3.1.1 The tragic riots at Sharpeville in March 1960, in which 60 people were killed, and the resultant state of emergency led the World Council of Churches to contact its member churches in South Africa. amongst these churches were the Dutch Reformed Church of the Transvaal, the Dutch Reformed Church of the Cape and the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (the Anglican Church). The Dutch Reformed Church and the Anglican Church were involved in an unedifying ecclesiastical dispute. The Archbishop of Cape Town sent the World Council of Churches an ultimatum: either the Dutch Reformed Church had to be expelled from the World Council of Churches on account of its stance on apartheid, or the Anglican Church would be obliged to withdraw from that body.
3.1.2 In spite of the many obstacles put in its path by the Anglican Church as well as the Dutch Reformed Church, the World Council of Churches succeeded in calling a conference of churches, and eventually 80 delegates of the South African member churches (including the Dutch Reformed Church of the Cape and the Dutch Reformed Church of the Transvaal) and six representatives of the World Council of Churches met for the conference, which was held at the Cottesloe hostel of the University of the Witwatersrand between 7 and 14 December 1960.*)
*(The Transvaal Dutch Reformed Church was represented by ten people: AM Meiring, UB Naude, FE O'Brien Geldenhuys, CB Brink, AB du Preez, EP Groenewald, JA van Wyk, SS Tema and J Selamolela (both of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church of the Transvaal) and B le Battie (of the coloured congregation in Johannesburg).
The Cape Dutch Reformed Church delegation also consisted of ten people: AJ van der Merwe, WJ van der Merwe, TN Hanekorn, FJM Potgieter, PA Verhoef, CH Badenhorst, AP Smit, PES Smith, AJ van Wijk and WA Landman.
3.1.3 In one of the discussion groups during the course of the conference Bishop Bill Burnett of the Anglican Church put the following question: "Can the delegates of the Dutch Reformed Church just tell us, once and for all, in a few short sentences, precisely how they see apartheid and what they mean when they say that they also support it in their ecclesiastical work?" [translation] Dr FE O'Brien Geldenhuys answered thus: "I shall try to say why the Dutch Reformed Church follows a policy of separateness in its ecclesiastical work - and 1 am not speaking of the political situation. People differ. They have different needs. They live at different levels of understanding, of civilisation, of knowledge. If you want to reach them with the gospel, you therefore have to approach them in their own language, their own idiom, their own milieu. For this reason our church has always observed the principle in its missionary policy that one should try to understand the person and make the gospel comprehensible to him in the world in which he lives" [translation]. Dr RS Bilheimer, joint chief secretary of the World Council of Churches, responded: "if Dr Geldenhuys means that-one should present the gospel differently to different people so that they can better understand it ... that the reason for the difference in approach is therefore that people differ in important respects ... then 1 can agree with that one hundred percent!" [translation] (FE O'Brien Geldenhuys: In die stroomversnellings, p 51.)
3.1.4 At the end of the conference a declaration was issued as the finding of the meeting. Afterwards there were major differences of opinion on the voting procedure followed to arrive at this declaration, as there were on the resolutions themselves. In his book Cottesloe AH Lu:ckhoff says that these resolutions were of monumental significance for all the member churches, but in particular for the Afrikaans churches (p 82). The following were amongst the most important resolutions:
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Witness of the church: "At a time of rapid social change, the church has a special responsibility to witness fearlessly within society."
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Mixed marriages: "There are no Scriptural grounds for a prohibition on mixed marriages. The welfare of the community and pastoral responsibility demand, however, that the necessary consideration be given to certain factors which may make such marriages undesirable."
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Job reservation: "The current system of job reservation must give way to a fairer system which protects the interests of all involved."
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Land tenure and co-determination: "It is our conviction that the right to own land wherever he is domiciled and to participate in the government of his country is part of the dignity of the adult person, and for this reason a policy which permanently deprives non-whites of the right to ccdetermination in the government of the country of which they are citizens cannot be justified."
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Political status of coloureds: "(a) It is our conviction that there can be no objection in principle to the direct representation of the coloured population in Parliament. (b) We express the hope that consideration will be given to the implementation of this principle in the foreseeable future." [translation]
3.1.5 The Cottesloe declaration led to great tumult in Afrikaner ranks andintense controversy in the daily newspapers and church press. Many church councils adopted resolutions denouncing Cottesloe, and there were even public meetings -and the church's delegates were sharply criticised. Leaders such as Dr AP Treurnicht, editor of Die Kerkbode, and Dr JD Vorster took a particularly strong stand against the conference. Treurnicht wrote that Cottesloe did not represent the voice of the church as a whole and that the debate on matters such as the coloured vote was far from over. According to Vorster, the resolutions of the conference created the impression that they largely comprised criticism of government policy and conduct, while all the good things offered to coloured and black people by the policy of separation had not been recognised (cf. Van der Watt, op. cit., p 108).
Even the then Prime Minister, Dr HF Verwoerd, entered the debate when, in his New Year's message on 1 January 1961, he said that he regarded Cottesloe as an attempt by foreigners to interfere in South Africa's domestic affairs, that the declaration was no more than the opinion of a few individuals from the Dutch Reformed Church, and that the church had, in actual fact, not yet spoken - that would only happen when the synods made their voices heard.
"With this statement," writes Lu:ckhoff, "Verwoerd drew a red line through Cottesloe. He polarised the government and specifically the National Party against the church's leadership" [translation] (p 116).
