FIVE YEARS !!! Difficult to believe, but the South Africa Synod IS five years old. Some people did not give us a year be-fore we would crumble. BUT GOD PROVED THEM WRONG. It was claimed that there was too much to handle in a Synod which stretched over the whole of the Republic of South Af-rica; too many divergent opinions; too many differ-ent emphasis and too many people who wanted things their way. BUT GOD PROVED THEM ALL WRONG.

God has blessed us so abundantly so that we now have our own office complex, our own Training Centre for the Synod’s theological students in the House of Formation at ‘Maritzburg’, in association with the university of KZN and in addition, we are able to contribute

two-thirds of the UCCSA Budget annually, to the coffers of the denomination. Cer-tainly not what people expected would hap-pen.

The Lord’s blessings not only stopped at financial benefits. The eleven Regions of the Synod have grown closer together. There is now more support for each other, a greater will-ingness to share, and a more compassionate attitude to the Covenant Relationship which we all seek to nurture

as Congregationalists.

The Lord has allowed us to accomplish all this, and

more, through His gracious Love and Care and we trust that He will continue to lead and use the Synod of South Africa in the ages to come.

[Rev Roy N Brink—Synod Chairperson]

5 Years of Christian Service !!

Synod Nomination of UCCSA President-Elect

The recent South Africa Synodical Committee agreed to nominate the Rev Hendrick Pillay as our candidate as UCCSA Presi-dent-Elect. Rev Pillay is currently the resident min-ister of the Hankey Cong. Church. He has proven himself at all levels of our church life as someone who can adapt and inter-act with all. He is a faith-ful and dedicated servant

of God’s church who has shown excellent ability in leadership.

He is currently the Immediate Past Chairperson of the South Africa Synod.

Rev Pillay is a very committed person who stands for truth and jus-tice. He brings an ex-perience in ministry which can benefit the

UCCSA as a whole. He is a mentor and coun-selor which we believe the church urgently needs at this time.

South Africa Synod

SYNOD BULLETIN

Inside this issue:

Synod Office 2

Office “antiques” 2

Synod Conferences 2

House of Formation 3

Moffat Press 3

Setswana Bible 3

Resource Centre 4

United Congregational Church of Southern Africa

Rev A Makhanya (Chairperson-Elect), Rev Roy Brink (Chairperson) and

Rev H Pillay (Immediate Past Chairperson)

The South Africa Synod was blessed with the acquisition of a building to host its office. The Synod Office relocated from Brix-ton to Helderkruin since the 1st April 2007 and is now located in 56 Crous Drive, Helderkruin on the Westrand.

The building was dedicated to the honour of God on the 31st March 2007 . This occasion was graced by the Synod Leadership, Rev R Brink (Chair), Rev H Pillay (Immediate Past Chair), Rev A Makhanya (Chair-elect), Rev C Barnard (Treasurer), Rev Dr B Theron (TMC Director), Rev A Ar-ends (Mission Council Convenor), Mrs F Norris (Investments Chair). Also in attendance were dele-gates from the Synod Selection Conference and TMC meet-

ing as well as representatives from some of our regions. The Gordonia Region had their full leadership compliment. Algoa and KwaZulu-Natal also sent one of their officers.

Minor renovations still needs to be done to the building to suit the needs of the office. Being in our own building now also necessitates that a few items for the office is needed.

The office staff consists of the Admin Officer, Ms Gail Steene-veld, the Maintenance and Admin Officer, Mr Peter Rantjie, two Admin Clerks, Ms Elizabeth Cele and Ms Gladys Mahlangu, a part-time bookkeeper, Mrs Joan Putter and the Synod Sec-retary.

South Africa Synod Office

Synod Conferences

“Antiques” of the Office

Elizabeth and Gladys, the two Admin Clerks of the Synod Office have been working for the UCCSA for almost 34 years now.

Both of them started to work under the leadership of the late Rev Joseph Wing.

Elizabeth started working in 1973 on a temporary basis.

Gladys started working in 1975.

Page 2 SYNOD BULLETIN

The

SA Synod

Office is

committed to

Servicing,

Supporting

and

Strengthening

the SA Synod

!!!!

Year Chair Venue Region

1st 2002 Rev SM Arends Rose Lane UCC Algoa

2nd 2004 Rev CZ Hartland Founders Memorial UCC Central

3rd 2006 Rev H Pillay Oranje Girls High School —Bloemfontein

Free State

4th 2008 Gordonia

5th 2010 Karoo

6th 2012 Kei

7th 2014 KwaZulu-Natal

Both of them worked with all the UCCSA General Secretaries and have loving memories of their years with the Rev Jo Wing.

