Zionist Churches

:"for Christians who believe that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was a fulfilment of Biblical prophecy, see Christian Zionists:"For other meanings, see Zionism (disambiguation)"

Zionist Churches are a group of Christian denominations that sprang from the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, Illinois. Missionaries from the church came to South Africa in 1904 and among their first recruits were PL le Roux of Wakkerstroom and Daniel Nkonyane of Charlestown, KwaZulu-Natal, who continued to evangelise after the Zionist missionaries left in 1908.

The Zionist Churches proliferated throughout southern Africa, and became African Independent Churches; research in 1996 suggested that 40% of all black South Africans belonged to a Zionist church.

The church is unrelated to the Jewish political movement of Zionism.

Origins

Zionist beliefs grew out of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth religious missions to southern Africa. In particular the churches owe their origins to the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church of John Alexander Dowie, based in Zion, Illinois in the United States.

A Zionist church was founded in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1895; however, the church quickly integrated into indigenous southern African life, and had an entirely African leadership within twenty years of its founding.

uccession disputes

Schisms and succession disputes during the twentieth century led to the foundation of thousands of different congregations, of which the largest is the Zion Christian Church, with around 3 million followers, led by Barnabas Lekganyane.

Characteristics of Zionist churches

Zionist churches are characterised by the following features:
* Use of faith-healing and revelation through dreams
* "Jordan" baptism, in rivers
* Ritual garments, often mostly white, and prophetic staffs.
* Food taboos, such as not eating pork.
* Some smaller denominations worship in the open air, and practise "wheel" dances -- dancing in circles, sometimes to the beat of drums.
* Some denominations accept polygamy.
* Some denominations show syncretic mixing of Christian and traditional African religious beliefs

References

* cite book
last = Anderson
first = Allan
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Zion and Pentecost: the spirituality and experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/Apostolic Churches in South Africa
publisher = University of South Africa Press
year = 2000
location = Pretoria
url =
doi =
id = ISBN 1-86888-143-1
* [http://www.bethel.edu/~letnie/AfricanChristianity/SSAZionism.html "Christianity in Africa South of the Sahara"] — Dr. Neil Lettinga
*Oosthuizen, G., 1996. "African Independent/Indigenous Churches in the Social Environment: An Empirical Analysis"; "Africa Insight", 26 (4).
* cite book
last = Sundkler
first = Bengt
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Bantu Prophets in South Africa
publisher = Oxford University Press
year = 1961
location = Ocford
url =
doi =
id =

See also

African Initiated Church

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/missionalia/aic.htm African Independent Churches]
* [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aic_research.htm AIC discussion forum]
* [http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/ecumenical/aic-e.html World Council of Churches on African Instituted Churches]
* [http://www.bethel.edu/~letnie/AfricanChristianity/SSAZionism.html Bethel Page]