Prophetic Churches

The Spirituality of African
Prophetic Churches
Michael Walter Knoch
Ecumenical Group Church and Society, was born in Chemnitz
(Germany) in 1941. He
became a Doctor in
Protestant Theology at
Portugal
Humboldt-University of
Berlin in 1969, graduated
in Psychology at the
Classic University of
Michael Knoch
Lisbon in 1988 and has
taught Protestant Theology
and Social Services in
Portugal since 1981. For
many years he has had
For more then 10 years, we have been participating, like a small Christian
contacts and collaboration
solidarity group, in the life of migrant churches and associations in the suburbs
with Africans and African
Churches in Lisbon
of Lisbon, which are constituted by migrants especially from Angola and Congo.
and has participated in
In the beginning, these contacts, visits and dialogues gave me very strong
interreligious dialogue
and in CCME. He can be
emotional impressions, deeply touching my European background of living faith
contacted by email at
as an inner speech with God or as a theological-critical study or a socio-political
mkn@sapo.pt.
engagement.
In a migrant church
To be church together with African people works in a profound way. In a service and also
in the houses of the families, you will be integrated with many people, joining together as
relations – God’s family. The service proceeds for 3 to 4 hours with a living but strongly
organized liturgy. The services have singing and music, often loud, with corporal movement
and dancing, used, for example, when collecting the offering at the end of the service. There
are bible-lectures, which include testimonies about the foundation and the beginning of the
Church (like in the Gospel), speeches from various people including guests, and only a short
sermon. In an African service, many people with different functions speak; sometimes you
find competitions between singers, choirs or lecturers of poetry. This is solemn in order to
express holiness. The participants come in their best clothes, and prefer traditional African
or specific church costumes. Participants are intentionally immersed in a strong emotional
rhythm, which at rare times can reach to ecstatic phenomena.
12 MOZAIK
2008
spring