The restructuring of the UCCSA resulted in the establishment of the South Africa Synod. From than Synods were tasked to take responsibility for Theological Training within the Synod.

The SA Synod agreed to have students for the ministry trained at the University of KZN. This led to the need for accommodation. The Synod received an offer for a house right opposite the university and decided to purchase the building.

The first five (5) students for the ministry were registered. Two of them was unable to continue and now we have three students left namely, Tshepiso Moreosele, Jerry Batshelakang and Abram Moahludi.

Tshepiso is currently doing the B.Th II degree programme while the other two are doing the B.Th I programme. Tshepiso was awarded a Certificate of Merit for achieving 80 % in the mid-year examination in Practical Theology. Tshepiso is sitting on the right hand side on the photo right next to this column. He is really doing us proud.

Students are now able to live in community in this Hof, are under the supervision and guid-

ance of the Synod for their formation.

The original vision of the Hof is to have a rector which would become an associate member of staff of the School of Theology at the University, and would be allowed to teach and make use of the university facili-ties like the library, etc. This would be of benefit to the School, to the person, as well as—through the Rector— to the whole of the UCCSA, keeping us abreast of directions in theological education.

Formation is God’s work within us which takes a lifetime—and beyond—to complete. We cooperate with God’s formation of us as we seek to grow through our participation in the following things:

• Spiritual life and practice

• Education and study

• Emotional maturity

• Connection with the Church

• Service in the church and world.

House of Formation—Pietermaritzburg 

150th Anniversary of the setSwana Bible

Page 3 United Congregational Church of Southern Africa

But now thus says

the Lord, who

created you, O

Jacob, who formed

you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I

have redeemed you;

I have called you

by name, you are

mine.”

(Isa. 43: 1)

The place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. (Frederick Buechner)

An ecumenical group, of which the UCCSA is a key player, is planning celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Setswana Bible, the first African Bible. The main event is scheduled for Saturday, 15th September 2007, at the Moffat Mission in Kuruman. The translation was done by a London Missionary Society missionary, Robert Moffat, while living in Kuruman. The press used for the printing is still with the Kuruman Moffat Mission and can be seen in the photo above.

Tiger Kloof Church building. The school at Tiger Kloof was opened in 1903 by WC Wil-loughby, an LMS Missionary.

In 1813 a LMS missionary, Carl Pacalt, started work at Hooge Kraal—halfway between George and the sea. He died in 1815 and the place was renamed, Pacaltsdorp, in his honour. The work continued through a number of missionaries. Rogers Edwards, a artisan mission-ary, was there from 1824 to 1825 and was instrumental in building the beautiful church before he left. The building above is now a National Monument.

Church building at Dithakong, Tee-mane Region, where William Ed-

wards and his wife, LMS missionar-ies, worked before moving to the

Kuruman Moffat Mission.

was set aside to host the resource centre. The Finance Committee allo-cated some funds to the get the pro-ject from the ground.

The Upington church shared the vi-sion and intention of the resource centre with the Gordonia Region who supported the idea. The idea of the resource centre became a shared vision of both the Upington church and the Gordonia Region.

The SA Synod was approached for funding for the project and an amount of R60 000.00 was allocated from the Mission Programme Support fund.

The Resource Centre hosts some very historical photographs and other memorabilia from the UCCSA at large. We have also received from

On the 22 July 2007 the Synod Secretary, Mr Aubrey Classen, dedicated the Resource Centre at the Upington Congregational Church in the Gordonia Region. The idea to start a Resource Centre started with the Upington UCC after they celebrated its centenary in 2002. The congre-gation and the church building was a 100years old in 2002 and 2004 respectively, but had no place to show the next genera-tion the rich history and heritage of our church. A need was iden-tified by the leadership to pre-serve the history of the church for the next generation. Under the theme: “showing your faith by what you do!”, the church council under the leadership of the Rev Samuel Britz initiated the process and a classroom

the past General Secretary, Rev Steve Titus, a significant donation of materials for the resource centre. The Upington church sees this centre as a valuable resource for the Synod and the UCCSA and encourages local churches to send whatever material of historical significance to the Resource Centre. The Gordonia Region will be hosting the SA Synod Conference next year and would want to display our common history in the resource centre.

The Upington UCC in partnership with the Gordonia Region are deeply in-depted to the Synod and the Rev Titus for the donations and we are awaiting many materials and gifts from all Re-gions and Synods in the UCCSA.

Synod Resource Centre

56 Crous Drive Helderkruin Roodepoort 1734

Phone: (011) 764-1096 Fax: (011) 764-1113 or 086 632 0586 E-mail: aclassen@sasynod.org.za

South Africa Synod

Postal Address: P.O. Box 6191 WESTGATE 1734

Soon we will have our own website at sasynod.org.za