The beautiful birdsong of Tshwane : preliminary reflections on the beginnings of the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa (URCSA) congregation Melodi ya Tshwane

Abstract

The author recounts the history and reflects on the founding of the URCSA congregation Melodi ya Tshwane in the central business district of the Tshwane metropole. The history of this unique congregation has not yet been written. The congregation grew out of joint services of the various black Dutch Reformed Churches in Pretoria in the 1980s. It was the first black Dutch Reformed congregation constituted in “white” Pretoria. Prof Nico Smith, Dutch Reformed Church in Africa (DRCA) pastor in Mamelodi, and Prof JNJ Kritzinger of Unisa played a very important role in the constitution of this congregation, which today forms the centre of various religious and social ministries, as well as URCSA theological education, in central Pretoria.