Sustaining Discipline in the Early Church: A Reflection on the Disciplinary Procedures of the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast.

Introduction

One character trait believed to have been bequeathed to Presbyterianism from the early missionaries is “discipline”. It is mostly attributed to the Basel Mission (BM), the institution that founded what is today’s Presbyterian Church of Ghana. ‘Discipline’, which relates to certain good and adorable character attributes, is also associated with the processes used to maintain it. Presbyterians refer to the BM as an entity with a disciplinary lifestyle characterised by order, honesty, and other good moral values that help to shape society. Discipline, therefore, was strongly a true mark of Presbyterianism in the past, as it is now.

Reports (dating to about five to six decades ago) show that Presbyterians were preferred to their counterparts as employees and gained easy entry into institutions and other workplaces basically for the notion of “Presbyterian discipline”. Some were said to have been deemed qualified for a job upon the realization that they were Presbyterians, thus no further interviews were needed. Discipline was the deciding factor and it was as a result of how it was encouraged. But how was it sustained in the past? This question and the idea that discipline was attributed to the Basel missionaries had been on my mind as I looked keenly at exploring it. Indeed, I was glad to have found some materials at the Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD) in Accra when faculty and students from the University of Basel, Switzerland, visited Ghana in January 2024, to trace the impact of the missionaries.

At PRAAD 

At PRAAD, I found a document named “Register of Exclusion and Reacception” in one of the book stacks for Kyebi, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The document was written in the early 1900s and forms the basis of my reflection in this short essay.

The title of the document caught my attention because church growth has been a major focus of the Presbyterian Church in the past and more importantly at the beginning of the twenty-first century, when the church transitioned from the Synod system to that of the General Assembly. So, why were members excluded from the church in the past, if the mission was to win souls? What did it also mean to be excluded? While I was concerned about the term “exclusion”, I was also happy to see the word “reacception”. This is where I saw the connection of discipline in the church. Perhaps members were only excluded for some time and later reaccpted into the church, as a bid for promoting a disciplined lifestyle. But was my assertion right?

Working at PRAAD, Accra, January 2024 (photograph Julia Tischler).
Working at PRAAD, Accra, January 2024 (photograph Julia Tischler).

In the document

The register has six main columns. The details include: “No.”, “Names”, “Date of exclusion”,[1] “Why excluded?”, “When Reaccepted?” and “Minister’s Remarks”. By observation, records of exclusion and reacception were done yearly. This document has records from 1920 to 1939, but I wish to focus on 1920 for this reflection.

The register shows that in 1920, 23 persons were excluded from the church at Kyebi. However, in reality, there were 21 persons, since two names were repeated later in the register for a different offence. Deducing from the names, sixteen of them were females and the remaining seven were males. The record shows that some of the members had been excluded as far back as 1907, while others were excluded within the year 1920. One person had been excluded sometime in the year 1900 since it was indicated by her name “about 20 years”.

The record of 1920 contains statistics and reasons of excursion. 23 persons were excluded because of “fornication” and “adultery”. Though the document does not define these terms for us to appreciate what that meant in the early 1900s, my inclinations are that their meanings within the Christian faith are still the same now. “Fornication” is used to describe an unmarried person who engages in a sexual activity and “adultery” is used to describe a married person who engages in an extra-marital affair with a person outside of their matrimonial home. Seven persons were excluded for committing adultery and sixteen were excluded for fornication. Sixteen of these 23 persons were reaccepted in 1920 while seven had their names deleted from the census book. The Minister had remarked along those names, “Name deleted”. Details for the year 1920 have been signed with the date “31 December 1920”.

Reflections

Though the term “discipline” was not found in the document, the records suggest its practice by the church. The concept of exclusion and reacception buttresses the idea that members were excluded probably from the activities of the church or the church itself for a certain period for the kind of misconduct committed to deter them from going back to that act and specifically to uphold discipline. Computations revealed that members were excluded for a period ranging from a few months up to about twenty years. What accounted for the differences in the duration of exclusion? This is worth exploring.

Yet still, some names were deleted from the census book. Both males and females had their names deleted. The data showed that two of those persons (here, females) whose names had been deleted had their names recorded twice, first under “fornication” and under “adultery” at different times. Perhaps names were excluded when the act was committed multiple times. What accounted for this decision and what was its impact on the growth of the church are worth exploring. But how applicable are the “exclusion” and “reacception” modules different today?

Discipline is one of the core values of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana today, and so two important documents that guide the life of the church – the Constitution[2] and Manual of Order[3] – have disciplinary procedures enshrined in them, and these have been drafted drawing from the Holy Bible. So, there are measures to sustain discipline in the church today. In the Manual of Order, for instance, there are outlined steps to follow in maintaining Christian discipline and order. These steps are to be followed, guided by love and humility.

A limitation to the document, which I would like to explore and to fill the gap is the meaning of the terminologies, “exclusion” and “reacception”. Thus, I hope to search the archives for documents that could point me to their meaning and how they determined the kind of disciplinary procedures carried out in the early church in Gold Coast. Further, I hope to search in the archives for documents that highlight reactions (if any) to these disciplinary procedures in the early church and to analyze their impact on church growth. Today, there are specific calls on church leaders and community gate-keepers to sustain discipline in our society which is perceived to be experiencing a deficit in discipline. As the Basel missionaries consciously applied what they believed would sustain discipline, the church and missionary agencies should consider ways to keep the society disciplined. We need to do this in love and humility and not exclude people who may eventually lose their faith.

It is against this backdrop that I propose some more reflections on the matter, as a way of helping church leaders and today’s generation to appreciate the changing dynamics in the church. It is hoped that this reflection will allow many to evaluate their level of living a disciplined life and also deepen their commitment and relationship with God.

Portrait Ernest K. Afrifa-Anane
About the author:Ernest K. Afrifa-Anane

My name is Ernest K. Afrifa-Anane, a Research Fellow at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture in Akropong-Akuapem. ‚Discipline‘ has been one key hallmark of the Basel Mission bequeathed to the Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast. How did the early church practice ‚discipline‘ and how did that impact the church? My research interest is to understand the impact of ‚discipline‘ on church growth in the early church in Gold Coast and what that means for missions today.