Foreign Funding of Catholic Mission in South Africa, a case study

are there any trends emerging ?

Clearly we will not be able to deal with all of these questions in a single article. Nevertheless we do hope to make an initial response to the first three of the questions in this work.

2.2The Projects

The amount of money poured into the Catholic Church in South Africa by a donor organisation like Finance-the-mission is a measure of the commitment of that organisation to the church here. It also indicates the organisation’s own prioritisation regarding its own role in actualising the mission of the church. In its own self-consciousness, or culture, the organisation has a responsibility to its donors and their intentions. In this way it reflects the consciousness and culture of its own local church. The allocations board has the right to refuse, reduce or approve in full any project submitted to it. In this way it becomes an agency of the means of the mission in stewarding the resources which it administers on behalf of its donors within its own local church. On the other hand, the organisation is only able to respond to the applications it receives. In the South African case these applications reflect concerns and priorities in the pastoral mission of the South African local church and its own culture.

Clearly the amounts also reflect the priorities of the applicants as well since they are the initiators of the projects. They are required by Finance-the-mission to indicate the amount they are requesting together with an indication of how much funding will be provided locally. Finance-the-mission is reluctant to provide funding for projects which will not be funded locally as well. Consequently the amounts allocated provide us with an indicator of the encounter between two local churches: the donor church and the receiver church. They are measures of both local priority and funder priority in terms of mission and pastoral praxis. The fact that the donation is made is also a statement of both receiving church ability and sending church ability to actualise their vision and strategy of mission. The danger, of course, is that those projects which harmonise these two visions and strategies may be favoured.

All applications for funding from Finance-the-mission have to be authorised either by the SACBC or the local diocesan Bishops. This gives rise to two different types of application: those of a more national character which are usually processed through the SACBC and those of a more local nature which are authorised by the diocesan bishop. Tables 4 and 5 show the amounts distributed through each of these directions in the two periods of our study.

2.2.1Project Categories

Because of the possible distinction between the vision and priority of the receiving church and that of the sending church referred to above it was decided not just to use the project categories of Finance-the-mission but rather to adapt these to fit categories more easily recognisable in the South African context, which is the author’s context. Nineteen project types were identified and grouped into five categories as indicated in table 4. The table also shows the rand amounts distributed for each category of project.

Project Type	Projects Through SACBC		Projects Through Local Dioceses
	1978-1990	1990-1997	1978-1990	1990-1997
National Projects	933970	1188794	902511	672062
Pastoral Projects	2214009	1617110	3910881	4517753
Community Service/Human Promotion	900614	354016	856228	1101436
Buildings	66712	1215018	5681191	12134460
Other	54204	0	208272	242689
Totals	4169509	4374938	11559083	18668400
Table 4 Allocation by type of project (rands)

Category		Projects Through SACBC		Projects Through Local Dioceses
		1978-1990	1990-1997	1978-1990	1990-1997
National Projects		933970	1188794	902511	672062
	National Seminaries	38.6%	84.1%	95.2%	100%
	National Pastoral Projects	40.6%	2.8%	0	0
	National Pastoral Institutions (Lumko & Khanyisa)	20.8%	13.1%	4.7%	0
Pastoral Projects		2214009	1617110	3910881	4517753
	Formation	37.2%	21.2%	44.5%	33%
	Vehicles/Transport	0.5%	6.3%	13.7%	27.5%
	Media/Social Communications	9.8%	40%	6.0%	13.5%
	Pastoral Materials	6.9%	7.8%	6%	7.9%
	Programmes and Meetings	15.8%	10.7%	11.7%	5.5%
	Youth	24.1%	10.1%	13.8%	9%
	Livelihood/Support for Clergy	5.8%	3.9%	4.1%	3.6%
Community Service/ Human Promotion		900614	354016	856228	1101436
	Education	96.2%	100%	55.8%	20.6%
	Development and Welfare	0	0	28.5%	50.7%
	Social Justice	3.8%	0	15.7%	28.4%
Buildings		66712	1215018	5681191	12134460
	Build Church	30.5%	2%	33%	41%
	Build Pastoral Centre	0	0	14.2%	27.2%
	Build Multipurpose Building	0	0	17.4%	8.7%
	Build House for Religious	45.9%	16.3%	18.4%	13.8%
	Build Other	23.5%	81.7%	17.0%	9.4%
Other		54204	0	208272	242689
Totals		4169509	4374938	11559083	18668400
Table 5 Allocations to projects in each category (rands)

2.2.2
SACBC projects.

Projects applied for through the SACBC reflect national issues of the local receiving church. There is a much greater preponderance of projects concerned with the formation of local leaders and for ongoing pastoral projects of the emerging local church. Table 4 shows us that 75.5% of the total was spent on National and Pastoral Projects in the first period. Although this declined to 64.2% in the later period this was only because of a large amount of money given for building (from 21.6% in the first period to 27.8% of the total in the second period). This was mainly spent on new buildings for the National Seminary, itself an issue of national concern as vocations to the priesthood increased during the period.

