Otjiwarongo Reformed Church
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Otjiwarongo Reformed Church is the eighth oldest congregation of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) in Namibia. At the end of 2008, it belonged with five other Namibian congregations to the denomination's Klassis Waterberg, while another 13 congregations belonged to the exclusively Namibian Klassis Etosha. However, in 2015, the Otjiwarongo congregation returned to the Klassis Etosha. Confirmed membership went down from 58 in 2014 to 44 in 2015, and baptized membership went down from 18 to 6 in the same year.
History
GKSA worshipers in Otjiwarongo, in then South West Africa, were served until 1954 as a district of the Outjo Reformed Church, established in 1930 along with the Gobabis and Outjo Reformed Churches as a result of the repatriation of 1,922 Afrikaners, survivors and descendants of those who made the Dorsland Trek from Angola and were mainly GKSA members. On March 19, 1955, Otjiwarongo was separated from Outjo in a partnership agreement with those in Grootfontein (where the pastor preached 11 Sundays a year), Usakos, and Walvis Bay (11 days a year in the latter two, along with 22 Sundays in Otjiwarongo proper). The Rev. M.W. van der Walt was the first pastor of this joint congregation. He gained his own parsonage in June 1956. It was also decided to secure a church building, since services had heretofore been held in the auditorium of the Otjiwarongo Secondary School and now competed with those of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NHK).
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