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The participants
We all know the social background of the African migrants. The majority of
the women stay home with their children or work in households, and the men
come in their
work in civil construction. Without the labour of African migrants, Portugal
would not be able to continue growing economically. Other migrants work as
best clothes, and
pastors; the communities always have various pastors which are elected and
deposed by an inner circle. The churches function by a clear hierarchic order, but
prefer traditional
the functions can be retired much more easily than in European Churches.
In our community in the suburbs of Lisbon, we live together with two African
African or specific
churches. These are not missionary churches, but are purely African and I
would like to give them the name “Prophetic Churches”, because they were born
church costumes.
or founded by a prophetic person without white missionaries. These are the
Kimbanguist Church founded in N’kamba Congo by Simon Kimbango in 1921
Participants are
and the Tocoist Church founded in Luanda/Angola by Simão Toco in 1949.
intentionally
Kimbanguist church
immersed in a
Their history is comparable. Simon Kimbango, an evangelist, began
to heal and preach in N’Kamba (200 km from Kinshasa), and after six
strong emotional
months he was put in jail by Belgian colonialist authorities, condemned
by the missionary churches, and banned in the South of Congo 1500 km
rhythm, which
away. But the development of the new Church did not stop and about
one million people were martyred (the number is not clear). In our
at rare times can
theological conversations, the Kimbanguist national pastor explained to
me that God sent Simon Kimbango to demonstrate that “the African does not
reach to ecstatic
stand under the level of the dog!” And I could only agree with this theological
affirmation, which was equally a strong political affirmation of denied human
phenomena
rights. We ask: what was the dominant culture and social structure that made
such a sharp affirmation necessary? To understand, go to the African Museum
in Tervuren (Brussels) to see these sentiments of supremacy and the reality of
repression, exploration and death in the time of white colonialism.
The religious form of the social protest was only possible through the lived reality of the Spirit
of God. The spirit, poured about Simon Kimbango, is the heart of the Kimbanguism. You can
touch him when you go to the Holy Place N’Kamba, but also in every service. The official name
of the church is “Church of Jesus Christ about the earth through his special messenger Simon
Kimbango.” The person of the Founder is fundamental for all, reflecting in the liturgical year
and in the legitimation of the actual chief, Simon’s grandson. This is also visible in the tentative
divinisation of Simon Kimbango, which creates a strong dogmatic problem for the ecumenical
movement in which the Kimbango Church is an important member.
Is Simon Kimbango a divine person like the Holy Spirit? Is he equal to the Holy Spirit? Is he a
bearer of the Holy Spirit? These questions are not resolved at the moment and it seems to me that an
intensive dialogue will be necessary, especially as the vision of the world is much more “archaic” or
spiritual like the modern western culture. In the healing stories in the Gospel of Mark or the ecstatic
phenomena in the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, sometimes I feel I touch a vision
of the cosmos, touching the deep repression and humiliation of the Africans in the colonial time.
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I n
European countries, they maintain fidelity to their founder
Congo
and celebrate the Pentecost event from 1949. This year, they
and Angola, the
celebrated the Pentecost with 250 participants, including
centuries filled with the
guests of Angola and 5 white people (only!) in a space
ambience of war, hunger and
given by the local State authorities. On the other hand,
illness provoke the daily presence of
this church always searches to be more of a community and
death, giving rise to an apocalyptic vision to
church together, sharing an evangelical understanding of the
end the unbearable injustice and soliciting the desire
Gospel and of Jesus Christ as the unique Salvador. This is a
that the Spirit and Salvador will come. This is comparable to
complex process, because it takes on questions of modernity.
the social situation of poorness, illness, hunger and slavery in
Questions arise about having confidence in scientific medicine
the first century.
or about the absolute power of God in health problems, or in
On the other hand, there are churches in Europe like the
workplaces and with needed qualifications. How should one
Lutheran or Calvinist Church which also began with deep
speak about social problems or initiatives? How should the
liaisons. We know how Martin Luther has refused to attribute
New Testament be read and what is its relationship to the
his name to a church, and no Lutheran makes a divinisation
Old Testament?
of his person. But the human expression of fidelity to the
“founder” depends also on cultural patterns, which can be
very different in Africa. Is not fidelity an inherent element of
Dialogue and the Spirit
faith? Is it not essential that people claim affiliation to the
My question in this article is a question of recognition of
Church as they do to workers’ institutions?
the role of the Spirit in the Pentecost events, which are the
fundament of these two churches and probably also others.
Tocoist church
Prophets arise in Africa and the Middle East much more
directly than in the spiritual broken and sceptic Europe.
The Tocoist church has a more or less parallel history.
And in situations of socio-politic crises, the Pentecost always
Her foundation occurred at the end of July of 1949. Three
expresses a cry for life and social dignity!
years before, at a missionary conference in Kinshasa, the
In the Gospel of John, it is written that “the Spirit
(white) missionaries preached for a floating of the Holy
(pneuma) blows, where he will; you hear the sound of it,
Spirit (following Romans 5, 5) about all of Africa. For
but you do not know, where he comes from, or where he is
three years, a group of women and men around Simon
going. So with everyone who is born from Spirit” (John 3,
Toco asked God and spoke with others about the desire
8). This verse must remind us about the strong significance
that the Holy Spirit would arrive for Africa in a true Pentecost
of the Spirit when the Christian Church arose—no through
event. The Spirit came down in such a strong manner that
a dogma, but through the history of a living person, also a
it began a religious movement. It arrived in Luanda, capital
martyr, and also full of Spirit, Jesus Christ. For the Gospel
of the Portuguese colony of Angola. It seems to me that this
of John, the Pentecost related in the biblical book of Acts
immediately became a political struggle and was viewed as a
can not be a unique event like foundation of the (unique?)
danger to Catholicism, which like the European culture was
Catholic Church, but will be repeated, in Africa and in the
always a source of colonial spiritual support. So Simon Toco
entire world. The German theologian Ebeling has written
was sent to prison and deported for years by the PIDE (the
in his dogmatics, faith and the Church will die without
Salazarist polical police) to the islands of Açores, where he
enthusiasm. The Prophetic Churches have implicated us in
stayed together with a communist friend of ours.
such a spiritual movement and their enthusiasm will be good
This church is not a member of the WCC, but has taken
for us. We have a long way of intercultural dialogue ahead,
an interest in ecumenism anyway. In Portugal and in other
in the context of being Christian Church together.
14 MOZAIK
2008
spring
Perspectives on Migration – Michael Knoch: The Spirituality of African Prophetic Churches

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