Nazareth Baptist Church

The Nazareth Baptist Church (Alternatively called "The Nazarite Church" "iBandla lamaNazaretha") is an African Initiated Church founded by Isaiah Shembe in 1910.

It has approximately 4 million members. It reveres Shembe as a prophet sent by God to restore the teachings of Moses, the prophets, and Jesus. Members are Sabbath observers, do not eat pork, smoking and premarital sex are forbidden.

It was divided into two groups after the 1976 death of Johannes Galilee Shembe. The larger group was led by Bishop Amos Shembe until his death in 1995, while Rev. Londa Shembe led the smaller group.

As of 2009 it was divided into three factions in KwaZulu-Natal and one in Gauteng.

The religion uses endangered leopard skins as part of their ceremonies, which some activists are trying to stop or replace with synthetic leopard skin.

On the 18th of October 2016, the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban declared Vela Shemba the legitimate leader of the Nazareth Baptist Church after a protracted court battle which had dragged on since 2011. Despite this, the previous leader's son Mduduzi Shembe, who lives in the large village of Ebuhleni, remains the defacto head of the church and most church members have ignored the ruling.

The Shembe begin each year with a Holy pilgrimage to iNhlangakazi but a large number(approaximately 4million followers) of AmaNazaretha no longer goes to Inhlangakazi due to court interdicts so iNkosi uNyazi LweZulu avoided court battles and founded Mount Khenana which is at Ozwathini, on the first Sunday of the New Year. It is said that Isaiah Shembe was drawn to the area where the Holy Spirit told him to start the Church.

They also hold a month-long celebration in Judea near Eshowe every year in October, where members gather to receive the blessings of Shembe.

In early 2010 the Nazareth Baptist Church claimed that the vuvuzela horn, used by fans attending football matches in South Africa, actually belongs to their church. They threatened to pursue legal action to stop supporters from playing the vuvuzela at the South African World Cup, but no legal proceedings were initiated.

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Wikipedia