Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter One ‘After crying to Jesus we started this church’
- Chapter Two ‘Finding a voice’: Research, archives, and my role as researcher
- Chapter Three ‘Somebodyness within the body of everybodyness’: Healing as a metaphor for reconciling conflicting identities
- Chapter Four Healing as metaphor: ‘The Dream’ and ‘Healing’
- Chapter Five ‘Guys, until Friday!’: Practising and performing gender in the HUMCC
- Chapter Six ‘The most special child in my house’: Coming out to parents and family
- Chapter Seven ‘Through your family we are given a son’: Two events demonstrating family and kinship in the HUMCC
- Chapter Eight ‘It takes faith to make a church’: Gay and lesbian Christian proselytising in the HUMCC
- Chapter Nine ‘This is not a club’: The founding of the Durban branch of the HUMCC
- Chapter Ten ‘The small flock that God has given me’: The death and funeral of Reverend Tsietsi Thandekiso
- Postscript ‘Entertaining God and the ancestors’: The HUMCC from 1996 to the present
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter Ten - ‘The small flock that God has given me’: The death and funeral of Reverend Tsietsi Thandekiso
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter One ‘After crying to Jesus we started this church’
- Chapter Two ‘Finding a voice’: Research, archives, and my role as researcher
- Chapter Three ‘Somebodyness within the body of everybodyness’: Healing as a metaphor for reconciling conflicting identities
- Chapter Four Healing as metaphor: ‘The Dream’ and ‘Healing’
- Chapter Five ‘Guys, until Friday!’: Practising and performing gender in the HUMCC
- Chapter Six ‘The most special child in my house’: Coming out to parents and family
- Chapter Seven ‘Through your family we are given a son’: Two events demonstrating family and kinship in the HUMCC
- Chapter Eight ‘It takes faith to make a church’: Gay and lesbian Christian proselytising in the HUMCC
- Chapter Nine ‘This is not a club’: The founding of the Durban branch of the HUMCC
- Chapter Ten ‘The small flock that God has given me’: The death and funeral of Reverend Tsietsi Thandekiso
- Postscript ‘Entertaining God and the ancestors’: The HUMCC from 1996 to the present
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In the early hours of the morning on Saturday 25 October 1997, Reverend Thandekiso died in the Johannesburg General Hospital. As father figure and a leader to a predominantly youthful congregation, his death had a profound impact on the church community.
The congregation expressed intense grief over his loss, and at the same time fear about the future of the HUMCC. The events associated with grieving, burial and mourning provided much insight into the HUMCC church community. Through a detailed analysis of the memorial service and the funeral service, I would like to draw out some of the main themes.
The funeral arrangements involved several groups of people – the HUMCC church congregation; the King Luthuli Transformation Centre (where Thandekiso served as a Director); the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (to which the HUMCC was affiliated); the Thandekiso family; the Marumo family (the family of Thandekiso's wife, Karabelo); and the Apostolic Faith Mission Church (of which his estranged wife Karabelo was a staunch member).
The potential for conflict and disharmony was evident in the preparatory meeting for the memorial and funeral services, as was a sense of vulnerability, especially since the HUMCC was then based in temporary premises. The chair of the meeting announced the appointment of Paul Mokgethi as leader of the church, and until such time as a new pastor was appointed, Paul Mokgethi was to be known as the ‘chief elder’.
The chief elder, following the advice of the church board, identified the main groups involved in the preparations for Thandekiso's burial as ‘the family, the wife, and the church’. ‘The family’ referred to Thandekiso’s relatives, specifically those who had demonstrated their support by attending the Thanksgiving Service five months earlier. ‘The wife’ Karabelo and her family were regarded as hostile to the HUMCC. Their marriage had produced a daughter who was eight years old at the time. ‘The church’ referred of course to the HUMCC.
At the board meeting held the day after the Reverend's death, divisions were anticipated between the Reverend's wife and her family, and the members of the Thandekiso family who had accepted Thandekiso’s sexual orientation. Because the Reverend's divorce was ‘not finalised’, the funeral service was regarded as being subject to Karabelo's plans.
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- Information
- Above the SkylineReverend Tsietsi Thandekiso and the founding of an African gay church, pp. 165 - 190Publisher: University of South AfricaPrint publication year: 2015