Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa
| Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Anglican and Reformed |
| Polity | episcopal |
| Associations | World Reformed Fellowship |
| Region | South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi |
| Origin | 1938 |
| Separated from | Anglican Church of Southern Africa (then the Church of the Province of Southern Africa) |
| Congregations | 150 |
| Members | 100,000 |
| Official website | reachsa.org.za |
The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA; known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa, CESA) is Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955. It is an Anglican church (though not a member of the Anglican Communion) and it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine.
The first Church of England service on record in South Africa was conducted by a naval chaplain in 1749. After the British occupation of the Cape in 1806, congregations were formed and churches were built.
In 1847 an Anglo-Catholic bishop was appointed to lead the church. He was determined to enforce Tractarianism on the Church. There were those who preferred to follow the Reformation principles and teachings of the Church of England. Thus, when in 1870 Bishop Gray formed the Church of the Province of SA (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa), these evangelical Anglican clergy remained outside the new body.
The synod of the CESA adopted the church's present[update] constitution in 1938. The draft was prepared by Howard Mowll, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney in Australia. The preamble and declaration of the constitution includes the following statement: "The Church of England in South Africa, as a Reformed and Protestant Church, doth hereby reaffirm its constant witness against all those innovations in doctrine and worship, whereby the primitive faith hath been from time to time defaced or overlaid, and which at the Reformation, the Church of England did disown and reject."
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