance of the ANC as a moral and spiritual force, and despite the fact that a number of the first ANC officials were Churchmen (The Rev John Dube, for example, was the first President of the ANC) the General Missionary Conference had little, if any, formal connection with the organisation. The Conference remained a white, expatriate, clerical, missionary dominated structure.

This led to it and its members being criticised by leading blacks for its lack of support for the black nationalist movement. The Church and its Missionary Conference was viewed as part and parcel of the colonial power.

The missionaries were by now used to the attacks made upon them by white colonists. This was a continuing tension. The interests of the missionaries in the well being, education, and social rights of their converts often clashed with the needs, and certainly the fears, of the European settlers.

Now they were criticised and attacked by blacks as well. The missionaries were indignant and horrified at what was happening. It seemed impossible that the very people for whom, as one missionary put it, "we are spending our lives" should turn against them and accuse them of siding with the whites in political matters.

They were in the middle of two critical forces. The attacks from the majority of white settlers for their seemingly progressive thinking were now matched by attacks from many eloquent blacks for their seemingly conservative practices.

The missionaries were also experiencing a drastic reduction in their influence in Government circles. This created even more difficulties. They were unable any more to challenge the social patterns around them. The close link between the authorities and the missionaries had been broken. The Colonial powers were no longer amenable to the influence of the Church. By now the Dutch Reformed Church missionary movement had started but it was to be many years before it would be able to influence Government thinking and when that time came the influence would, in the most part, be contrary to the influence the "English speaking" Churches would have wanted.

It was a state of great frustration, especially for those whose deep commitment was to change the world around them into an ideal Christian condition. They had no voice in Government, were despised as trouble brewers by the whites and as meaningless liberals by the blacks.

All the more reason then to commend the tenacity and perseverance with which that band of dedicated people kept at their task and established so many of the health, educational, and social institutions that became bywords of community care and development in South African society. Mr Nelson Mandela has, since his release from long term imprisonment, paid tribute on a number of occasions to those Church institutions and their value in black advancement. But there is also much reason to mourn the lack of a viable, far-sighted, and energetic co-operative of Churches which would have ensured a strong united voice and common action against the racism that was already so evident in South African society.

National Interest

Christian Councils were springing up in different parts of the world. These were affiliates of the International Missionary Council and brought together the local representatives of Churches and missions on a national basis to discuss and decide upon co-operative action in regard to national issues. The predominant theme was, obviously, mission but the agenda also included co-operation among the Churches on matters of national interest.

As referred to above, the secretary of the IMC, the Rev. Oldham, visited South Africa in 1926 to suggest the setting up of this new style of ecumenical forum. It took a visit eight years later by Dr John R Mott, a leading and inspiring figure in the ecumenical movement and President of the International Missionary Council, to take the matter further. After a number of conferences throughout the country at which Dr Mott spoke and discussions were held, a "continuation committee" was formed under the chairmanship of the Rev A F Louw to work for the inauguration of a national Christian Council. Its work came to fruition on Wednesday June 24th 1936 at the Trinity Methodist Church in Bloemfontein when the CHRISTIAN COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA was constituted.

Like the GMC before it, and its international "parent" the IMC, its constitution forbade any examination of "ecclesiastical faith and order which represent denominational differences." Although during his Presidential address, Ds William Nicol, did say that despite the fact that the Council was not to enter into dialogue on these issues, "I expect that we are going to hear a lot more about Church union during this century."

Although the Council was made up predominantly of "English-speaking" Churches the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) took an active role. Both the President and Secretary of the CCSA, elected in 1936, were from the DRC. Ds William Nicol of Johannesburg was President and Ds J Murray du Toit of Pretoria was Secretary.

In his Presidential address, Ds Nicol, while accepting the manner in which the Witwatersrand was already a place where there was "much running about, much building ... much consuming of manpower, and withal many thousands of heathen untouched by our crossfire." asked for close co-operation to avoid overlapping in areas of mission. He also called for unity in approach to the Government and in the "question of native education."