The majority of projects fall into the category: “pastoral projects”. These are projects concerned with the ongoing pastoral work of the church. They reflect a somewhat established church in action rather than a church being founded. Table 5 shows how this money was distributed over the various kinds of pastoral project. It should be noted that pastoral projects are of two types. The first type are those which indicate the lack of self sufficiency in the local church. They are expenses for basic items for running and maintaining the church. They comprise projects concerned with “vehicles”, “pastoral materials” and “livelihood/support for the clergy”. These types of projects are closer to the church plantation stage of mission. The second type of pastoral project is concerned with training, formation and the deepening of the pastoral work of the church and reflect a more mature stage of the church’s life. “Formation”, “media”, “programmes and meetings” and “youth” would all fall into this latter category. Comparing the two we note very little difference in the two periods with the first type being 15% of the total in the first period and 18% in the second period.

The next most important grouping is that concerned with national projects. Whilst these remained relatively constant as a percentage of the total allocation in both periods: 22.4% to 27.2%, the allocations of these funds was very different in the second period. There almost 85% of the total was spent on the national seminaries. This was as a result of the restructuring of seminaries in the late 1980's and a growth in vocations from 1985 onwards. The large increase in money allocated for building projects in the second period was almost entirely for the building of new seminaries, itemised under “other” in table 5. On the other hand there was a decline in the funding the National Pastoral Institutes and National Pastoral Projects. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the National Pastoral Institute, Khanyisa, closed in 1984. Secondly many of the Lumko programmes and publications were set up in the 1980's and many of these are still operative. Thirdly the National Pastoral Plan, “Community Serving Humanity”, was conceived and setup in the first period and required some funding. In the second period the funding needs for the pastoral plan have been quite small.[7]

2.2.3 Local projects

When we go to the projects applied for through the local dioceses we find a very different picture. On the local level the preoccupation is much more with the initial establishment of the local church. In these projects, the church in South Africa shows itself to be a young church where the preoccupation is largely with buildings, vehicles, bibles and other materials necessary for initial implantation. Table 4 shows how expenditure on buildings and pastoral projects dominates the expenditure in both periods. In table 5 there is an analysis of both these categories. A large proportion of this expenditure is for the primary requirements of clergy livelihood, vehicles and pastoral materials. This component actually increases from 23.8% of the total to 39% of the total in the second period. The figure for media should also be added here as this is largely to fund the translation of bibles, prayer books and catechetical materials into the local language: a task which falls into the initial translation stage of the inculturation process.[8]

The share for buildings when measured in financial terms increases to reach a staggering 65% of the total in the later period. Clearly a large part of Finance-the-mission’s funding continues to pour into the primary mission phase of church plantation on the local level. It should however be noted that after the demise of apartheid and the emergence of the reconstruction phase in South Africa (See Bate 1996:10-32) some building projects were to replace or repair buildings affected by the civil strife in the struggle years of the 1980's. Nonetheless these figures reflect a continued preoccupation of the church on the local level with the establishment of plant. Table 5 indicates how the money for buildings was shared out in both periods. It is interesting to note how much finance went for building churches in the later period: up 9% from the earlier period.[9]

There are relatively few differences between the two periods in the way Finance-the-mission is allocating its funds to the South African church during the nineteen years under review. It would appear that little has changed in terms of priorities and concerns both from the applicants here and the allocations board in the sending church. Given the startling changes in South African society over the same period one would need to at least pose the question to what extent does the social context here influence the church’s mission and priority?

2.3 The Applicants

Our research shows that there are five different types of applicant: The SACBC itself for its own projects, the local diocese itself for its own projects, Religious Congregations for their own projects, lay organisations for their own projects and finally ecumenical organisations for their own projects. Table 6 indicates the amounts given for projects applied for by each of the five groups during the two different periods into which we have divided our analysis. The figures only refer to those applications which were successful. A small number of projects whilst approved by the local authority here were not accepted by Finance-the-mission.

