A Missiological Reflection and Brief History of iThafamasi Congregational Church, UCCSA
Focusing on the Reverends Samuel Marsh and Benjamin Hawes
by Rev Dr Scott Everett Couper
Conference of the amaDodona KZN Region, UCCSA
iThafamasi Congregational Church, UCCSA
Focusing on the Reverends Samuel Marsh and Benjamin Hawes
Conference of the amaDodona KZN Region, UCCSA
iThafamasi Congregational Church, UCCSA
28-30 September 2012
A Missiological Reflection
The largest theological controversy of its existence rocked the American Board mission during the 1880s. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (American Board) was the oldest mission society in North America, established in 1810, and had during its first hundred years a physical and financial presence throughout the globe that rivaled most governments. “The Great Debate”, as it was known, featured on the front pages of the United States’ leading newspapers. The bitter dispute devastated the mission society; requiring more than twenty years to fully, if ever, recover. 1886 proved to be the year of the ‘perfect storm’ among Congregationalists in America (Putney and Burlin/Taylor, 13).