The People of the Spirit: An Independent Church in Rhodesia

Africa ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sr. Mary Aquina
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Eastern Province ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThis article deals with the system of beliefs of an Independent African Church, the Apostles, founded in 1932 in the eastern province of Rhodesia by John Maranke. It seeks to define the Apostles' concept of ‘the Holy Spirit’, around which their whole religion centres. An analysis of this concept will make it clear that it has arisen out of a synthesis of elements from two older religions, namely traditional Karanga religion and Christianity as it has been presented to Rhodesian Africans by Catholic and Protestant missionaries.

Song and spirit: The use of songs in the management of ritual contexts

Africa ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bennetta Jules-Rosette
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Apostolic Church

Opening ParagraphThe Apostolic Church of John Maranke (Vapostori or Bapostolo), an indigenous Christian church founded in Umtali, Rhodesia, now has congregations across Central Africa. For the Church's central ritual event, the Sabbath kerek, and other occasions of worship, singing constitutes the core of ritual practice and is used to invoke the presence of the Holy Spirit. These songs combine traditional Bantu rhythmic patterns with a unique Apostolic form. Often drawn from biblical themes, the songs are composed by members as spiritually inspired pieces.

scholarly journals Synodality — Participation — Co-Responsibility. Remarks on the Determinants of the Aggiornamento of the Church Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Andrzej Pastwa
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Scientific Reflection ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

In the communio Ecclesiae reality, of a unitarian, charismatic, and institutiona structure, the crucial concepts of participation and co-responsibility are firmly anchored in the juridical and canonical discourse. This is the way in which the horizon of the subject matter reveals itself, the study of which — from the point of view of the title triad: synodality — participation — co-responsibility — will never lose its relevance. What is, at the same time, important is the idea of “synodality,” which is adequately recognized as the sacra potestas of a sacramental origin (ontological aspect), which gains the dynamism of libertas sacra (existential and dynamic aspect) through the charisms of the Holy Spirit, thus leading to the inseparability of its personal and synodal aspects. Therefore, in the attempt to illuminate the determinant of the aggiornamento of the Church law in this study, it was appropriate, on the one hand, to consistently refer to the essence of the idea of the communio hierarchica, according to which Christ makes selected servants participate in his authority by means of an office, the exercise of which always remains a diaconia in the community of faith. On the other hand, in reference to the contemporary understanding of communio fidelium, the axis of scientific reflection was to be the communion-creative phenomenon of charisms — gifts of the Holy Spirit that awaken in the People of God synodal co-responsibility for the good of the entire Church community. In both cases — without losing sight of the obvious truth that, in the sacramental structure of the Church (communio), both hierarchical and charismatic gifts converge in the service of the bishop, who updates — according to the logic of the Vaticanum II aggiormamento and the ecclesiological principles of the Council: collegiality, the title synodality and subsidiarity — the fullness of Christ’s service: as Prophet, Priest, and King.

Pranks, Tropes and Raspberries: The Dialogic Demeanour of Satire’s Creative Horizon

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-60
Author(s):  
John Baldacchino
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
The Political ◽  
The People ◽  
Dario Fo ◽  
The World ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract This essay starts off with a modern-day court jester (Nobel laureate Dario Fo) praising a Pope (Albino Luciani, who became John Paul I). Fo presents us with an historic moment: Luciani scandalises his Church by calling God “Mother.” With utmost seriousness, Fo appreciates the Pope’s kindness and warmth by which the artist perceives a way of scandalising the world out of complacency. In their idealised and situated presentations of the world, the sacred and the profane return the necessary to the contingent (and vice-versa) as moments of equal attention and distraction. Likewise, irony and satire mark our situated sense of the ideal by an inability to unlearn the certainties by which we are urged to construct our world. This is done by first presenting a situated pedagogical context that refuses to provide solutions presumed on measurement, certainty or finality. Secondly this begins to lay claim to the political, aesthetic and moral values that are gained through art’s ironic disposition. Thirdly, through our contingent states of being we begin to understand how education is culturally conditioned and why we need to shift it to another gear – that of unlearning through a weak pedagogy. An atheist, Fo suggests that thanks to Pope Luciani, we now could endear to the Holy Spirit as a spirito ridens, a spirit that laughs. Here one finds a kenotic sense that gives us a glimpse in how an ironic disposition owes its strength and effectiveness to a weak pedagogy. By dint of such weakness, the jester’s pedagogical disposition becomes a form of resistance, exiting the Court in order to be with the people and consequently transformed by the people.