Applicant	Amount given for Projects Through SACBC (R)		Amount Given for Projects Through Local Dioceses (R)
	1979-1990	1990-1997	1979-1990	1990-1997
SACBC	3473200	2753457	323978	74674
Local Diocese	0	43706	9198669	14356000
Religious Congregation	279357	729885	1920728	3416317
Lay Organisation	225153	305940	92565	690731
Ecumenical Organisation	191797	537580	34712	130679
Total	4169507	4370568	11570652	18668401
Table 6 Amount for projects by applicant type (rands)

Table 6 shows that a few SACBC projects were submitted through the local dioceses. These projects refer to the National Seminary and Lumko both of which are SACBC responsibilities. Sometimes applications for projects of these two organisations have been submitted through the bishop of the diocese where they were located which is Pretoria in the case of the National Seminary and was Queenstown for Lumko until 1986. Similarly a small amount was given for projects of local dioceses submitted through the SACBC.

2.3.1Applications through the SACBC

The share of applications by the SACBC itself, through the SACBC, dropped from 83% in 1979-1990 to 63% in 1990-1997. All the other categories of applicants received an increased share. The monetary share of the Religious Congregations rose from 7% to 17% whilst the ecumenical organisations increased its share from 4.5% to 12.5% . However the lay organisations only increased their monetary share from 5½% to 7%. These figures show that the Religious Congregations and the ecumenical organisations were the most significant financial beneficiaries of the opening up of applications for finance to non-SACBC organisations. They probably also show the relative structural weakness of lay organisations within the Catholic Church which prevents them from taking advantage of this opening up. When one considers that the second period largely corresponds with the introduction of the Pastoral Plan[10] with its focus on lay grass roots organisation, this weakness is brought into even greater relief. Perhaps the focus of the church on the empowerment of lay people has not yet reached the stage where such lay people become the agents of their own empowerment.

2.3.2Applications through the local diocese

Clerical hegemony in accessing funds is even stronger when considering the applications made through the local dioceses. Whilst lay organisations increased their share this was an almost insignificant rise on the monetary level from 0.4% to just 1.6%. The Religious Congregations fared worse suffering a decrease in monetary share from 20½% to 15½% in the latter priod. Clearly financial support through local dioceses goes almost exclusively to the pastoral projects of the dioceses themselves rather than organisations within them. These obtained an increase in financial share from 70% to 79% from the first to the second period. The figures show that organisations other than the diocesan clerical authorities themselves seem to have very little access to Finance-the-mission for funding for their projects. This probably shows the relative structural weakness of organisations within dioceses and is a sign of the fragility of these dioceses which remain rather centralised and small without the organisational infrastructure present in more developed parts of the world. Following the criteria of AG 19 they are would appear to be still only young churches: local churches in the making.

2.4The Identity of the Applicants.

If finance is a significant means of actualisation of mission then the question of the identity of those who have access to finance becomes very important. It should be obvious that those people who have such access are the ones whose vision of the church’s mission is more easily realised in praxis. It seemed to us to be important to ask several questions regarding the identity of such applicants. In the first place, since Finance-the-mission is a national organisation and there are quite a number of missionaries from the country of origin of Finance the mission in South Africa the question arises whether or not this organisation tends to prefer to fund the projects of its own nationals? A related question concerns the access of South African Christians as opposed to that of foreign missionaries. This question is important since previous studies have shown how the funding of missionary institutions has been criticised in some parts of Africa as leading to missionary hegemony (See Bühlmann 1974: 372ff; Bonk 1991). Finally the question of the access of black South Africans was considered important given the racial oppression in South Africa in this period and the need for black empowerment in the church.[11] Since Finance-the-mission gives the name of the applicant of every project it was relatively easy to do this analysis which is outlined in table 7. In this table the term “black” refers to all those who are not white.

Applicant	Applicants through SACBC				Applicants through Local Dioceses
	1979-1990		1990-1997		1979-1990		1990-1997
	No	Amount*	No	Amount	No	Amount	No	Amount
Home Missionaries**	13	5.5%	4	10%	231	38%	102	41.6%
Other Missionaries	47	41.8%	21	20%	144	32.2%	79	28.8%
All South Africans	65	52.7%	34	70%	180	29.7%	95	30.1%
Total	125	100%	59	100%	555	100%	276	100%
Racial composition of South African applicants
Black South Africans	25	22.7%	17	22%	97	15.6%	56	15.7%
White South Africans	40	30%	17	48%	83	14.1%	39	14.4%
Table 7: Origin of applicants by number of projects and % of total amount (currency of the donor country)

*This column shows the percentage of the total allocated in the home currency of Finance-the-mission

**These are missionaries from the home country of Finance-the-mission working in South Africa

Table 7 shows the number of projects applied for by each group as well as the percentage of the total amount given during the period in the home currency of the donor country.