His particular background and Churchmanship are evident in his comments about nationalism in which he confessed proudly to being a nationalist "at least in so far that I believe in the existence of my Afrikander nation with its own language and culture with such a degree of permanence as history allow." He then suggested that "every Englishman is a nationalist at heart."

Dr Nicol, continuing with his English/Afrikaans theme, mentioned the thorny subject of bilingualism requesting that the Council reach to the ideal, "which has already been attained in parliament" of using Afrikaans and English.

Four years later Ds Nicol and Ds du Toit were to leave the CCSA on the stated grounds of a lack of bilingualism and a general suspicion among many of reaction in the DRC to the Smuts Government decision to join the allies in the second world war.

The positions held by Nicol and du Toit certainly raised the concern of Afrikaner/English division on the approach to racial issues. The "English" Churches and missions of the CCSA can hardly be called radical in their approach to racial questions but for some members the close ties to the DRC created problems. These came to a head in 1939 when an attempt by du Toit to hold segregated report-back meetings In Cape Town was strongly opposed. It was also in this ame year that some members voiced their disapproval of the "watered down statements" of the CCSA and directly attributed these to the presence of the DRC in drafting such statements.

Others, however, felt that the need to hold on to the DRC Churches was so important that when, in 1940, Nicol took the DRC out of the CCSA, the leader of the Church of the Province (Anglican) decided to withdraw that Church also. The Anglican withdrawal was short lived lasting only for a period of two years. The DRC, on the other hand, has still not returned more than fifty years later.

Despite the hard work, tenacity and endeavour of a number of individuals and different groups over the years, the CCSA hardly ever fitted the picture of Christian Councils as envisaged by the international community. It remained primarily a Missionary Society organisation for many years. In 1936 there were 15 Missionary Societies and 9 Churches when the CCSA was launched. Fourteen years later in 1950 this had changed slightly to 7 Churches and 12 overseas -based mission Churches.

The creation of indigenous Churches took much longer in South Africa than in many other parts of the world. The Council remained under the control of expatriates throughout many years of its history. Although it was able to boast a black President, the Rev Seth Mokitimi, in its final years, it could never claim to be under the guidance or control of indigenous black Church leaders.

Indigenous Churches

While the rest of the world moved forward in establishing indigenous Churches, it was not a priority in South Africa. This meant that there was a lack, apart from some notable exceptions, of indigenous Church leaders.

The Rev Dexter Taylor of the American Board Mission, and an active participant in the CCSA, said, "Our worst weakness as a Council, in my opinion, is the small scope we give to the African Church in our affairs. We have not a single African on our working Executive and only two, I believe, on the Council itself. "

So that while the IMC secretary, J. H. Oldham, was applauding the "maturity, experience and leadership" of Indigenous Church leaders throughout the world, the South African ecumenical organisation was still very much in the grip of expatriate missionary leadership. The South African Church has had to pay dearly for its slothfulness in this regard.

Why was South Africa slow in comparison to other mission areas of the world? After all, South Africa had more missionary societies than any other "mission field."

It is suggested that the number of missions was a hindrance to indigenisation rather than a help. The Mission Societies remained in competition and waited until they felt able to hand over a viable Church that would not fall prey to larger Churches.

Different national groups of a similar denomination took many years to co-operate in forming that specific denomination in terms of belonging to South Africa itself. And there was an unwillingness, especially expressed in the days of the Missionary Conference, to allow the Churches to be free of mission control for fear of them being taken over by the growing African Independent Churches.

It is necessary also to look at the racial composition of South Africa. It had, and still has, a large white population. This meant that an indigenous Church was a Church with white people as well as any other indigenous people. The numbers of whites may not have been as great as the indigenous populations but the influence was disproportionately strong. Decision making leadership tended to be white rather than indigenous black.

