The Zion Christian Church

The largest church in southern Africa: a church of the star badge and the green uniform, begun by Engenas Lekganyane in the 1920s out of the Zionist and Pentecostal missions, gathered each year at its own Zion City, Moria, and led by a bishop of the Lekganyane family.

Zion Christian Church, written submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, signed by the Rt Rev. Bishop B. E. Lekganyane, Leader of the Zion Christian Church (University of Cape Town Humanities, for the East London hearing of 19 November 1999)

Zion Christian Church, testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, East London, 19 November 1999: transcript of the answers of the church's spokesman, the Rev. Emmanuel Motolla of the bishop's council (University of Cape Town Humanities)

Arjan de Visser, "Beliefs about Christ in South Africa's largest indigenous church," paper for the Evangelical Missiological Society regional meeting, Toronto, 31 March 2017 (de Visser is Professor of Ministry and Mission at Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary and lived as a missionary in Soshanguve, South Africa, from 1989 to 2004; he quotes The ZCC Messenger by issue and page)

Johanneke Kroesbergen-Kamps, "Zion Christian Church," World Religions and Spirituality Project (23 May 2019; a summary of the studies of Wouters 2014 and Moripe 1996, the latter a thesis by a member of the church)

Government Communication and Information System of South Africa, South Africa Yearbook 2009/10, "Land and its people" (table of individuals by church, from Statistics South Africa, Census 2001)

Barry Morton, "The story of the enigmatic man who founded southern Africa's largest church," The Conversation (30 January 2019; Morton is a historian at Indiana University and author of Engenas Lekganyane and the Early ZCC)

Barry Morton, "How a forgotten poll in a South African church 70 years ago affected millions," The Conversation (4 June 2019)

Nelson Mandela, speech at the Zionist Christian Church Easter Conference, Moria, 20 April 1992 (South African History Online)

"The ZCC is above politics," Daily Dispatch, 12 April 2016 (a statement issued by the church)

"Still no annual Easter pilgrimage to Moria, says ZCC," News24, 4 April 2023

"Millions of ZCC faithful heading to Moria as church resumes its annual conference," TimesLive, 22 August 2024

The church grew out of the Zionist and Pentecostal missions that reached South Africa in the first years of the twentieth century. Engenas Lekganyane passed through three of them before he began his own. The church counts its years from his call in 1910. The record of the first decades is thin, because the church has kept its papers to itself, and the dates below say where the sources differ.

Zion comes to South Africa

Missionaries from John Alexander Dowie's Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, Illinois, baptize more than 140 people, most of them black, at Wakkerstroom. The Zionist churches of southern Africa, the ZCC among them, take the name and much of their practice from this stream: baptism by threefold immersion, divine healing, and a city called Zion. Arjan de Visser notes that the name "has nothing to do with Zionism but rather reflects a connection to Zion City, Illinois."

The call

The church dates its founding to 1910. Its written submission of 1999 says the church "was born after the Anglo Boer War just before union in 1910." Kroesbergen-Kamps, drawing on a study by a member of the church (Moripe 1996), tells that in that year Engenas Lekganyane heard a voice in a dream telling him to find a church that heals and baptizes in the river. The church's Family Bible (1995), as de Visser quotes it, reads: "In 1910, the founder of ZCC had a vision and calling."

Through the Zionist missions

Lekganyane is baptized by threefold immersion in a river, in 1911 or 1912, in the Zionist branch of the Apostolic Faith Mission. When that congregation leaves the mission in 1916 to become the Zion Apostolic Church, he follows and receives his preaching credentials. In 1920 he joins Edward Motaung's Zion Apostolic Faith Mission and becomes its bishop for the northern provinces. Barry Morton dates part of this differently and puts his time in the Apostolic Faith Mission from 1910 to 1916.

Lekganyane founds the church

After tensions with the Zion Apostolic Faith Mission leadership, Lekganyane founds the Zion Christian Church in late 1924 or early 1925. Historians use these years; the church's own count runs from 1910, and de Visser notes that portraits of Bishop Edward still hang in members' homes with the words "Founded in 1924 by Rev. E.B. Lekganyane." In 1925 he applies for state recognition, claiming 925 members in fifteen congregations, and is refused (Kroesbergen-Kamps, drawing on Anderson 1999 and Wouters 2014). Morton gives 926 followers within ten years.

Zion City Moria

Lekganyane buys a farm at Boyne, about fifty kilometers east of Polokwane, and names it Moria. It becomes the headquarters of the church and the place of its yearly gatherings. The church reaches 27,487 members this year, Kroesbergen-Kamps reports, from 926 in 1926.

Two churches

Engenas Lekganyane dies and leaves no named successor. Barry Morton, working from the press of the time, dates the death to 31 May 1948 (Kroesbergen-Kamps gives 1 June). The eldest son, Barnabas, dies in January 1949. On 1 June 1949, 12,349 members come to Zion City to vote, and Edward is installed as bishop; the result is published in the Bantu Mirror. His brother Joseph rejects the vote, saying his father left a will in his favor, and on 15 September 1949 founds the St Engenas Zion Christian Church, with a dove for its badge, on his part of Moria. The two bodies are separate churches today. The church's submission to the Truth Commission puts its size at about 120,000 at the founder's death; Morton puts it at about 50,000.