Pauline Thoughts about the Holy Spirit and Sanctification: Provision, Process, and Consummation

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-94
Author(s):  
Lyle Story
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Faith Communities ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Past Event ◽  
The Past ◽  
Present Experience ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit

AbstractThe Holy Spirit is vitally and dynamically involved in the sanctification of individuals and their faith-communities. An examination of the Pauline terms and texts reveal that sanctification through the Spirit includes: 1) God's Provision in his gracious call, 2) The Process of sanctification in Christian growth in moral purity and love, 3) The Consummation at the Parousia. To that end, we will provide brief historical and theological arguments as to how the Spirit works in sanctification, primarily within the holiness Pentecostal traditions. Often, various writings highlight one aspect to the neglect of other emphases. The paper argues for the comprehensive role of the Spirit in the past event, present experience, and future hope of the people of God and argues for a consistency between the three activities related to sanctification, including the essential element of love.

scholarly journals Opwekking binnen de traditioneel- reformatorische kerken: over oprecht verlangen en grote verlegenheid

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kommers
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Missionary Zeal ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

Revival within churches from traditional-reformed origin: on sincere longing and extreme embarrassment Within churches from reformed origin the debate about revival has become an actual issue. It seems that these churches are becoming smaller and smaller, and that there is a lack of missionary zeal. Many pastors seem to have lost the courage to go on. What is happening in the churches? One can learn something from the history of the church. What was God doing in the past? The Word of God was there and it seems that in those places where revivals broke out, the Word of God was preached faithfully, in the power of the Holy Spirit. From sermons of three revival preachers who worked from 1816 to 1880 in Wuppertal (Germany), one can learn how their sermons contributed to revival in those days.   The missionary-soul caring message struck the people in their hearts, and not only individuals, but also whole regions changed; change took place not only in doctrine and lifestyle, but also holiness occupied a central place in the people’s hearts. When praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, people will repent and turn to God and “times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

Visions of Glory: The Place of the Azusa Street Revival in Pentecostal History

1996 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe Creech
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Southern California ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Divine Activity ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Azusa Street

As news of the great Welsh Revival of 1904 reached Southern California, Frank Bartleman, an itinerant evangelist and pastor living in Los Angeles, became convinced that God was preparing to revitalize his beloved holiness movement with a powerful, even apocalyptic, spiritual awakening. Certain that events in Wales would be duplicated in California, Bartleman reported in 1905 that “the Spirit is brooding over our land.… Los Angeles, Southern California, and the whole continent shall surely find itself ere long in the throes of a mighty revival.” In 1906 he speculated that theSan Francisco earthquake “was surely the voice of God to the people on the Pacific Coast.” Bartleman indeed witnessed such a revival, for in early April 1906, this “Latter Rain” outpouring had begun to fall on a small gathering of saints led by William J. Seymour, a black holiness preacher. At a vacant AME mission at 312 Azusa Street, countless pentecostals received the baptism of the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in other tongues—a “second Pentecost” replicating the first recorded in Acts 2. Bartleman, who also experienced this, would soon become integral to the revival's growth by reporting the events at Los Angeles within a vast network of holiness and higher life periodicals. As during other religious awakenings, such reports not only generated the perception of widespread divine activity but also provided an interpretive scheme for understanding the meaning of such activity. For Bartleman, Azusa was the starting point of a worldwide awakening that would initiate Christ's return. He reported: “Los Angeles seems to be the place, and this the time, in the mind of God, for the restoration of the church to her former place.”

The Functions of Faith in Primitive Pentecostalism

1984 ◽  
Vol 77 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 353-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Wacker
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Small House ◽  
Azusa Street ◽  
The City

On a foggy evening in the spring of 1906, nine days before the San Francisco earthquake, several black saints gathered in a small house in Los Angeles to seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Before the night was over, a frightened child ran from the house to tell a neighbor that the people inside were singing and shouting in strange languages.Several days later the group moved to an abandoned warehouse on Azusa Street in a run-down section of the city. Soon they were discovered by a Los AngelesTimesreporter. The “night is made hideous … by the howlings of the worshippers,” he wrote. “The devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement.”