Within the context of a divided country, where the Church was making its statements of opposition to the segregationist and oppressive racist laws, it was natural for the Church to make a strong stand on the unity of the Church where all would be members together in one fellowship. This did mean, however, that fewer opportunities would be open to black indigenous leadership than would be the case in a Church which was totally indigenous black in membership.

There is a strange way in which the Churches, especially the mission Churches, were so caught up in their need to speak on behalf of their charges that it seemed to give little space for the charges to speak for themselves.

It is a sad comment that it appears that the Churches were so busy ensuring there was no racism in their midst they gave little attention to the special needs for building indigenous leadership. The socio-political emphasis impeded independent progress and growth of leadership among the very people it was meant to serve.

The Black Voice

The lack of a truly representative black voice is noticed in the way in which during the l94O's, despite the voice of the ANC, the CCSA often praised the United Party Government. There was no demand for black participation in central Government, no suggestion of one education system, no thought of South Africa as a black country with a minority white group. Instead members of the CCSA spoke well of any moves to accord the black population greater social amenities. This, obviously, moved it further away from black ideals and aspirations.

In 1948 the Nationalist Party won the election. Any voice, no matter how weak it may have been, which the CCSA had held in the corridors of power was now completely silenced. The Nationalist Government had no need of the advice, praise, or criticism, of the English-speaking Churches. The Dutch Reformed Church, it needs to be remembered, had withdrawn, from the Council in 1940. It alone, among all the Churches, had influence with the new Government.

Despite the endeavours of a succession of hard working secretaries there was a growing 1ack of interest in the CCSA. In 1952 only 29 people bothered to attend the biennial meeting. One great problem was a general lack then and at other meetings over the years of Church leadership presence. The then secretary of the CCSA, the Rev Arthur Blaxall, complained that he had received fewer than a dozen invitations to visit Churches during a whole year. There is no doubt that many doubted the value of the CCSA.

Against Apartheid

There were occasional events that caused interest. Among these is a conference in 1949, at which Chief Albert Luthuli spoke and which drew up the first ecumenical theological statement against the policy of apartheid. It said that "when individuals have moved from a primitive social structure to one which is more advanced this change should be given recognition." The conference also recommended a franchise vote while recognising that "at present many such persons are not ready for this responsibility."

The major success story was in 1957 when the infamous "Church clause" or "Verwoerd clause", clause 3c of the Native Laws Amendment Bill curtailing inter-racial worship, was proposed by the Government and opposed by the CCSA and its member Churches. The Churches were not only vociferous in their condemnation of the bill, but also stated that they would not obey it if it ever became law. Archbishop Clayton of the Anglican Church said that he would not only disobey the law himself but would also call on his clergy to do the same. This seems to be the only occasion in which such action was threatened during those years. It certainly had its desired effect. The bill was never used.

It has to be acknowledged, at the same time, that the DRC also opposed the bill and was no doubt an influential partner with the other Churches in the success story.

The Churches were not quiet about the laws that affected their own activities. New education and health regulations that were seen to be to the detriment of the people received much vocal opposition. A significant number of individual Church leaders were also outspoken in their condemnation of apartheid. It would not be a true reflection on the era to omit mention of either Trevor Huddleston or Ambrose Revs for instance. But the opposition had no common voice, no central point of unity.

The CCSA continued to speak on behalf of its major constituency - the black population, but still did not include many black persons in its decision-making bodies. Indeed, such was the lack of black confidence In the Council that it received little attention from those who led calls from time to time to establish black Churches in their own right within the major denominations in South Africa. This call was not supported by the mainline Churches and did not succeed, but it was yet another indication of the doubts that different groupings held for the CCSA as well as the growing demand for a black voice in the affairs of the Church.

