Die Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika has existed since the settlement of Jan van Riebeeck on the Cape in 1652. Van Riebeeck founded the church which he named the Nederlands Hervormde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church). The principles of Dutch Church canonical law, liturgy, etc., were applied in the Cape Church and parishes. Simultaneously with British attempts to anglicize the Cape and the church, the Great Trek occurred. As the ministers in the Cape were in the service and un-er the authority of the British Government, they did not participate in the “Groot Trek.” Two missionaries, Erasmus Smit and Daniel Lindley, tended to the spiritual needs of the Voortrekkers. The first congregation was founded in Potchefstroom, Transvaal, in 1842, followed by further and rapid expansion, especially in the Transvaal. In 1885 an amalgamation of the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk and the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk was effected. This was initiated by the enormous feeling of solidarity among the Afrikaners after the First War of Independence of 1880-1881. A single congregation, however, did not merge, and it was around this parish, Witfontein, that the Hervormers rallied after they had forfeited their property and a vast number of their members. In its missionary endeavors the church has notched up major achievements. A theological training center is operating at Klipdrift, where the ministers of the different language black church, the Hervormde Kerk van Suidelike Afrika (HKSA), are trained. It has been the consistent conviction and view of the church that the gospel can best be served to people in their own language. The most recent church law has just been completed and is indigenous to the church.
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