2.4.1Applications through the SACBC

We see from table 7 that the majority of projects applied for through the SACBC are applied for by South Africans. The number of such projects increased from 52% of the total in the earlier period to 58% in the second period. This trend was much more accentuated when considering the actual finance received. The amount allocated for projects of South Africans increased from 53% of the total in the first period to 70% in the second period. This trend is a sign of the emergence of the local church in South Africa as a South African church where resources are controlled by the local people. However amongst the South Africans, table 7 also shows us that whites continue to play a dominant role in terms of the access to foreign funding within the Catholic Church on the national level. This dominance seemed to actually increase during the second period.

Table 7 also allows us to calculate some other interesting information. In the first period whites made 62% of all applications by South Africans. This declined to 50% in the second period. However when the actual amounts are considered, the information provided in the table allows us to calculate that whites received 60% of the money allocated to South Africans in the first period and that this increased to 68% in the second period. From these figures we can conclude that white hegemony in South Africa would appear to be continuing in the church at least with regard to the access to foreign funding.

The amounts allocated to missionaries of the home country of Finance-the-mission through the SACBC are quite small. In neither period did the number of applications or the amount of finance applied for through the SACBC exceed 10% of the total. This seems to indicate that the relatively large number of missionaries from this country active throughout the country are not particularly active on the national level of the church. Missionaries from other countries seem to play a relatively greater role on the National level although this role appears to be significantly declining in the later period. Whilst the total number of applications from other missionaries remained relatively constant in both periods at around 37% of the total, the actual amounts received declined from 42% of the total in the first period to only 20% in the second period.

Finally it should be noted that the person of the President of the SACBC looms large in these changes since many projects are applied for through him. In the first period the presidency changed between Cardinal McCann, Archbishop Hurley and Archbishop Fitzgerald. The former two are white South Africans and the latter a missionary from a different country to Finance the mission. In the later period the presidency has changed between Archbishop Hurley, Bishop/Archbishop Napier and Bishop Ndlovu. The latter two are classified here as black South Africans although Bishop Ndlovu is a native of Swaziland.[12]

2.4.2Applications through the local dioceses

When we consider the applications made through the local dioceses the picture is very different. Here the access of missionaries to funding is much more pronounced, reflecting the continuing strength of missionary presence on the grass roots level and the relative weakness of church leadership from the local people. Missionaries made 68% of all applications through local dioceses for funding of projects in the earlier period. This declined only marginally to 66% in the latter period. It is also on the local level that the access of home missionaries from the local church of Finance-the-mission funds is very pronounced. In the early period such “home” missionaries made 42% of all applications as opposed to 26% for all other missionaries. This figure declined to 37% of the total in the latter period which was still higher than the 29% for all other missionaries in the country. The figures were even more startling when the amount of money allocated was considered. In the early period the missionaries accessed 71% of the total amount given by Finance-the-mission through dioceses. The figure remained at 70% of the total in the latter period. In the former period home missionaries accessed 38% of the total whilst other missionaries accessed 32%. In the latter period the share of the home missionaries actually increased to 41% of the total whilst that of other missionaries declined to 29%. In both periods the amount allocated to projects emanating from black and white South Africans was very small and actually declined slightly from 16% to 14% of the total.

These figures raise a whole series of questions around the way foreign funding is used in the South African church. Relatively few requests are refused by Finance-the-mission although some are. So we cannot say that Finance-the-mission is the source of the problem. Rather it would seem that consciousness factors are playing a greater role here. On the local level it would appear that missionaries tend to be more aware of foreign donors than South Africans. Having come from sophisticated, organised, first world local churches, one would expect the missionaries to be more aware of the fact that there are first world donor organisations ready and willing to help with church projects. One would also expect that missionaries of a particular country would be aware of the donor organisations of the church in that country, perhaps having participated as children and adults in the fund raising efforts. Also, the missionaries tend to operate in areas where the church is being planted, where buildings are required and structures are only slowly being set up, and where South African vocations are only beginning to emerge. Such areas are not yet self reliant and so are in more need of help from outside. Nevertheless it should be clear that the culture of the missionaries will reflect that of their sending church and so, perhaps, they are more concerned about setting up structures: buildings and institutions since this is more in their consciousness of what mission is about. It reflects the sending church’s “culture” regarding the nature of mission. Local priests, religious and lay leaders may have different priorities which are less dependent on financing and also less easy to set up as projects. An official of Finance-the-mission commenting on the issue of consciousness factors suggested that there is a difference in consciousness factors relating to development projects and those concerning pastoral projects. He felt that both South African clergy and foreign missionaries had similar consciousness regarding the need for development projects and the access to funding for them. However with regard to pastoral projects he suggested that the South African clergy was at a disadvantage, “for the church structures leave fewer possibilities open to the South African clergy”(private correspondence). Since Finance-the-mission concentrates on pastoral projects this consciousness difference is more likely to be seen here. A similar study of a development oriented donor agency would help to clarify this issue. These kinds of discrepancies and culturally based pastoral strategies will be discussed in more depth in the missiological reflection below.