Understanding Alice: Uganda's Holy Spirit Movement in context

Africa ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Allen
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
The People ◽  
Common Causes ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Causes Of Mortality ◽  
Holy Spirit Movement

This article examines the Holy Spirit movement of Alice Lakwena, which emerged i n Uganda between 1987 and 1989. The popular account of Alice, as told in the Western media especially, ignored die social and historical contexts which are essential to understanding die forces which gave rise to her and her following. The spirit possession revealed by Alice Lakwena took forms which were familiar t o the people of this part of Uganda, aldiough die political and social dislocations of the late 1980s were significant in shaping her actions and in determining the full range of issues with which her spiritualism came to be associated. This can be seen by examining die actions of Alice herself, but also by recognising diat odier spirit mediums were active in the region at die same time. Spirit mediums helped to establish a degree of social accountability in a world where die state had largely lost its credibility and collapsed and where witchcraft and sorcery were widely believed to be die most common causes of mortality. These spirit mediums were influenced by Christian conceptions of morality: it was partly because spirit divination had become closely associated widi die Catholic Church diat Alice and odier mediums were able to marshal such large followings and to appeal to such a broad spectrum of society. The case of Alice Lakwena is fascinating and informative not because of its novelty but because of its mixture of old and new forms, its continuities with die past and widi wider social processes, and its responses to new social traumas.

scholarly journals The centrality of the trinity. Exploring the significance for christians, catechists and deacons

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-15
Author(s):  
Daniel Goodey
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
The Core ◽  
The People ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Trinity

‘The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life ... the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them.’ This passage from the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) (234) on the profession of faith identifies the core principles and underlying recognition of Catholics regarding belief in a triune God – one God existent in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In addressing the people of Ephesus, St. Ignatius of Antioch (also known as Theophorus) said, faithful Christians were ‘being stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God.’ (Ignatius of Antioch, 2014, loc. 4027.) St. Ignatius goes on to say, ‘the Holy Spirit does not speak His own things, but those of Christ, and that not from himself, but from the Lord’. The point St. Ignatius was making is that the three Persons of the triune God are integrally connected, and it is through the grace of the three-in-One that salvation is gained. Hence, the Trinity is the core of the Christian faith, but from the very beginning the faithful relied on metaphor to explain and help others understand how Three could be One

scholarly journals Adskillelse og vekselvirkning. Om Grundtvigs syn på folkelighed og kristendom

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-83
Author(s):  
Theodor Jørgensen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Sharp Distinction ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Perspective ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Life Philosophy ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship

Separateness and InteractionGrundtvig’s Ideas on the Character of the People and ChristianityBy Professor Theodor Jørgensen, DD, CopenhagenSeparateness and interaction are central concepts in Grundtvig’s definition of the relationship between the character of the people and Christianity. He makes a sharp distinction between the two to ensure that the relationship between them remains a free one. It is important for Christianity, which does not want to rule but to serve the people. But this sharp distinction does not mean that Grundtvig understands the character of the people as a purely secular quantity. He sees it as spiritual, where spiritual contains the human spirit, the spirit of truth and the Holy Spirit. Regarded in this light the character of the people constitutes the prerequisite for Christianity, because it contains, albeit in broken form, the God-created humanity that is reborn in Christianity. At the deepest level the life-source in the character of the people and in Christianity is the same, i.e. God; or rather, God the Holy Spirit. And the interaction between them is God’s meeting with Himself in His creation. It is important to insist that the interaction works both ways, a fact often forgotten through a one-sided interpretation of Grundtvig’s basic principle: First a Man, then a Christian. The character of every people adds to Christianity a new faceting of its content through the gospel being preached in the native language and becoming concrete in its natural imagery. In return, Christianity adds to the character of every people the living hope in Christ, making it through Him a reborn character. Grundtvig’s view of the relationship between the two corresponds to the relationship nowadays between life-philosophy and faith. Faith receives a concretion from lifephilosophy. On the other hand there are fundamental human values, originally existing free of Christianity, which today are best defended by faith. Here faith acquires a political perspective.

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