Barnabas

Edward Lekganyane dies on 21 October 1967. His son Barnabas Ramarumo, thirteen years old, is named leader, and a superintendent runs the church's business. Barnabas takes full leadership in 1975, when he is twenty-one.

Government guests at Moria

Edward invited the government to the Easter gathering in 1960, and in 1965 a minister attended. In 1980 Minister Piet Koornhof came. Kroesbergen-Kamps reports that violent protests against the church followed in the Johannesburg townships, that Barnabas Lekganyane publicly distanced himself from apartheid in 1981, and that for the church's seventy-fifth anniversary in 1985 President P. W. Botha was invited, with attacks on members in Soweto after it. These dates come from one secondary source.

Mandela at Moria

Nelson Mandela, then president of the African National Congress, addresses the Easter conference, with President de Klerk and Chief Buthelezi among those he greets. He tells the church that when "Bishop Engenas Lekganyane founded this church in 1910, that occasion represented an important act of the oppressed to resist the theology of submission."

Before the Truth Commission

The church gives written and spoken testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Its spokesman says, "the Zion Christian Church did not lead people into a mode of resistance against apartheid," and the church also says it taught its people to follow the path of justice. The testimony is the fullest statement of the church in its own voice that could be found.

"Above politics"

In a statement reported in April 2016 the church writes: "We would like to reiterate our long-standing and inelastic policy that THE ZCC IS ABOVE POLITICS." It tells its members to refrain from aligning the church with any political view.

The gatherings stop and start again

The church closes during the national lockdown in March 2020. In April 2023 its spokesman says there will again be no annual Easter pilgrimage at the main branch. In August 2024 TimesLive reports that the church will "gradually resume its annual conferences" and that it reopened that year to branches by invitation only. A report that the Easter pilgrimage returned in 2025 was not confirmed.

Engenas Lekganyane

The founder: a Pedi evangelist and healer, educated by Lutheran and Presbyterian or Anglican missionaries (Morton and Kroesbergen-Kamps differ on which), who passed through the Apostolic Faith Mission and two Zionist bodies before founding his own church. He is remembered in the church for healing, prophecy and rain-making. He left no writings. Morton says his life story "has been extremely difficult to track down" and that the church "has always been secretive."

Edward Lekganyane

The founder's son, who became bishop by the members' vote of 1949 and, in Kroesbergen-Kamps's account, chose the star as the church's symbol. In the church's own account he built a primary school at Moria in 1959 that was open to the whole community, and founded a bus company in 1969. Kroesbergen-Kamps, following Anderson, describes him as a more administrative bishop than his father, who completed the church at Moria in 1962 and studied at a Dutch Reformed college for evangelists from 1963 to 1966.

Barnabas Ramarumo Lekganyane

The founder's grandson, born in 1955. He signed the church's submission to the Truth Commission in 1999 as its leader, and he calls himself the spiritual leader of the church. Kroesbergen-Kamps calls him a secretive leader who rarely speaks to journalists or researchers.

Joseph Lekganyane

The founder's younger son, who stayed beside his father at Moria, rejected the vote of 1949 and founded the St Engenas Zion Christian Church, which he led until 1972 (Morton). His church is a separate body, with a dove for its badge, and is not described on this chart.

Where the dates differ. Founding: 1910 (the church), 1915 (Morton, who says Lekganyane began his own church with fourteen members), 1924 or 1925 (Kroesbergen-Kamps, Morton, and de Visser). The badge: Kroesbergen-Kamps writes both that Engenas introduced it in 1928 and that Edward chose the star after 1948, and does not resolve the two. The Zion Apostolic Faith Mission under Edward Motaung appears here only as the body Lekganyane left; Kroesbergen-Kamps reports grave charges against Motaung and writes that it is not known what Lekganyane thought of them.

What the church says of itself. The 1999 submission says Engenas "realized that unless Christianity was interpreted in a context suitable to the African lifestyle" Africans would find themselves alienated from their roots. It sets the church's beginning against the missionaries' attempt to erode African value systems. Mandela's words of 1992 say the same from outside.

The St Engenas church. The two churches share the founder, the Moria farm (about two kilometers apart), the prohibitions and much of the theology, and differ in their badge, their leader's line and their pilgrimages (Morton). Sources that speak of "the ZCC" sometimes mean one and sometimes the other. This chart uses only sources that identify the star church, or that name the bishop of the Lekganyane line at Moria.

The church has no confession or catechism in use that an outsider can read. Its spokesman says it passes on African values by word of mouth, from its elders, blended with the teaching of Christ.

The Zion Christian Church has published no statement of belief that was found. Arjan de Visser, who gathered 36 issues of its magazine, writes that "it is hard to find official statements" and that he knows of no confession in which it sets out its beliefs in order. A Sepedi translation of Luther's Small Catechism, with additions about forbidden foods and drinks, was once printed, but it appears no longer to function in the church's beliefs. The church does use the Bible: it has a Family Bible of its own (1995), its services include Bible reading, and its rules are, in de Visser's words, based as far as possible on biblical commands, often from the Old Testament. Kroesbergen-Kamps, summarizing a study by a member of the church, writes that the church's constitution gives the bishop authority over every office-bearer and that his interpretation of the constitution is final. Before the Truth Commission the church's spokesman described the way the church is taught in his own words.

we are a church that basically relies on the passing of traditional African values by way of mouth, because we don't have books.