3 A Missiological Reflection:

The results presented in the last section are a rather overwhelming conglomeration of figures and statistics. The interpretation of data like this is in fact a complex process and can be undertaken from many different perspectives. It is important therefore to carefully map out the kind of reflection we wish to do in this section as well as to concede that our reflection in no way exhausts what can be said about these results. In 2.1.1 we posed seven questions which could inform such a reflection. Here we intend to look at some of them. But first we must ask a more fundamental question.

3.1What Does Money Measure?

Much of the Christian mission carries on quietly and self sufficiently right throughout the country as groups go to visit the sick and pray for them, comfort the bereaved and bring the good news of the kingdom to friends and neighbour. Much of this mission is carried out by lay people with no recourse to the church for financial help. Similarly children are taught to pray, to learn the commandments, to go to church and generally get enculturated[13] into the Christian Catholic culture by the significant adults in their lives: mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandparents, relatives and other adults in the Christian community. None of the financial implications of this day to day living out of the mission mandate of Matthew 10 or Matthew 28 is reflected here. Yet it is the very centre of the church’s mission. Besides this, some point out that whilst finance is an important part of the requirements to fulfil the mission of the church it is time and not money which is the best measure of a missionary’s endeavour.

These comments help us to see that the question of foreign funding should not be taken as reflecting an accurate measure of the church’s priority nor of the bulk of its praxis when it comes to living the Mission of God. On the other hand the anecdotal evidence gleaned from contact with Christians of all types over a number of years has indicated to me that the Roman Catholic Church is often seen as a rich church able to provide schools, hospitals, clinics and other institutions as well as good quality vehicles and lifestyle for its ministers and workers. The Catholic church is often seen as a place where people can get their needs fulfilled and this in a large measure has contributed to its success. Previous research of mine has also indicated that the church’s growth has suffered quite considerably as it has closed or handed over its institutions especially schools and hospitals (See Bate 1999c).

So what exactly does money measure in the church’s endeavour? Economics teaches us that money is the medium through which we convert our wants for goods and services into reality. Its is important to note that the issue is about human “wants” and not human “needs”. Indeed the economic problem arises out of the fact that the wants of people are greater than the gifts of nature (Cf Heilbroner 1972: 28). Now the wants of people are to a large extent controlled by the society and culture of the community. Different societies and cultures have different types of wants. This also applies to priorities. What may be a high priority want amongst one group of people may not be amongst another. It is our culture which helps to convert the different types of human need into specific wants for goods and services.[14] It is for this reason that economics, finance and mission have a strong cultural component.

If we were to categorise the types of needs which become human wants we might mention the following: basic needs, full-time workers, infrastructure, capital needs and special needs. By basic needs we mean things like food, shelter, clothing and transport. Already here we can see the importance of cultural factors. Much of Bonk’s (1991) work concerns the cultural issues around these basic needs. He is very critical of the affluence of western missionaries in their work of evangelisation especially amongst the poor. But because the work lacks an adequate cultural analysis it unfortunately becomes over judgmental and excessively critical. Since culture will determine wants regarding basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and transport we should not be surprised if people fulfil these needs in terms of their own cultural wants. It is true that the gospel calls us to transcend our culture but it also calls us to affirm it and find our humanity within it.

Money provides the possibility of full-time workers in the church. The decision to deploy full-time workers in this or that context is critical to the church’s mission. When it comes to full-time workers the Catholic church has always relied on its relatively large body of celibate priests and religious. The fact that they do not have families helps to make their missionary deployment relatively easy and their level of commitment is often very high. This makes the return on financial investment in full-time workers quite good.

Money also provides infrastructure for the kind of church we wish to be. Here we touch the very centre of what is the vision and what is the strategy in operation to achieve this vision. Once more these are missiological questions with a very large cultural component to them. It should be clear that different groups of people coming from different contexts will have different priorities in terms of both vision and strategy. The Catholic church has a central missionary vision and strategy as articulated in the Vatican II document Ad Gentes and the missionary encyclicals. When this is actualised from context to context by missionaries sourced from sending churches of diverse cultures it is clear that they will use different approaches to the way money will be used to articulate vision and strategy and to set up infrastructure required to make that vision and strategy happen. Here the question of which groups have access to the resources required to achieve their vision becomes important.

