BETHESDATEMPLE AMONG INDIAN SOUTHAFRICANS BY GERALDJ. PILLAY (UniversityofSouth Africa)

Concentratedinthe province ofNatal, on the South African east coast,and in someof the Transvaal and Cape Province suburbs, areover 80 congregations which belong to the Bethesda movement. ThisChristian movement with 35,000 members, made up almost entirelyof Indian South Africans, celebrated itsGolden Jubilee in 1981.In thesefifty years, it hasgrown from an obscure indepen- dentmovement to a denominationin its own right with local and internationallinks. This article surveys the history of Bethesda, the socialimpact it hashad within the Indian community in South Africa,its socio-religious setting and its theological ethos.

Religionamong Indian South Africans Themajority of the 152,184Indian immigrants who came to Natalbetween 1860-1911 were indentured labourers.' They were broughthere to boostthe flaggingagricultural industry of the Englishcolony and were to serve 5 or 10periods of indenture with theoption of extending their contracts, returning to Indiaor com- mutingtheir free passage for a plotof land if they chose to remain.2 Asmall group of Indian traders, the 'passenger-Indians', followed inthe wake of the labourers hoping to benefit from the new trading opportunitiesthat the growing Indian population provided.3 These werefree British subjects and wouldalways remain a small minority. Only1.4% of thosewho came were Christian (Anglicans, Methodists,Baptists and Roman Catholics).4 The vast majority wereHindus (almost 80%) and about 18% were Muslims. Today theIndian population in South Africa numbers over 800,000 of whom69% are Hindus, 18% Muslim' and Christians now make 257 up 13.6Bethesda with its 35,000 represents one-third ofthe whole IndianChristian body. Prior to the founding ofBethesda in 1931, themissionary initiatives ofthe established churches, especially the Anglican,Methodist and Roman Catholic churches, were mainly confinedto the educationaland socialupliftment of Indians. Duringthe 1880's and 1890's when anti-Indian sentiment swept throughthe colony and when whites in thecolonies lobbied for the repatriationof Indians, these churches provided the only educa- tionaland medical facilities for Indians.' While their influence was certainlynot commensurate with their small size, the Christian communityamong Indians remained small well into the 1920's. The firstmajor evangelistic expansion of Christianityamong Indianswas the result of the mission that led to thefounding of Bethesda.

Bethesda,itsrise and growth In 1922John Alexander Rowlands, a Quaker evangelist and businessman from Bristol, England, settled in Pietermaritzburg. Theenterprising Rowlands soon established theNatal Trading and MillingCompany and a studfarm while maintaining aninterest in evangelism.His free church background and penchant for mis- sionarywork soon encouraged a relationship with the Full Gospel Church,one of thethree biggest Pentecostal denominations in SouthAfrica, which was at thetime sufficiently 'non-established' andled by a fellowEnglish ex-patriot, A. H. Cooper.a8 J. A. Rowlandsalso developed a friendship with Ebenezer Theophilus,an Indian greengrocer and member of the Methodist Church.Both men were drawn together by a sharedcommitment toholiness and piety. Both found the churches inPietermaritzburg restrictingfor their evangelistic and holiness vision and founded theirown church, calling it 'TheUnited Pentecostal Mission of Natal'.'°Theophilus's fruit shop was quickly converted into a small chapeland the new church was able to haveits first service on 177 July,1925." It wasa missionalmost entirely to Indians.The racialistic climatein the1920s encouraged separation of theraces at every levelof Natal's society, even in thechurches. A. H. Cooperwho headedthe work of the Full Gospel Church in Natal encouraged the newIndian church partly because he found the mixing of the races