Zion Christian Church (ZCC) is one of the largest African-initiated churches operating across Southern Africa, and is part of the African Zionism movement
Engenas Lekganyane founded the ZCC after a revelation which Engenas Lekganyane is said to have received from God on the top of Mt Thabakgone in 1910.[5][6] After splitting from Lion, Engenas Lekganyane used his home village of Thabakgone, near Polokwane (Pietersburg), as the headquarters, with about twenty initial congregations in the Northern Transvaal, the Witwatersrand, and Rhodesia.[7] In 1930 Lekganyane began building a stone church there. After clashes with his chief, Engenas Lekganyane was expelled with his church still unfinished. Determined to obtain land, he eventually purchased three farms in the Polokwane area. Maclean Farm near Thabakgone would eventually be renamed "Moria," the ZCC's headquarters. The ZCC was officially registered in 1962 after the government's reluctance to recognize one of the continent's largest and most influential churches. The early church was strongly influenced by the doctrines of the Christian Catholic Church of John Alexander Dowie, based in Zion, Illinois, in the United States of America, and by the teachings of the Pentecostal missionary John G. Lake, who began work in Johannesburg in 1908.
Due to Engenas Lekganyane's attempts to appeal to migrant workers, the ZCC developed an international membership very early on, which went on to set up many congregations in neighboring countries like Zimbabwe. In the late 1930s, migrant workers from Botswana also started ZCC chapters, although they faced considerable opposition from the authorities.
16 окт 2024