Access to resources means access to four main things of which finance is only one. The other three are people, time and authority. Each is a necessary component in the setting up of the church. In the early part of the history of the church in Southern Africa all these were in the hands of the religious congregations of missionaries usually coming from a single country having authority, the time, the (hu-) manpower and the control of funds. Then it was relatively easy to have a uniform vision and clear requirements in terms of infrastructure: build churches, produce catechisms, song books, provide schools and so forth. Today the situation is more complex. Finance is often in the hands of people in the first world with a particular vision of infra structural requirements. However with the drop of vocations in the first world it is clear that human resources are increasingly within the mission country. Similarly time resources are increasingly with this latter group of people. However control and authority today is in the hands of several groups of people rather than one. Consequently disagreement and conflict about praxis is inevitable

Money provides the possibility of access to capital projects and the fulfilment of special needs. By capital projects we refer to those high cost requirements which are often necessary at the beginning of a new strategy. Buildings, technical equipment, training and suchlike form the major part of such one-off capital requirements. It also provides for special needs which may emerge out of crisis and contingency. These are wants emerging from the moral imperatives of our faith as we respond to tragedy, conflict, disaster and the like.

When we answer the question: “What does money actually measure?” ; we have to bear in mind that all of the factors we have mentioned above come into play. The problem is not so much the clear relationship between money and the realisation of the wants emerging from the context and culture where the church does mission but rather the correlation between money spent and the various factors alluded to above. This correlation is difficult to establish precisely because of the complexity of the interaction of the many elements and factors which make up the system of money and mission. Our study of Finance-the-mission’s contribution to the mission of the church in South Africa is an attempt to try to indicate some of these elements and the relationship between them and to interpret this in terms of a culture based theological model: inculturation, which can provide us with a cultural linkage between the culture of money and the culture of mission.

3.2 Inculturation and the Emergence of the Local Church.

The inculturation process can be described in terms of a seven step process as outlined below in figure 2. These seven steps reflect a process which has occurred in the Catholic Church in South Africa since the first permanent Catholic foundation in 1837. In interpreting this model it is important to adopt the widest possible understanding of the terms presented here. If for example one were to interpret the terms “local people”, “local church” or “new church” in a merely geographical way then the model is rendered somewhat static. As I have indicated elsewhere (Bate 1994:105) these terms are better interpreted on a cultural level. In this way the model is also relevant in our contemporary context where urbanisation and migration is setting up new cultural expressions of “local people”, “sending church” and “local church”.

EVENT OR STEP	IDENTITY & ROLE OF MISSIONARY	IDENTITY & ROLE OF LOCAL PEOPLE	IDENTITY& PRAXIS OF THE NEW CHURCH	ROLE OF LOCAL CULTURE
1.Sending church called to mission	Christians of the Sending church	Not Christian	None	Seen as pagan
2. Sending church sends missionaries	Christians of sending church & explorers	Not Christian	None	Seen as Pagan
3.Missionaries arrive and evangelise using mode (culture/ vision) of the sending church	Evangelisers: witnesses of faith as expressed in the sending church	Followers of missionaries or not Christian	Follows that of the sending church	Seen as Pagan
4. church implantation; acculturation process occurs	Leaders of emerging local church	Followers of missionaries and reacting group(against missionary style and approach)	Follows that of the sending church; some specific local practices begin causing tension with the official local church	Officially pagan but many cultural religious practices continued some cultural values and some of cultural world‑view enters into the practice and self understanding of the local church
5. Transition Moment. Change in church leadership	Some leaders Some leaders Differing vision and praxis		Follows sending church with emerging local structures & ministries	Greater openness and participation of the local culture& world‑view in the local church
6. Inculturation process is more explicit & urgent. Local church emerges	Some local people become missionaries. They open up the inculturation process	Leaders	local identity emerges with a growing awareness of requirement to respond to local needs	More values of local community accepted into church praxis. New ministries approved but some tensions remain in the relationship with the universal church
7. LOCAL CHURCH	Local People sent as missionaries	Leaders	Local identity affirmed; unity with Universal church affirmed; missionary ideal emerges	Acceptance of local culture; transformation of it through Christian witness within; emergence of new Christian culture; Affirmation of difference and reaffirmation of unity. Sending of missionaries
*Fig 2 The process of the emergence of the local church* (Source Bate 1999d:276)

3.3 The Results under the Light of Inculturation

3.3.1 In the local dioceses

We have already noted that a large number of projects are concerned with primary evangelisation and church plantation. These correspond to steps 2-4 of our model (figure 2). The vast majority of these projects are submitted through the local dioceses which are clearly the primary agents of initial evangelisation and church plantation at this stage. We can estimate from table 5 that as much as 58% of the total allocated in the period 1979 - 1990 and 75% in the period from 1990 - 1997 went on projects of this kind: buildings, vehicles, pastoral materials and clergy livelihood.

