Belhar: ’n Spiritualiteit van resepsie in die plaaslike gemeente

Abstract

The Confession of Belhar: A spirituality of reception in the local church. The GeneralSynod of the Dutch Reformed Church took the following decision during October 2011: ‘TheGeneral Synod decides to make the Confession of Belhar part of its confessional foundation,that is, in terms of its church ordinances, and commission the Moderamen to prepare thenecessary processes regarding ecclesiastical law.’ This article deals with the perception of,the reception of and resistance against Belhar as confession in a local congregation, ElardusPark. The research also describes how this obstructs the development of missional focus. Themain contribution of this article is to argue that the ecumenical concept’s full reception shouldbe assessed within the broader framework of building up a missional local church where aspirituality of reception is fully developed in terms of a missional positioning in Africa.