We take it from the grey heads you see in this hall today. They tell us which way to go, most of the time. We blend that with the teaching of Christ.

What a scholar adds. Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that the church's leaders "deliver their views in sermons rather than in books," and that doctrines are not a very important part of the church for its members, who come for healing, blessing and protection. That is her reading, not the church's. De Visser's rule of method is the same: the teaching must be "gleaned" from the bishop's sermons and the articles in the Messenger, a magazine "not for sale" and "not made available to outsiders." He calls it "the ZCC's official magazine." Most of what follows is taken from it through him. The bishop's sermons in it speak for the church. The articles by members and ministers are printed by the church but are their writers' words, and each is cited by its writer's name.

The bishop and the magazine say Christ died for our sins. Baptism is of adults, by threefold immersion, after confession of sins; a scholar describes it as a cleansing and healing rite.

The church's printed voice affirms the cross. In his Easter sermon of 2009 the bishop said that "Peace and Justice were brought to us by the coming of the Messiah when He died for our sins on the cross." A Messenger article on Christmas calls Jesus "the Son of God, who sacrificed Himself on the cross in order to save us from the evils of the devil." On baptism the church has said nothing that could be found. Kroesbergen-Kamps, drawing on Wouters, describes it: the most important sacrament, for adults only (from about eighteen), after instruction by older members and an interview with elders; the candidate confesses sins and is immersed by a minister three times, preferably in a flowing river. After baptism a member may wear the uniform and the badge. She writes that baptism is "seen as a cleansing and healing ritual" and that complete health is attainable only after it. De Visser agrees that baptism is of adults and typically in a river. He reads the church's wider teaching as concerned more with healing and protection from evil than with forgiveness, and with how a person comes to be reconciled to God as only a lesser theme; that is his reading, not the church's statement.

Peace and Justice were brought to us by the coming of the Messiah when He died for our sins on the cross.

It felt appropriate for me to pay tribute to the Son of God, who sacrificed Himself on the cross in order to save us from the evils of the devil.

What the sources do not give. No statement by the church on what baptism is for was found, and the description of it as a cleansing and healing rite is Kroesbergen-Kamps's summary of Wouters's study, not a quotation of the church. Her account, and the lineage chart's, agree that the baptism is of believing adults by immersion. Whether the church teaches that baptism is "unto the remission of your sins" is not shown by anything found.

Two readings of the same magazine. Arjan de Visser concludes that, although Jesus Christ "is formally recognized as Messiah and Son of God," in practice He is "an idle Messiah" for the members' faith, and gives as his reason the influence of the traditional African worldview. Allan Anderson, whom de Visser opposes, reports that in the church's services "Jesus Christ was given pre-eminence as the universal Lord, both in singing and dancing." Both are scholars' judgments, and the church has answered neither in anything found.

No statement by the church on the Supper was found. Scholars report that it is largely ignored, and that communion is given only by the bishop at the great gatherings at Moria.

The church has said nothing about the Lord's Supper that could be found. The scholars give two accounts. Arjan de Visser writes, "The Lord's Supper is largely ignored," and suggests that one reason may be the church's ban on alcohol. Kroesbergen-Kamps, summarizing the study of the church's constitution by Moripe, writes that the constitution lists the administering of communion among a minister's duties, but that in practice it is the bishop's prerogative, and that communion is administered only by the bishop at the two annual conferences at Moria. These accounts are not the same, and neither is the church's own word. What the elements are, and who may receive them, was not found.

Communion is only administered by the bishop at the two annual conferences in Moria.

The Lord's Supper is largely ignored.

Where the sources differ. The number of yearly gatherings at Moria is two in the South Africa Yearbook and in Kroesbergen-Kamps (Easter and the September festival), and three in de Visser (Christmas, Easter and September). If communion is given only at the great gatherings, the weekly services in the congregations have none.

One bishop of the Lekganyane family has final authority in church matters. Under him are an executive council, district councils, ministers chosen by their congregations, evangelists, deacons and prophets.

Kroesbergen-Kamps, summarizing Wouters and Moripe, describes the structure. The bishop is the paramount leader. According to the constitution he has authority over all office-bearers and settles all questions of law, and his interpretation of the constitution is final. He is assisted by a general secretary, an inner council made up mostly of family members (which chooses a new bishop when one dies), and an executive council of senior ministers. In every case so far the office has gone to the eldest surviving son of the previous bishop's first wife. A congregation should have at least 25 members and an ordained minister, who is chosen by the congregation; there are also evangelists, lay preachers and deacons, and a local church council elected by the congregation. Women preach at the Wednesday services but do not stand on the Sunday platform. Prophets hold no office but may speak with more authority than those who do. The bishop calls himself the spiritual leader of the church.

The scholars disagree about how high the bishop stands. Allan Anderson, as de Visser reports him, judges that in official ZCC literature the bishop "is not given messianic titles or divine status." Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that the bishop's role is to mediate between God and his people, and that the Lekganyanes "have always rejected any messianic or divine claims about their leadership." Arjan de Visser, reading 36 issues of the Messenger, found members writing that the bishop is the Mediator and the present-day Messiah. The church's own words on this are the bishop's description of himself and the magazine's articles.

