On his visit to Cape Town on 18 December 2016, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider will create a new District Apostle Area: Southern Africa. This will be comprised of the current districts South East Africa and Cape. The new District Apostle will be John Leslie Kriel.
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Photo: Oliver Rütten
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Photo: Oliver Rütten
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Photo: Uwe Hoffmann
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Photo: NAC Cape
The time for an amalgamation is favourable, the Chief Apostle said. District Apostle Noel E. Barnes from Cape Town will be retired during this festive service in mid December. He will be succeeded by Apostle John Kriel, who will be placed in charge of both districts. District Apostle Patrick Mkhwanazi from Johannesburg will support him as District Apostle Helper.
Letter to the congregations
A letter was read out to the congregations in both District Churches today, in which the Chief Apostle informs the members that he discussed his decision with all the District Apostles at their recent conference in Perth (Australia). He said he would like identical structures and a better balance between the size of the Churches and the membership in Africa. The administrative offices of the two districts are already in the process of merging. This revealed that a further merger of both districts in southern Africa makes sense, the Chief Apostle said.
New Apostolic Church Southern Africa
The new district will be called “New Apostolic Church Southern Africa”. The membership of the new district will be nearly doubled, but it will still be smaller than the District Apostle Area Congo-West or Congo-South East or Zambia, the Chief Apostle writes.
The new working area includes Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Saint Helena, South Africa (Free State, Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West, Cape) and Swaziland. The joint administrative offices of these countries will be located in Cape Town.
Chief Apostle Schneider expressed his gratitude to the responsible District Apostles for their willingness to help shape these radical changes. They will come into effect on 18 December. In closing, he writes to the congregations: “I am convinced that this measure will serve as a benefit to all our brothers and sisters in this region.”
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