The call for a black movement within the Church was supported by the now influential and continually growing African National Congress. Black nationalism was making its voice heard through it and through the recently established Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). Although no black alternative to the CCSA was formed, nor was any independent black section of any denomination organise, an Inter-Denominational African Ministers Association of South Africa (IDAMASA) was founded. It received much support and played a prominent role throughout the 60's and 70's in local and regional, rather than national, joint activities.

Meanwhile in the international ecumenical movement there were many advances. In 1948, as the Apartheid Government took over in South Africa, one of its soon to be major international opponents, the World Council of Churches (WCC) was formed. This was born out of an amalgamation a number of years earlier of the Faith and Order and the Life and Work movements, together with the growing recognition of the need for national and international discussion on doctrinal matters and Church union.

The International Missionary Council continued with its work until in 1961 it was merged with the World Council. It became the Division of Mission and Evangelism of the WCC. This meant that the two dimensions of the ecumenical movement, the missionary dimension and what is called the faith and order dimension, were now united in one organisation, the World Council of Churches.

It was a marriage that challenged many countries to form Councils of Churches rather than Christian Councils to participate fully in the new ecumenical stream of activity. The Christian Councils were affiliated directly to the International Missionary Council, while the WCC was made up of member Churches throughout the world. The proposed Councils of Churches would have no direct alliance with the WCC but would act on a national level, bringing together Churches that were members of the World Council themselves and other national or regional Churches that were not.

Indeed there were some moves to create in South Africa an organisation of member Churches of the WCC, which included the Dutch Reformed Church, as an alternate to the Christian Council of South Africa. This was yet another sign of how little regard there was in some circles for the CCSA. It was also a sign that in those same circles there was still a hankering to be in national fellowship with the Dutch Reformed Church.

Sharpeville

In 1960, only some months after the terrible killings at Sharpeville, the famous Cottesloe Conference was held. Following this Conference the DRC decided to pull out of the WCC as it was unable to respond positively to the demands made of it in regard to the policy of apartheid. It was by now, with a few individual and courageous exceptions, a committed supporter of that policy in both word and deed. Again it needs to be noted that the Cottesloe Conference was organised directly by the WCC and its member Churches in South Africa and not by the now very much sidelined CCSA.

By 1961 however, even in South Africa, changes were taking place in the missionary movement. The former mission Churches were drawing closer to being indigenous Churches in their own right. The missionary agencies had ceased to have direct control over their interests in South Africa and were transferring these to the local national courts of those Churches. A number were still heavily reliant upon the missionaries who elected to work within the new parameters, but the move toward truly indigenous Churches was now well under way.

This gave an impetus to the possibility of forming a Council of Churches for South Africa which would comprise of established Churches with responsibilities to South African Church courts within their own national denominations.

Church Leader

Among the South African delegates to the New Delhi Conference of the World Council, at which it merged with the International Missionary Council, was the Rev Basil Brown. He was a prominent Congregational Church minister from Cape Town who had already served as head of that Church and was an acknowledged Church leader. He was, as another Congregational minister of note, the Revd Joe Wing, said of him, "a Churchman who had arrived."

In 1962 Basil Brown accepted an invitation to be secretary of the CCSA. It is due to his enterprising service, and that of his successor Bishop B.B. Burnett, that the Christian Council revived in the life of the Church and eventually formed the South African Council of Churches.

Although at first some members of the CCSA objected to Mr Brown's insistence on remaining in Cape Town, his face soon became known throughout all the Churches. He travelled the length and breadth of the country to attend every Church Assembly, Synod, Conference, or special occasion, as much as possible, to which he was invited. He listened to the Churches, spoke with them about ecumenical matters and won them and their enthusiastic support back into the Council.

Basil Brown was white, but he was a South African. For the first time the Council had as its executive officer a person who had been reared and educated in the country itself. His first national loyalty had always been to South Africa. This, combined with his willingness to travel, his organisational ability, and his patience in listening, made him the ideal person for the necessary task of creating a Council that the Churches felt they could support and own as belonging to them.

