Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents general information about Southern Africa's Zion Christian Church.
The content of this post is presented for historical, religious, and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the founders, leaders, and other members of Zion Christian Church. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/01/zion-christian-chuches-mokhukhu-choirs.html for a closely related pancocojams post entitled "Zion Christian Chuches' Mokhukhu Choirs (information and videos)."
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ARTICLE EXCERPTS: GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT ZION CHRISTIAN CHURCH
These excerpts are presented in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
EXCERPT #1
From http://dictionary.sensagent.com/zion%20christian/en-en/
"The Zion Christian Church (ZCC), founded in 1910 by Engenas
Lekganyane, is the largest of the African indigenous churches in South Africa.
The ZCC belongs to the so-called independent churches of
South Africa - described as independent because they are not under white
control. (Lukhaimane 1980:1) The Zionist churches did not break away directly
from the mission establishment; their origins lie, instead, in Zion City,
Illinois, where John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907) founded the Christian Catholic
Church in 1896. The influence of his church spread to South Africa in 1904 when
Daniel Bryant baptized several Africans. (see Lukhaimane 1980:14)
Independent Ethiopian churches, on the other hand, have
their roots in the history of resistance to the imperial system. In the
thinking of many white missionaries, the success of Christianization depended
on Westernization, and they intertwined religious conversion with the imposition
of new cultural norms. This, inevitably, led to the phenomenon of cultural
deprivation among African converts. As a consequence, in the second half of the
19th century some converts attempted to protect and perpetuate certain aspects
of African culture. For example, the rise of nativistic sentiment prompted the
Reverend Nehemiah Tile to break away from the Methodist Church in 1884. The
Ethiopian movement in South Africa is often traced to this event, because
thereafter the breakaway church movement gained momentum.
The separatist movement was not just a rejection of alien
cultural values, it was also aimed at revitalizing the African society which
colonial conquest had rendered ineffectual. According to some scholars, the
separatist movement can be seen as the struggle of the African to assert his
significance as a human being. This significance he knew very well in his home
before his culture was disrupted by the impact of Western culture. He had had
to surrender it in the face of overwhelming and awe-inspiring wonders of the
White man. He was then left without purpose, and his degeneration as a human
being began. The Separatist Churches restore this sense of purpose. (Vilakazi,
Mthethwa, and Mpanza 1986:17-18) To this end, indigenous customs were, and
continue to be, grounded within a Christian framework in the independent
churches.
According to Lukhaimane, the ZCC arose out of personal
differences between Engenas Lekganyane and the elders of the Zion Apostolic
Church and the Zion Apostolic Faith Mission - churches of which Lekganyane was
once a member (1980:2). Thus the formation of the ZCC was a "Black from
Black" secession (Lukhaimane 1980:2). What places the ZCC firmly within
the separatist or independent movement and closely links it to the Ethiopian
churches is not provenance, but a common emphasis on the retention of certain
African customs and norms.
As a Zionist organization, the ZCC is characterized by an
emphasis on divine and faith healing, purification rites, dancing, night
communion, river baptism, the holy spirit, prophesying, and so on.1 There are
several formations within the ZCC which have been created to provide prayer and
communion forums for members. The main ones are Mokhukhu, the Female Choir, the
Male Choir, the Brass Band, and Nkedi. Mokhukhu is generally regarded by
members as the most important of all the groups."...
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This article indicates that its source was Wikipedia's page on Zion Christian Church. However, the January 17, 2022 edition of that page is different from what is quoted here.
