Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar
| Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Theology | Reformed |
| Governance | Presbyterian |
| Moderator | Lala Rasendrahasina |
| Associations | World Communion of Reformed Churches, World Council of Churches |
| Origin | 1968 Madagascar |
| Branched from | London Missionary Society |
| Congregations | 5,800 |
| Members | 3,5 million |
The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (Malagasy: Fiangonan'i Jesoa Kristy eto Madagasikara) (FJKM) is the second-largest Christian denomination in Madagascar. The FJKM is the national church of Madagascar, but it is not the established church of the state.
Founded in 1968 as a Reformed Protestant denomination by the union of 3 churches arose from the work of the London Missionary Society, the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society and the Friends Foreign Missionary Association,this would make it a UNION church, not a reformed church. The Society of Friends would hardly be considered "reformed" and the Longdon Missionary Society was officially non-denominational, but most involved were Congregationalists. the FJKM today has 3.5 million adherents in approximately 5,800 congregations and 56 Synods nationwide and runs 552 schools.
The fact that former Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana is a member of the church and concurrently served as an elected lay vice-president of the church during his presidential term has led to concerns of church and state interests being "not kept entirely separate" in Madagascar.
In 2002, a schism in the church occurred, and the New Protestant Church in Madagascar was formed with 300,000 former members of the FJKM.
Following the 2009 Malagasy protests, the leader of the FJKM, Pastor Lala Rasendrahasina, was taken into custody by army soldiers along with five generals who were selected by Ravalomanana as members of a proposed military directorate that would have run the executive branch after his resignation but instead had transferred power over to the opposition leader, Andry Rajoelina, (a Roman Catholic); Rasendrahasina, a cousin of Ravalomanana's wife and supporter of Ravalomanana, was seen as being too close to the former president.
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