UNITY IN CHURCH AND SOCIETY? THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON AN ONGOING CHALLENGE IN SOUTH AFRICA TODAY

Abstract

The paper acknowledges that today is not a time for discourses and programmes concerned with unity, whether in the world, South African society or the church, including ecumenism and the DRC family (1). Some of the cause of this widespread lack of concern with issues of unity is to be found in contemporary globalisation, also impacting on South African society (2). It is argued that theological and ecclesiological reflection should challenge this lack of interest, since notions of belonging, sharing and community are central to the gospel (3). It is important, therefore, to have some clarity on the rich and complex notion of unity promised and called for by the gospel, an approach already underlined by the South African Confession of Belhar (4). Such a rich and complex understanding of unity opens up a variety of imaginative practical ways of pursuing forms of life in unity in church and society today (5).