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EXCERPT #2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engenas_Lekganyane [retrieved Jan 17, 2022]
…[Engenas] "Lekganyane's ZCC was similar to other Zionist churches in
that it emphasized faith healing to win converts. Lekganyane himself is known
to have healed a large number of people. During the early years of the ZCC he
allowed his followers to engage in faith healing as well. In 1930, however, he
took sole control of all faith healing as the church expanded. Items such as
water and paper were “blessed” at his home base, and then sent out to distant
congregations where they were ingested or touched by the afflicted. Lekganyane
also sanctioned traditional practices such as polygamy and ancestor
worship.[11] The latter practice, in particular, was to prove effective in
turning the ZCC into a dynamic fund-raising machine. Throughout Lekganyane's
lifetime the church was primarily oral in nature. The ZCC did not generate
sacred writings, and Lekganyane's sermons and pronouncements were not written
down. Faith healing, testimony, singing, and dancing were instead the focus of
worship services.”…
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EXCERPT #3
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion_Christian_Church [retrieved Jan 17, 2022]
..."Following Engenas Lekganyane's death in 1948, a major split
in the church occurred. The church's large section of male migrant workers
generally backed Engenas's oldest surviving son, the charismatic Edward
Lekganyane, to succeed his father as the ZCC Bishop. The church's rural base,
meanwhile, backed a younger son, Joseph, to assume church leadership. Although
events are highly disputed, Engenas himself appears to have favoured Joseph
even though Edward was the chosen one— who served as his father's adviser and
chauffeur during the 1940s. According to some traditions, during Engenas
Lekganyane's mourning period, Edward's supporters mobilised on the
Witwatersrand and hired buses to take them to Moria. After arrival, this large,
armed group was able to eject the pro-Joseph faction and take over the church's
headquarters and infrastructure.[8] Contemporary records relating to the event
show that Edward was installed peacefully in Easter 1949 in a large ceremony by
his uncle, Reuben. Other written reports from the following year indicate that
strong opposition to his leadership had arisen among "most of the
preachers" in the ZCC who were "shocked" by Edward: "they
denied the son of the great Lekganyane, saying he was not leader of the
church."[9]Initially the two factions remained together, but Edward soon
insisted that all members declare their loyalty in public, and this led to a
permanent split. The ZCC continued under Edward's leadership, while Joseph
seceded and formed the St. Engenas Zion Christian Church in 1949.
The ZCC changed fairly dramatically following his son Edward
Lekganyane's assumption of control of the church in April 1949. Edward was a
highly educated, flamboyant figure who eventually obtained a degree at an
Afrikaans divinity school.[10] Under his leadership the all-male Mokhukhu
organisation developed out of his core group of supporters. This group
initially formed as a church choir. Wearing military-style khakis, police-style
hats, and the Star badge, the Mokhukhu in each congregation engaged in dancing,
singing, and praying three times a week according to a preset schedule.[11] An
additional feature of Edward's control of the ZCC was the rapid growth of Zion
City Moria as a pilgrimage site. Using the Boyne farm that his father had
purchased in the 1940s, Edward instituted annual pilgrimages that have gone on
to become massive southern African-wide events. Each year during Easter
Holidays, up to a million Church members bus en masse to Moria, Polokwane
(Pietersburg) to meet the Bishop and to pray for blessings.[12]
Characteristics of the ZCC
The belief that the religious and administrative leader of
the church (or bishop) is a mediator between the congregation and God through
Jesus Christ; that, like Christ, he can perform supernatural acts and
faith-healing in the name of Lord Jesus Christ.
The belief that senior officials in the ZCC (known as
baruti) can use the power of the Holy Spirit to perform healing. [2]
The use of different mechanisms for faith-healing. These
include the laying-on of hands; the use of holy water; drinking of blessed tea
and coffee; the wearing of blessed cords or cloth.
The colours of the church are green, yellow/gold, khakhi,
white, blue, maroon and brown.
Green and yellow suit is for men and women and they call it
'seaparo se segolo', khakhi suit is for Mokhukhu (with star badge) or wear by
men in Saint Engenas (with dove badge), blue suit is for women and they call it
'khwaere ya bomme' and they used to wear it on Sundays. There is khakhi suit
with green jersey for 'khwaere ya bomme' and they wear it on Saturday. Brown
suit is for men and women who are singing 'Nkedi', maroon and white is for Zion
City members who helped with church activities.”…
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