30/12/2013
Reformed Church in Zimbabwe
The Reformed Church in Zimbabwe
has 45 congregations, with 50
ministers and 11 evangelists who
serve some 85,000 members and
regular attendees. The churches
meet every two years in a synod.
They have adopted the Heidelberg
Catechism, Belgic Confession, and
the Canons of Dort as their doctrinal
standards. The Reformed Church in
Zimbabwe is a member of the World
Council of Churches ( WCC entry ), the
Zimbabwe Council of Churches, and
various alliances of Reformed
Churches.
In addition to its various church
activities, the church has a special
concern for its school for the deaf
and dumb at Morgenster, and the
Margaretha Hugo School for the
blind. The RCZ also sponsors a
number of secondary schools, a
teacher-training college and the
Murray Theological College in
Masvingo, as well as two hospitals
and several clinics. For more
information, see the Social Ministry
section of this site. In 1995 they
opened a new center in Dete, and in
1996 the church opened a new
center in Binga among the Tonga
people. They still intend to
evangelize the Shonganese and
Vhenda people near the southern
boundary of Zimbabwe.
The first mission station of the
Dutch Reformed Mission Church in
modern Zimbabwe was established
in 1891 at Morgenster by
Andrew Louw. The order at most
churches was that a service in
Afrikaans was conducted in the
morning with services in English and
local languages held later in the
day. Eventually, the African
Reformed Church in Rhodesia came
into being, as an indigenous and
independent church, under the
control of church councils, four
presbyteries and a synod. In 1977 it
became the fully autonomous African
Reformed Church. Soon after the
country’s independence in 1980, the
name was changed to Reformed
Church in Zimbabwe. Some historic
church structures are still referred to
as Dutch Reformed Churches and
some white Reformed Church
members still use that name.
