The prehistory of the Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa: a study in ecumenical ancestry

Abstract

From the time of the arrival of the first missionaries in South Africa, there was a need to prepare local agents to pursue the work of mission. Each of the English speaking churches formed and pursued its own stream. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these streams at times followed their own course and sometimes converged, only to diverge again. It was a combination of political circumstances and ecumenical vision that caused these churches to establish the Federal Theological Seminary of southern Africa in 1963. This article traces the flow of the Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist and Anglican streams towards this ecumenical experiment in convergence. More detailed attention is given to the Lovedale Missionary Institution because of its strong ecumenical approach, its pre-eminence as an educational centre and because issues were raised there which were later faced by other theological colleges.