I, as the spiritual leader of this church, endorsed the ZCC's craving and thirst for peace to prevail in the Republic of South Africa.

I publicly proclaim that the Right Reverend Bishop of the mighty Zion Christian Church is the Mediator between the people and God. He is the way to God.

We take it from the grey heads you see in this hall today. They tell us which way to go, most of the time.

The evidence on both sides of the bishop's standing. For a messianic standing: De Visser quotes a Messenger article (no. 67, Easter 2007) by Lebogang J. Mathopa, "the very same Messiah we read about in the Bible operates within the man," and asking how one can tell "Bishop Engenas, Bishop Edward, and Bishop Ramarumo from the Messiah himself"; an article by A. Rammutla (no. 34, Easter 1996) naming the bishop the Counselor whom Jesus has sent; and an article by Jabulani Calvin Makhubele that calls him "the atoning sacrifice for our sins," which de Visser himself reads as probably not meant literally. Against: Anderson's report that Jesus is given pre-eminence in the services; the bishop's own description of himself as the "spiritual leader" and, in de Visser's words, a "servant of Christ"; de Visser's own remark that the bishop "seems careful not to exalt himself too much"; and Kroesbergen-Kamps's statement that the Lekganyanes reject such claims. De Visser also notes that some of the titles may be African praise-language for a leader. He concludes that the bishop "does indeed have messianic status in the faith life of his followers." Neither the bishop nor the church's council was found answering the magazine articles.

Discipline. Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that committees called kgoro handle disputes at every level, that a member who breaks the rules may be warned or fined, and that fines are paid to the bishop, who decides how to use them.

Sunday-afternoon worship in the open air with choirs, dancing, a sprinkling with water, preaching and prayer. A magazine article says members also pray in the names of the three bishops.

The scholars describe a worship that is sung and danced. Choirs perform before and during the service, and the people dance in a circle to call down the presence of the Holy Spirit (Kroesbergen-Kamps). De Visser writes: "A beautiful aspect of ZCC worship is the singing." At Moria the bishop leads a procession behind his own brass band (Kroesbergen-Kamps). Worshippers are sprinkled with water before they enter the grounds, and the water is said to cleanse them from pollution and to show any sickness. The preaching is often built on testimonies of healing. The bishop describes the purpose of the Easter gathering as worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. On prayer, the Messenger prints an article by L. J. Mathopa that says members pray in the names of the three bishops as well as in the names of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Mathopa states that this is prayer to God and not to the bishops. De Visser adds that the bishop's name is used in his followers' prayers.

I am hopeful that we have come here to worship the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

However, in addition to these three names, we also pray in the name of Engenas, Edward, and Barnabas. We do not pray to Engenas, Edward and/or Barnabas, but we pray to the Almighty God in the names of these three leaders!

Customs a scholar describes. Kroesbergen-Kamps lists a uniform of dark bottle green for men and a green skirt with a yellow blouse for women, with braiding and stripes that show a man's office. The mokhuku, the men's choir dancers, wear khaki and large white boots and dance, in her words, by "jumping and stamping on the ground," which is believed to "stamp evil underfoot." Whether instruments other than the Moria brass band are used in the weekly services was not found.

The pilgrimage as worship. The bishop likened the buses, cars and tents at Moria to the closely built houses of Jerusalem in Psalm 122 in a sermon at the 2009 Easter gathering, and members, de Visser reports, think of Moria as comparable to Jerusalem of old.

The church holds that the Holy Spirit works through ministers and prophets in healing and in revelation. The magazine has called the bishop the Counselor of John 14.

The church's ministers, de Visser reports, are believed to use the power of the Holy Spirit to heal, and its prophets to receive revelations about illness and healing. Members who are ill go to a minister, are prayed for, and are given instructions: they must, in de Visser's words, "carry out these instructions exactly as they have been told." The instruction may be holy water, to be sprinkled, drunk or used for washing, or tea, coffee, or another preparation. Kroesbergen-Kamps adds that the water becomes blessed through the prayer of a minister or of the bishop, that blessed objects such as strips of cloth and strings are also used, and that the bishop is said to have the strongest powers of healing. During services, she writes, the prophets, led by the Holy Spirit, go among the people and single out members. De Visser writes that the prophets are believed to receive their revelations from the Holy Spirit and/or the ancestor spirits, that the church's magazine is often critical of the veneration of ancestors, and that it is found at the grass roots. The magazine also prints an article that names the bishop as the Counselor Jesus promised.

this is what the ministry of the ZCC is all about.

Behold, the Jesus whom we are waiting for, has sent the Counsellor to the church of Zion: His Grace the Right Rev. B.E. Lekganyane, whom the world will not have recognized nor received at the time that Jesus comes to judge the world.

Healing as the center. Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that members join the church for healing, blessing and protection from evil, and that miracles and healings, more than sermons, win members. Her account of the prophets, following Anderson, is that they are called through dreams and illness, trained in dream interpretation, and that sin is believed to withdraw the Spirit's protection so that confession is needed for healing. She also writes that members are hesitant about biomedicine, although it does not seem to be forbidden. These are scholars' descriptions, not the church's.

