Abstract:
The events prior to and after church unity between the former Dutch Reformed Church in
Africa (DRCA) and the Dutch Reformed Mission Church (DRMC) in 1994 are
perplexing because the white Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk) was influenced by
apartheid ideology in its response to church unity within the DRC family.1 Unsuccessful
unity talks were previously held with the white Dutch Reformed Church (NG Kerk) and
the Reformed Church of Africa (RCA), but minutes of these talks reveal that a biblical
concept of church unity was problematic, especially to the NG Kerk, which created a
language that made the issue of Christian unity elusive. This article gives a brief survey
of the developments that shaped the unity process with the DRMC and the DRCA from
1986 until 1994, when the two churches eventually united. The role played by the white
DRC and its motive to frustrate the unity process is analysed. The change of the
leadership of the DRCA in 1987, the DRCA General Synod in Umtata and the
momentum this change gave to the process of church unity between the DRCM and the
DRCA are investigated. The internal struggles within the DRCA’s Northern Transvaal
Synod2 are also discussed. The gender inclusivity in the ministry of the church, property
ownership and the inclusion of both in the new Church Order are investigated. After
seventeen years of democracy in South Africa, church unity among the Dutch Reformed
family of churches (the RCA, NG Kerk and URCSA) has not yet been realised. This
article sketches the DRCA’s road to unity with the DRMC in 1994 without the NG Kerk
and RCA, reading church history backwards to shed light on why it was so difficult for
the NG Kerk and RCA to unite with the URCSA.
