Dutch readmitted to South African council

JOHANNESBURG, S. Africa — South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church, once ostracized for its theological justification of apartheid and white-majority rule, has rejoined the South African Council of Churches (SACC).

The move, announced in July during the ecumenical organization’s triennial meeting in Johannesburg, ended more than 40 years of antagonism between the denomination and South Africa’s most prominent ecumenical agency and was hailed by South African media and church leaders as something of a milestone in the country’s ongoing process of reconciliation.

In announcing the move, Russel Botman, the SACC’s president, said it was time for the Dutch Reformed Church to rejoin the council as part of national reconciliation efforts. Joseph Mdhlela, a SACC spokesman, said it was time to readmit the church after it had “openly distanced itself from apartheid and categorically confessed that all apartheid policies were heresy,” Ecumenical News International reported.

Willie Botha, a spokesman for the Dutch Reformed Church, told the SACC that the 3-million-member denomination — having apologized for its past — had been “humbled” by its reception in re-entering the council. The church had applied for full membership in 2001 and has been granted “observer” status since then.