Basil Brown was succeeded in 1967 by Bishop Bill Bendyshe Burnett, also a South African and also a leading Churchman in his own right. Bishop Burnett says that "it was really Archbishop Selby Taylor who caused me to be catapulted into being the secretary of the Council. I had been involved with the World Council of Churches as a representative of the Anglican communion and it was because of that, I suppose, that it was thought by the Archbishop that I would be the right person to fill it."

By now the move to form a Council of Churches was well underway. The Rev Joe Wing said, "There is a sense in which Basil Brown and Bill Burnett became catalysts in the process of transition from the old missionary oriented Council to the new Church oriented Council of Churches. There may have been a tendency, I think, to play down the contribution they made whereas in fact it was very significant."

Before we finally move to the era of the SACC itself it may be helpful to look briefly at the context of events in which it was founded.

Nineteen sixty had seen the shootings at Sharpeville and the banning of both the ANC and the PAC. This was followed by the organisation of active resistance to the apartheid Government, the Rivonia trial and the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and other political leaders. Harsh measures were being taken against any resistance to Government policy. It may have succeeded in quietening the public voice of opposition, but beneath the surface there was deep discontent and anger ready to break out at any time.

The divisive plans of apartheid were now in full motion. One Bantu, the official name then for black people, law after another was implemented. Group areas, for instance, was strictly enforced. Whole societies were being moved from traditional homes to new settlements and older black townships near many towns were being relocated to new, and more out of the way, sites.

Segregated Universities

Academic freedom was under attack and laws to enforce segregated universities enacted. Indeed one of the first resolutions of the Council of Churches in 1968 was to speak out against the confining laws relating to the Universities.

The assault on the universities turned them into centres of discontent. The National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) arranged protest marches and University Councils voiced their opposition to the new regulations. The University Christian Movement (UCM), later to be banned and its founders exiled, was formed in 1967 to add the weight of its voice and actions to the disagreement over segregated education. The UCM voice included a concern for, what was a new concept: Black Theology.

And, very importantly, despite the actions of NUSAS, a move was made to create a black student organisation with its specific black agenda. Steve Biko was one of the students who attended a NUSAS conference in July 1968, spoke about the need for black people to stand on their own, thanked the white NUSAS organisers for their support, and one year later was prominent in the formation of the SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENT ORGANISATION (SASO). It was not long before SASO was banned by the authorities and some years later, as is well known, its prominent founder, Steve Biko, died under mysterious circumstances while in police detention.

On the Church front, in 1966 the WCC held a conference on "Church and Society" in which the Churches' role in society was discussed. This led two years later to a similar conference in South Africa, which the CCSA and the Christian Institute organised as a joint venture, and where it was decided that opposition to racism in the specific form of apartheid was one of the duties of the Church in South Africa.

The Christian Institute (CI) had been formed in 1963 by Ds R F Beyers Naude, a leading DRC clergyman who had broken with his own Church over the issue of apartheid. The CI sought to bring together black and white people of the different Churches, including the DRC, to actively engage in opposition to apartheid. Its membership was based on individual persons rather than Churches or associations. It was a very active and vociferous voice for many years until it too was banned and its founder, Beyers Naude, restricted in October 1977.

When Bishop Burnett moved the offices of the Christian Council to Johannesburg from Cape Town in 1967, the CCSA and CI shared space in the same building. This led, naturally, to a great deal of co-operation. The Church and Society Conference of February 1968 was one such joint venture and there was considerable personal contact between the two leaders and members of staff.

This then was the context into which the SACC was born: a heightening of political tension throughout the country; the emergence of Black Consciousness; the rigid enforcement of apartheid policy; and some members of the Church community speaking out strongly against that same apartheid policy. These and a history of a slow movement toward Church co-operation and the creation of indigenous Church leadership. A slow movement but one that precipitated the eventual formation of the South African Council of Churches.