Tongues and the gifts. No statement by the church was found on speaking in tongues, or on whether the miraculous gifts of the apostles continue. The healing and prophecy described above are the church's practice.

No statement by the church on the last things was found. The magazine speaks of Jesus coming to judge the world; scholars say the church's attention is on this life.

The church has said nothing on judgment, the resurrection or the end that could be found beyond one sentence. A Messenger article speaks of "the Jesus whom we are waiting for" and of the time "that Jesus comes to judge the world." Its written submission to the Truth Commission ends with Psalm 133 in Sepedi and a prayer for the nation. Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that the church "is focused on overcoming afflictions in this world, rather than on salvation in the next." Arjan de Visser writes that the themes of forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God and the coming of God's kingdom "are not denied" but do not play an important role in the beliefs of the church and its members. These are the scholars' readings. They are not statements of the church.

Gap. No catechism, sermon or article on heaven, hell, the resurrection or the order of the last events was found. The verdict below says only what the sources reach.

Moria and the pilgrimage

Members travel to Zion City, Moria, at Easter and in September. Scholars differ on whether the journey is required.

Moria, east of Polokwane, is the church's holy city. The South Africa Yearbook says more than a million members gather there twice a year, at Easter and for the September festival, and that members "are not obliged" to make the pilgrimage though they have kept the tradition for more than eighty years. Arjan de Visser writes that members are expected to come three times a year, and that the custom rests on a reading of Deuteronomy 16:16; his three are Christmas, Easter and the September festival. Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that members are expected to come at least once a year, and that the high point is the bishop's welcome of the pilgrims behind his brass band. The bishop likens Moria to Jerusalem. The gatherings were suspended after the Covid-19 outbreak, and in August 2024 the church said they would resume gradually.

More than a million members gather twice a year at Zion City, Moria, east of Polokwane in Limpopo, at Easter and for the September festival.

Three times a year ZCC members are expected to travel to the headquarters of the church at Moria City

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

but ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels,

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

Jesus told the woman at the well that the hour was coming when neither "in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father" (John 4:21-24), so no city on earth is now the place of worship. The church of Christ has already "come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22), which is not a farm east of Polokwane. A yearly journey to receive the blessing of one man at one place is a sacred season and a sacred site of the kind Paul says no one may be judged by, since those were "a shadow of the things to come" (Colossians 2:16-17). Gathering is good and the New Testament commands it. Binding the journey to a place is not what it commands, and where it is expected rather than free, the church has bound what Christ left loose.

The church's testimony to the Truth Commission shows a church that speaks for peace and justice. That is not what is weighed here. The weighing is of the holy city and the pilgrimage, which the church takes from Dowie's Zion City and from the Old Testament pilgrim feasts, and which de Visser reports it bases on Deuteronomy 16:16.

The star badge and the uniform

Members wear a silver star on green cloth every day, and a uniform on Sunday. A scholar reports that the badge is believed to protect the wearer.

The badge is a silver five-pointed star with ZCC on it, pinned to a circle of black cloth on a rectangle of dark green, and worn on the left of the chest every day (Kroesbergen-Kamps). Only baptized members may wear the uniform and badge. Members wear the badge on weekdays and a uniform on Sundays (de Visser). Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that the badge gives members a sense of belonging and that it "is also believed to protect the wearer from all kinds of misfortune," and de Visser reports that the church bases the custom on the command in Numbers to wear tassels. The St Engenas church wears a dove instead.

During the week they wear the church badge: a silver star on a green piece of cloth.

The badge is also believed to protect the wearer from all kinds of misfortune

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men. Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.

A common badge and a common dress are not wrong in themselves, and the belonging they give is a good. The charge is narrower. If the star is believed to shield the wearer, the church has put a protecting power into cloth and metal that the New Testament places only in the Lord. The mark of a Christian there is that he has been "baptized into Christ" and so has "put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27), and no badge adds to that. A rule of dress that members must keep, drawn from the Old Testament's tassels, is a "tradition of men" held fast in place of the commandment of God (Mark 7:7-8) once it binds the conscience.

The word of the scholars is "believed." No statement by the church on what the badge does was found, and the verdict above is conditioned on that belief being what the members hold. A badge that only says whose members they are would not be weighed so.

Healing by blessed water, tea and coffee

Prophets and ministers give instructions for healing, and members are told to carry them out exactly. The water, tea and coffee are blessed by prayer.

Healing is central to the church. Arjan de Visser reports that members who are ill go to a minister, who prays and gives specific instructions that must be carried out exactly: holy water to sprinkle, drink or wash with, or a kind of coffee or tea. A Messenger article by Rev. J. R. L. Rafapa, which de Visser quotes, appeals to Christ's command to heal the sick (Matthew 10:8) and says ministers are called to give these instructions faithfully. Kroesbergen-Kamps adds that water, tea and coffee become blessed through the prayer of a minister or of the bishop, that blessed cloth and other objects are used, and that the bishop is said to have the strongest powers of healing. The prophets, she writes, diagnose the cause of an affliction and prescribe the cure.

Alternatively, members may be told to drink a certain kind of coffee or tea.

The most common method of healing in the ZCC is the sprinkling and consumption of blessed water.

Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

The church deserves credit where it is near the text. James tells the sick to "call for the elders of the church" so that they may "pray over him" (James 5:14-15), and a church that visits its sick and prays is doing what he commands. But the apostle names the means as prayer and oil, said and done openly, and offered with a promise that "the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick" (James 5:15). He names no blessed water, no tea or coffee prescribed by a prophet's revelation, and no obligation to carry out a diagnosis made by a seer. The signs of the apostles "confirmed" the word at the first (Hebrews 2:3-4), and they did not pass to a prophet class. A revelation that a person is bound to obey must be tested, as John says: "prove the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). Where the source of the revelation is named by one observer as the Holy Spirit "and/or the ancestor spirits," that test is not passed.

What is and is not charged. Praying for the sick, and elders praying, are not charged. Giving a sick person a cup of tea has no force of command in either direction. What is weighed is the pattern the scholars describe: a diagnosis by a prophet, a prescription of a blessed object, and a requirement to follow it to the letter. De Visser records one such instruction to himself, and the account of an ancestor spirit's contact. The church's magazine, he notes, is "often critical" of ancestor veneration, and that is to its credit.

The bishop as mediator

The magazine has printed articles that call the bishop the Mediator, the Counselor and the present-day Messiah. Allan Anderson denies the church officially teaches this, and no answer by the church was found.

This is the point on which the scholars most disagree, and the evidence on each side is set out here as they give it. Arjan de Visser, who read 36 issues of the church's magazine, found articles by members that call the bishop "the present-day Messiah," "the Mediator between the people and God," and the Counselor of John 14:16, and that say "the very same Messiah we read about in the Bible operates within the man." He found the bishop himself careful not to exalt himself too much, and he concludes that the bishop has messianic status in the faith life of his followers. Allan Anderson, whom he opposes, wrote in 2000 that in official ZCC literature the bishop is not given messianic titles or divine status, and that Jesus Christ is given pre-eminence in the services. Kroesbergen-Kamps writes that the bishop's role is to mediate between God and the people, and that the Lekganyanes have always rejected any messianic or divine claim. Both Anderson and de Visser observed the church, and the church has not been found answering either.

Besides what I have stated above, there are still some more examples which can be given to prove that the Right Reverend Bishop B.E. Lekganyane is the present-day Messiah.

the very same Messiah we read about in the Bible operates within the man

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.

And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.

The words printed in the church's own magazine, if they are the church's belief, are contrary to the text without remainder. "there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5), and no one comes to the Father "but by me" (John 14:6). Salvation is in Christ alone: "in none other is there salvation" (Acts 4:12). The Counselor is the Spirit of truth, whom the world "cannot receive" because "it beholdeth him not" (John 14:16-17), and that cannot be a man the world sees. This verdict does not rest on settling who is right between Anderson and de Visser. It rests on this: the articles were printed in the magazine, no retraction was found, and the question is one the church can answer in a sentence. A church that wished to put the matter beyond doubt would say that no man is a mediator, and until it does, the weighing of the magazine's words stands.

What would change the verdict. A statement from the bishop or the church council that the articles quoted do not state the church's belief, and that Christ alone is the mediator and the way. If Anderson is right that official literature gives the bishop no messianic titles, this charge falls on the authors of the articles and on those who printed them, not on the church's teaching. If de Visser is right, it falls on the church's faith as it is lived. The sources do not settle which, and the chart does not claim more than they show.

Credit. The bishop's own recorded words describe himself as a "spiritual leader" and a servant, the church's testimony ends in the name of "our Lord Jesus Christ," and the cross is preached. The charge is not that Christ is absent from the church's words.

Rules from the Old Testament: pork, alcohol, tobacco and polygamy

The church forbids pork, alcohol, tobacco and dagga, and many of its rules are drawn from the Old Testament. Polygamy is allowed.

The church's own submission to the Truth Commission says that tobacco, dagga (and now narcotic drugs), liquor and all forms of violence "were and are still prohibited." De Visser adds that the church is a church of many rules, based as far as possible on biblical commands, often from the Old Testament: no pork (which he says the church bases on Deuteronomy 14:8), no alcohol (Leviticus 10:8-11), no mopani worms. He reports that polygamy is allowed, with a reference to Isaiah 4:1, and Kroesbergen-Kamps likewise writes that members are allowed to practice polygamy, which is legal in South Africa, though it is not very common. Kroesbergen-Kamps notes that Dowie's church in Zion forbade the same things.

As such tobacco, dagga (now lately including narcotic drugs), liquor and all forms of violence were and are still prohibited in the ZION CHRISTIAN Church.

It is forbidden to eat pork (Deut 14:8), it is forbidden to drink alcohol (Lev 10:8-11)

And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Perceive ye not, that whatsoever from without goeth into the man, it cannot defile him; because it goeth not into his heart, but into his belly, and goeth out into the draught? This he said, making all meats clean.

forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

Giving up tobacco, drugs, drunkenness and violence is close to the New Testament, and the church is to be credited for it. The charge is against binding what Christ made free. He declared "all meats clean" (Mark 7:18-19), and Paul calls the command "to abstain from meats" a teaching that departs from the faith, since "every creature of God is good" (1 Timothy 4:3-5). A rule that bans pork for the church because Leviticus bans it takes up the law of Moses as a rule for Christians when the New Testament has set it aside. On marriage, Jesus returns to the beginning: God made "male and female," and "the two shall become one flesh" (Matthew 19:4-6), and the bishop in the church is to be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2). A church that allows a man more than one wife departs from what Jesus said, whatever the law of the land allows.

