The Baptist Union of Southern Africa is a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Christian denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct Religion, religious body within Christianity that comprises all Church (congregation), church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadersh ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It is affiliated with the

Baptist World Alliance The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an international communion of Baptists, with an estimated 51 million people from 266 member bodies in 134 countries and territories as of 2024. A voluntary association of Baptist churches, the BWA accounts f ...

and the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa. The headquarters is in Roodepoort in Gauteng province.

History

The Baptist Union of Southern Africa has its origins in the first Baptist churches in Salem, Eastern Cape and in Grahamstown founded in 1823 by William Miller, an English

pastor. The first ordained Baptist preacher to travel to South Africa was William Davies, who was sent by the Baptist Missionary Society in England. He arrived in 1832 and ministered in Grahamstown for a short period. Work in Kariega, about 16 miles from Grahamstown, began in 1834. A German settlement around 1860 brought the first German Baptist work led by Carsten Langheim. A German pastor, Carl H. Gutsche, baptized J. D. Odendall, who founded the first Dutch-speaking Baptist church in South Africa in 1886. The ''Baptist Union'' was founded in 1877 by four English-speaking churches and one German-speaking church. The ''South African Baptist Missionary Society'' was formed in 1892. Black Baptist churches united to form the ''Bantu Baptist Church'' in 1927, under the auspices of the ''South African Baptist Missionary Society''. According to a census published by the association in 2023, it claimed 537 churches and 36,591 members.

Schools

In 1951, the Baptist Union establishes the '' Baptist Theological College of Southern Africa'' in Randburg and the ''Cape Town Baptist Seminary'' in 1974 in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

Missionary Organization

The Convention has a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

organization, Missions Board.

Social programs

It has a humanitarian organization, Deed of Love Ministry.BUSA
Deed of Love Ministry
baptistunion.org.za, South Africa, accessed July 24, 2024

Associations

The Baptist Union of Southern Africa comprises a number of associations and networks. Each association or network is made up of a number of autonomous local churches which prescribe to Christian tenets of belief and Baptist distinctives and hold voluntary membership with an association. *Baptist Northern Association *Western Province Baptist Network *Baptist Association of the Northern Cape *Border Baptist Network *Eastern Province Baptist Network *Free State Baptist Network *Kwa-Zulu Natal Baptist Association

References

External links

Official Website

Cape Town Baptist SeminaryBaptist Theological College of Southern Africa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baptist Union Of Southern Africa Christian organizations established in 1892 Baptist denominations in Africa Baptist Christianity in South Africa 1877 establishments in the Cape Colony