On the level of the local dioceses then we can clearly say that Finance-the-mission continues to fund largely primary evangelisation and church plantation and it is doing this largely by providing physical materials in buildings, vehicles and other pastoral materials as well as providing the livelihood of a few clergy who cannot be yet supported by their own local church.

With regard to the local dioceses therefore we can answer some of the questions posed in 2.1.1 as follows. Finance-the-mission funding is intending to support the early steps in the inculturation process which correspond to what is referred to as “missionary activity” (AG6) whose special end “is the evangelisation and the implanting of the church among people or groups in which it has not yet taken root” (AG6).

However there are a couple of problems with this judgement. In the first place we know that the Catholic Church has been active in South Africa since the last century and the existing dioceses of this survey have, with only a couple of exceptions, been established since 1951. Further to this, we have shown elsewhere (Bate 1999c:259) that the number of Catholics in South Africa actually decreased between 1980 and 1990 by 17% as Christians moved to more indigenous and charismatic churches.

So where is all this effort going? Perhaps it is going into improvement of ecclesial structures and facilities and is more properly seen as part of the process of church plantation where the young church is rendered more permanent in its local context. This would correspond more properly to stage 4 of our model. If this is the case then issues of church leadership begin to become very important. We note that in step 4 local leaders begin to emerge and a certain tension can occur between the missionaries and the local church leaders in terms of vision and praxis. We also note that the resolution of this conflict must lead to local leadership and the missionaries taking a supportive rather than an executive role. Can our results throw some light on this conundrum? Table 7 give us some idea as to the identity of the applicants. In the period 1979-1990, 68% of the applicants through the local church were missionaries and 32% South African. In the latter period 66% were missionaries and 34% South African. These figures demonstrate the continuing dependence of the South African church on foreign missionaries. Around the beginning of our survey period, Fr Hulsen in his 1979 report (Hulsen 1979:143) wrote: “As far as Bishops, priests, and religious are concerned, the church is at this moment predominantly white and ‘foreign’...”. This is reflected in the identity of the applicants for funding. When we look at the amounts, we find no change between the two periods: 70% to missionaries and 30% to South Africans. We conclude that relatively little would appear to have changed in this regard from the support Finance-the-mission is providing to the local dioceses here.

Local vocations have begun to grow quite rapidly during this period. This means that there is a growing increase in the percentage of South Africans amongst the clergy. However, this increase in the percentage of South African clergy does not seem to be reflected in those applying for and receiving funding from Finance-the-mission. As the proportion of local and black clergy increases, there is no doubt that different pastoral or missionary agents will have differing ideas about what are missionary and pastoral priorities. Here too is a cultural issue.

3.3.2 Culturally mediated pastoral responses to culturally mediated human needs.

The model of inculturation we have considered above focuses largely on the diachronic dimension of inculturation. However, on a pastoral level we need to take also a more synchronic look at how culture affects mission and ministry at a point in time. We have shown elsewhere (Bate 1998a:113) that when we consider the mission of the church in a context in a particular period of history we may describe much of its missionary ministry as “culturally mediated pastoral responses to culturally mediated human needs”.

When we compare this model to the results of our study several things emerge. According to Hulsen’s (1979:132) survey the first three priorities of the local church in the late 1970's, were formation, training and recruitment of local leadership. One can say that these are the culturally mediated needs of the Christian community of the time. Our study shows that on the level of the local church, in the first period, about 15% of the total went to projects concerned with formation. This actually declined to 8% in the later period. We have already noted that the lion’s share went to projects of institutional improvement in the particular churches. Youth work, essential to recruitment, receives a mere 5% in the earlier period and a minuscule 2% in the later period..

When we look at the projects Finance-the-mission has funded through local dioceses right up to 1997 we are forced to conclude that little if anything has changed since Hulsen’s time. Indeed the inward looking attitude he speaks of above seems to explain why the projects seem to be going into the improvement of ecclesial structures and facilities and is more properly seen as part of the process of church plantation where the young church is rendered more permanent in its local context. However the question remains: Should so a large slice of the foreign aid be going there?

A further concern of Hulsen was the question of Africanisation. He considered the situation in 1979 to be one of a church which was overwhelmingly black in the hands of leaders who are overwhelmingly white and foreign (Hulsen 1979:143). Clearly this brings problems with it particularly when we consider the role of cultural mediation in pastoral response to contextual needs. Whilst in some areas the proportion of African requests has risen, in the requests through local dioceses, table 7 indicates that funds still go largely to missionaries.