Care in weighing. Total abstinence from alcohol, as a personal choice for the sake of others, is not forbidden by the New Testament, and Paul allows the weak to abstain (Romans 14:21). What is weighed is the church's making it a law of the church on the ground of the Old Testament. On polygamy the report is of two scholars, both secondary, and the wording "allowed" is theirs; the church's own statement was not found.

The greeting of peace

Members begin every greeting by proclaiming peace, and the church preaches peace on earth.

The church's submission says its founder taught his followers to begin their greetings by proclaiming peace to each other, and that this has been the custom since 1910. Sermons, the submission adds, are punctuated by proclaiming peace on earth. Mandela addressed the Easter conference in 1992 with the greeting "Khotsong Masione! Peace unto you!" The Messenger quotes the bishop saying that "Peace and Justice were brought to us by the coming of the Messiah."

From 1910 to date when we greet each other we first proclaim Peace and then proceed with our greetings.

Engenas proclaimed Peace to all people on earth.

And into whatsoever house ye shall enter, first say, Peace be to this house.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

This is a custom close to the Lord's own word. He told the seventy, "into whatsoever house ye shall enter, first say, Peace be to this house" (Luke 10:5), and a church that opens every greeting with peace is doing what He told them. The only caution is that the peace of the New Testament is His. The Lord says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you" (John 14:27), and the greeting is a good thing so long as it points to Him who gives it.

Each of the seven positions is set beside the Scriptures, as the Lord set a plumb line beside Israel's wall (Amos 7:7-8). The church speaks for itself rarely, so on several courses the verdict rests on what its bishop, its spokesman and its magazine said, as scholars report them, and where the church's own words could not be found the text says so. What a scholar describes is weighed as the scholar's description, and no more than the sources show is charged. This is not a verdict on a church of Africa for being African. The church began, as Mandela told it in 1992, as "an important act of the oppressed to resist the theology of submission," and that is to its honor. It is a verdict, by the same line, on every church.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

The church uses the Bible and bases many of its rules on it, which is where a church ought to start. But its spokesman told the Truth Commission that the church relies on the passing of African values by word of mouth, taking its way from its elders and blending it with the teaching of Christ. Scripture does not need to be blended. "Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable… that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). A way of life that the elders set and the people follow beside the Bible is the "tradition of men" held fast in place of the commandment of God (Mark 7:7-8), and the bishop's reading of the constitution is final in the church, as Kroesbergen-Kamps reports it.

The Bereans were praised because they went to the text to see "whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11), and they tested even an apostle's word. The church's reading of Old Testament food laws and pilgrim feasts as binding on Christians is an example of how the elders' way and the text come apart. Where a magazine article is read as the word of a bishop, and the bishop's reading of the constitution is final, there is a second authority in the room, and Paul says that even "an angel from heaven" bringing another gospel is to be refused (Galatians 1:8). That charge turns on the bishop's standing, which the scholars dispute (see the bishop's section).

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

The church baptizes believing adults by immersion, after confession of sins, often in rivers, and on who is baptized and how it stands on the line. Its departure is in what baptism is for. Peter says it is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), a burial and a rising with Christ (Romans 6:3-4), but scholars describe baptism in the church as a cleansing and healing rite, and no teaching that it is for the remission of sins was found. That is the purpose criterion of the lineage chart, which already sets it away from the line, so the course sits where those values put it and is not moved again for the same fact. The church's printed voice says Christ died for our sins, and that is where the weight of its good lies.

What is and is not charged. The description of baptism as a cleansing and healing rite is Kroesbergen-Kamps's summary of Wouters, not the church's own statement, and it is weighed as that. A member's article in the magazine says no one can communicate with God except through the bishop. Against "in none other is there salvation" (Acts 4:12) that is weighed in the bishop's section and in worship, not counted here a second time. If the church says that baptism is for the remission of sins, this course moves to the line. If it says that baptism heals rather than forgives, it moves further off.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh.

The Lord's table is the center of the Christians' assembly on the first day of the week, where the disciples at Troas "were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7). In the sources the Supper is far from that: one scholar reports it as largely ignored, and another that it is given only by the bishop at the two annual gatherings at Moria. That rarity is the lineage chart's frequency value, and it is counted there once. This chart sets the course one step further from the line than the lineage figure for another reason. The figure averages that value with two zeros for the elements and for who may take them, and those zeros record that nothing was found, not that anything was found right. Left out, as the rubric leaves out what it cannot score, they would leave the course where the frequency puts it, and the rule allows one step toward that.

