When Marilyn Ward was a girl, church meant starched shirts, disapproving scowls and endless repetition of prayers she didn’t understand.
Now the 42-year-old South African spends Sunday mornings whooping it up with hundreds of ”brothers and sisters” who grind their hips to jovial Zulu songs and punctuate the preacher’s sermon with howls of ”Allelujah”.
Ward, a lapsed Anglican, is a new convert to Pentecostalism, one of the world’s fastest growing religious movements which is winning souls with its lively worship, promise of healing and focus on the power of the Holy Spirit.
”Those traditional churches are so straight-laced — if God touches you, you have to keep quiet about it. Now I feel alive,” Ward said with a grin after a boisterous service at her church in the racially mixed Johannesburg suburb of Rossetenville.
According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, about 147-million Africans describe themselves as Pentecostal or Charismatic — about 16,6% of the continent’s population — compared to just 17-million in 1970. Offering spiritual practices like speaking in tongues and healing, conservative teaching on morality, and vibey modern music, Pentecostalism is threatening traditional churches on the continent like Anglicans and Catholics.
”The churches that are growing in Africa are evangelical and Charismatic. The ones that are stagnating are the die-hard traditionalists,” said Canon Dave Doveton, coordinator for Anglican Mainstream Southern Africa, a group representing evangelical Anglicans.
Conservative credentials
With around 40-million adherents between them, not all Anglican churches in Africa are losing out.
Some have revamped their worship to compete with Pentecostalism and those that stick to strict moral teaching — especially on the hot topic of homosexuality — have won followers on a continent where being gay is largely taboo.
The Nigeria church has used vociferous anti-gay teaching in a conservative nation and energetic evangelism to help build the world’s biggest concentration of Anglicans.
Conversely, in Southern Africa, where leaders have taken a softer line on homosexuality and where services are more traditional, membership is virtually stagnant — apart from in evangelical, charismatic congregations, say officials.
Conservative Anglican bishops keen to display their conservative credentials are expected to clash with their more liberal US counterparts at a meeting of global Anglican primates this month in Tanzania that some fear could lead to schism.
Most African bishops say homosexuality is sinful and want the United States church to repent for consecrating a gay bishop in 2003 — a move that plunged the worldwide communion into bitter dispute. Liberals argue the Anglican church has traditionally embraced diverse views and theologies.
Holy power
While the homosexuality debate may dominate headlines, commentators say many Africans choose their church based on the style of worship, not on what it thinks about an issue that is irrelevant to many on the continent.
The Pentecostal emphasis on the supernatural resonates with African indigenous culture and the promise of healing and financial blessing hold special appeal for the poor.
”The idea that with the spirit comes a new power in life has enormous appeal for people living in difficult circumstances,” said Rosalind Hackett, a professor in Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, who specialises in religion in Africa.
Pentecostal churches also pull in crowds with lively, modern worship that features soulful gospel singers and state-of-the-art sound systems.
”Pentecostalism has exploded within African culture,” said Pastor Anton van Deventer, head of South Africa’s Full Gospel Church of God — a network of about 1 000 congregations. ”That’s because it’s a living reality, not just a ritual once a week.” – Reuters