Who we are

The Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) was established on the 26th September 1999 as a merger of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa (established in 1897) and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (established as Bantu Presbyterian Church of South Africa in 1923). The two churches shared the same origin dating back to the 19th century when Britain took over the Cape Colony. Their distinctive characters were that the Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa was constituted among soldiers and settlers who arrived in the Cape in 1820, spreading north into Zimbabwe and Zambia. The first congregation is St Andrew’s in Cape Town. The Reformed Presbyterian Church, on the other hand, was a product of Scottish missions intended for the Africans, and it started at Lovedale Mission in Alice.