Kimbanguist Church
The Kimbanguist Church (official name: Eglise de Jésus-Christ sur la terre par son envoyé spécial Simon Kimbangu , in short: EJCSK ; German Church of Jesus Christ on earth through his messenger Simon Kimbangu ) is an African independent Christian church . Its membership is estimated between one and eight million believers. According to its own information, it has 12.5 million members, five million of them in the Congo .
She is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC).
history
It was founded after the death of Simon Kimbangu by his followers who consider him a prophet . Its emergence has to be seen against the background of brutal Belgian colonial rule, but its peculiarity is based more on the spiritual needs of oppressed people than on political rebellion.
In 1959 it was officially registered by the colonial authorities of the Belgian Congo . In 1969 she was accepted into the World Council of Churches with the support of the Moravian Brethren in Switzerland , as the first of the independent African churches.
The Kimbanguist Church expressly affirms African religiosity and culture, which is reflected in the structure and organization. Religious action draws on traditional forms of medicine (trance, conjuration and incarnation). The church is pacifist . Music plays a major role, not just in the liturgy. The church maintains two symphony orchestras (Fanfare Kimbanguiste and Flûtiste Kimbanguiste) and several choirs (Chorale des Enfants Kimbanguistes, Grande Chorale des Dirigeants Kimbanguistes and Groupe Thèâtral Kimbanguiste).
The head of the church today (2012) is Papa Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, a grandson of the founder. He resides in Nkamba, the birthplace of the founder, who is buried there with his three sons, who also enjoy almost divine worship, in a mausoleum in front of the cathedral.
literature
- Susan Asch: L'église du prophète Kimbangu. De ses origines à son role actuel au Zaire (1921–1981) . Karthala, Paris, 2000 (1983 1 ) , ISBN 2865370690
- Heinrich Balz: Comrades on the river and on the mountain: Of Kimbanguists and Lutherans in Africa . Erlanger Verlag for Mission and Ecumenism, Neuendettelsau, 2005, ISBN 3-87214-612-2
- Marie-Louise Martin: Church without Whites: Simon Kimbangu and his millionaire church in the Congo . F. Reinhardt, Basel, 1971, ISBN 3-7245-0010-7
- Werner Ustorf: Inculturation of the Gospel . In: “De Kennung” - magazine for Low German community work , 11 (1988), pp. 5-31, ISSN 1433-5964
- Andrea Böhm: Joy, beautiful spark of gods: about the symphony orchestra of the Kimbanguists in Kinshasa . Zeit-Magazin 48/2009, November 19, 2009
- Claus Wischmann , Martin Baer: Kinshasa Symphony . Germany 2010, 95 minutes, production company "Sounding Images", Berlin (documentary about the Kimbanguist Orchestra in Kinshasa)
- March to Music ( Orchester Symphonique Kimbanguiste ). In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 28, 2010, page 31
Web links
- kimbanguisme.net (French; some pages in German translation)
- Church of Jesus Christ on earth through his messenger Simon Kimbangu on the WCC website
- Hermann Schulz: Africa south of the Sahara. Notes on cultural and religious pluralism. The bridge. Journal for Schools and Religious Education in the State of Bremen, Issue 2/1997, archived from the original on August 17, 2005 ; Retrieved May 3, 2017 .
- Thomas Daun: Kimbanguist Congregation - Fanfare for the Prophet . Deutschlandfunk broadcast "Tag für Tag", May 3, 2017 (also as an mp3 file, 5.8 MB, 6:19 minutes)
Individual evidence
- ^ David Van Reybrouck: Congo: A Story . Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-42307-3 , pp. 173-187.