Credit and doubt. The church does gather on the first day of the week for its main service (Kroesbergen-Kamps, de Visser), which is the day of Acts 20:7. No description of the bread and the cup was found. The church's ban on alcohol, de Visser suggests, may be one reason the Supper is little kept, and whether the cup is wine or something else was not found. The site's conviction is that the apostolic example binds: the Supper is the church's meal each first day. Paul ties it to the assembly: "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26). A Supper held twice a year at Moria for the bishop to give does not meet it, and that is true whatever the cup is. That only the bishop gives it is not charged by itself, since who serves the table is not a test the text sets.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge;

Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

Paul and Barnabas "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and Titus was told to "appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5), a plurality of men in each congregation, and Peter forbids them to be lords: "neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3). The church has one bishop over all, whose reading of the constitution is final, with an executive council he appoints and an inner council mostly of his family, and the office has gone to the eldest surviving son each time. A congregation does choose its own minister and elect a local council, and that deserves credit, but the elders who tend a flock under Christ, without any head above them, do not appear.

The furthest course. This course already sits at the furthest point on the wall. The site's rule is that where an office binds doctrine of its own, the course moves a step further, because leaders are to hold to the apostles' word and not add to it. Whether the bishop's word binds doctrine here is disputed: Allan Anderson found no messianic titles for him in official literature, and Arjan de Visser found a member's article in the magazine saying he is "the only person who reveals God's will to human beings." The wall has no further to go, so nothing is added, and the dispute does not change the placement.

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

The worship is full of singing, and the Lord Jesus is named in the bishop's words as the one the people gather to worship. The church adds acts to the assembly that the New Testament does not give, such as the sprinkling with water that is said to cleanse, and the pilgrimage to a holy city. This chart sets the course one step further from the line than the lineage figure, for the prayer, which the lineage values do not yet record; the notes propose that they do, and then this course will match them with no step, so the prayer is counted once. A Messenger article says members pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Spirit and, "in addition to these three names," in the names of Engenas, Edward and Barnabas, and the writer insists this is prayer to God and not to them. The New Testament has one name in which to ask: "whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do" (John 14:13), and "whatsoever ye do… do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Colossians 3:17).

What is not charged. The article's writer says plainly that the prayer is to God, and the chart takes him at his word. It is the added names that are weighed. The article is a member's, printed in what de Visser calls the church's "official magazine," and it describes what "we" do; de Visser adds that the bishop's name "is used in the prayers of his followers." Singing is the New Testament's own praise: "singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). Whether the weekly services use instruments was not found; the brass band at Moria was.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come.

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

The church holds that the Holy Spirit gives its prophets revelations that members must follow, and de Visser writes that the prophets are believed to receive them from the Holy Spirit and/or the ancestor spirits. Jesus promised the apostles that the Spirit "shall guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13), and he did so through them, so a later class of seers who name the cause of an illness and prescribe the cure stands where no office is given. The miraculous signs "confirmed" the word "at the first" (Hebrews 2:3-4), and Paul says "whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away" (1 Corinthians 13:8). The magazine's naming of the bishop as the promised Counselor, if it is the church's belief, takes the title of the Spirit himself, and John writes, "prove the spirits, whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).

What is credited. The church ministers pray for the sick, and its prophets are not an office but gifted members, with no formal structure to confirm them, as Kroesbergen-Kamps writes. The magazine, de Visser notes, is often critical of ancestor veneration. These count for the church, and the verdict is not on that. The verdict is on the claim that such revelations are given today and bind those who receive them. Pentecostal and Zionist alike claim it, and the line is the same for both.

who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation.

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

No teaching of the church on judgment, the resurrection or the end was found, so no verdict can reach what was not read. What one magazine article says is sound: the church is "waiting for" Jesus, who comes "to judge the world," as the angels told the disciples that "this Jesus… shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11). The same sentence, however, makes the bishop the Counselor whom "the world will not have recognized nor received" at the judgment, which puts a man into the scene Scripture gives to Christ. Scholars describe the church as set on overcoming afflictions in this world more than on salvation in the next, and the sources do not show it teaching that "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

Held at the middle. The course is set at the middle on a thin record. It is not set nearer the line, because what could be read joins the return of Christ to the bishop and the scholars find the church's emphasis elsewhere, and it is not set further, because the sources report no false teaching on the end itself. A statement from the church would settle it either way.

The church holds much that Scripture holds. It says that Christ died for our sins on the cross, and that the Lord Jesus is the one the people gather to worship. It baptizes believing adults by immersion, after instruction and confession of sins, and many are baptized in rivers, as the eunuch was. It gathers on the first day of the week. Its members begin their greetings with peace, as the Lord told His disciples to do. It visits the sick and prays for them, and it forbids drunkenness, drugs and violence. It has built a school, a clinic and bursaries for people outside its own membership, and in 1999 it told the Truth Commission that love, peace, acceptance, forgiveness and reconciliation remain pillars of strength for all Christians. It began among people who had been told to stay unheard, and it gave them a church of their own.

The weight of the church's departure lies in one place. Scripture sets one Mediator between God and men, one Head over the church, and elders in every congregation under Him, with the word of the apostles and no tradition beside it. The church of the star has a bishop of one family over all, a way handed down by its elders beside the Bible, prophets whose cures must be followed, and, in its own magazine, articles that give the bishop the titles of Christ and the Spirit.

Scholars disagree on how far the church as a whole holds those articles, and the church has not been found to answer. If it does not hold them, a plain word to that effect would be among the best gifts it could give its members, and Scripture would stand beside it. If it does, the line is Paul's: "though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema" (Galatians 1:8). The way back is the apostles' word, and Christ alone.

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