Abstract:
The parish meeting as a distinctive manifestation within the Neder-duitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika also had a distinctive form of development, a development that spanned the period from the national gathering on 8 February 1837 until the acceptance of a new church ordinance in 1997. It first served as an emergency measure during which the future existence of the NHKA was discussed and ensured by the gathering of the faithful. Systematically, from the perspective of church polity, the parish meeting achieved a basis that was also accountable in terms of the church ordinance. The parish meeting forms part of the Hervormde Kerk's religious practice, that is a normal manifestation of the Presbyterian-synodical Church concept that is respected in the NHKA.