3.3.3 Projects submitted through the SACBC

The projects submitted through the national level of the church would expect to reflect two main characteristics: that they are projects which concern the church on a more general level and that they would tend to reflect a deeper level of inculturation. This latter point may need some explanation. Inculturation is seen as the emergence of the local church and part of this emergence concerns the setting up of “those ministries and institutions which are required for leading and spreading the life of the people of God...” (AG 19). Whilst the text refers to a “Particular church” (a diocese) it is more relevant on the Conference level in South Africa where the Catholic Church is relatively small. It is on this national level that many initiatives to localise the church have been launched: The National Seminaries; the National Pastoral Institutions, Lumko and Khanyisa; the Pastoral Plan; statements and documents on church-state relationships especially in the apartheid period, and latterly initiatives such as the Parliamentary Liaison Office. It is on the broader level that the church finds itself strong enough to set up initiatives of this kind whereas on the level of the dioceses, as we have seen, most are still concerned with church plantation and consolidation.

Consequently we would expect to find projects on this level which would correspond to later steps in our inculturation process outlined in figure 2. And indeed this proves to be the case. Using table 5 we are able to calculate that almost all the projects were of this nature with only 9% of the total amounts allocated in the period 1979-1990 for primary projects of buildings, vehicles, pastoral materials and clergy support. In the second period from 1990-1997, this rises to 34% but this is almost entirely due to building extensions to the National Seminary which experienced a shortage of space as vocations grew rapidly in the 1990's. And so even this building projects can be assigned to stage 4 and 5 of our diagram and seen as part of the ongoing deeper level of inculturation.

A relatively large share of the funds were for formation: 20% in the first period and 8% in the second. This is a much larger share than on the local level, reflecting the concern of the church at the National level to support leadership development. Youth work is also more of a priority on this level: 13% of the total in the first period though declining disappointingly to 4% in the second period.[15] We must conclude that youth work continues to be an underdeveloped area within Catholic Mission in South Africa.

On the national level the Catholic Church seems to behave as a church that is further along the inculturation process than many of the local dioceses. The SACBC provides an important forum and empowerment arm of the inculturation process in South Africa. Funding of SACBC projects would seem to be a very important exercise which provides the possibility for new and more creative local initiatives to emerge. It seems that these are the projects which explore new frontiers of being church in the South African context and which deal with important issues of the future which are more easily cast aside in the local areas where immediate basic needs are more pressing. We would have to say that these are the projects which are more clearly responding to the challenges of Hulsen (1979) as well as to some of the priorities revealed in my own collaborative studies (Bate 1996).

The question of the applicants is also very important. Does a missionary coming from another local church see pastoral priorities in the same way as a pastoral worker coming from the local church in which he is working? Cultural differences between the two would indicate this to be unlikely. However table 7 does indicate that the percentage of the amount being received by South African applicants through the SACBC increased substantially during the period under review. This probably reflects an increase in control of national projects by South Africans. The results comparing SACBC projects and local diocese projects with the differing preponderance of local church and foreign workers would seem to bear out this conclusion. More research is required but overseas donors should at least be aware that priorities are culture conditioned and they as overseas people are more likely to understand priorities coming from people of their own culture than those coming from people of another one. This means that certain types of people from ceratin cultural backgrounds will find it easier to fulfil the requirements of local support. They will know how to do it. This leads to the question whether or not donors should also be involved in empowering disadvantaged groups in this regard through education and training.

4Some Final Reflections

4.1 A Church that Shares.

This study impinges on many missiological issues. The support that richer local churches give to poorer ones is an expression of the unity of the church and the sharing that such communion requires as expressed in Acts 4:32-37. However, given the global context, such sharing needs to be also interpreted within a context which has developed symbols and culture texts like “aid” “development”, “third world”, “first world”, “colonialism”, “neo-colonialism”, “Global apartheid” and so forth.[16]

So financial support from local churches outside South Africa may also come wrapped in culture texts of this nature speaking the message of such texts whether we want it or not. We have not felt it necessary to open this debate within this study since to do so would be to prolong it and complexify it even further. Nonetheless it is an important area for ongoing missiological research in the area of contextual missiology of funding.[17]

Sharing the church's resources also raises the question of access to those resources. This is an area we have looked at in some detail. It is clear from Finance-the-mission's policy that access is controlled at two points. Firstly the “Ordinary”[18] or religious superior on the regional, provincial or general level must approve projects or they are not considered. Secondly, it is a board at Finance-the-mission who makes the decisions regarding funding and in this way we must see that a large proportion of the access is controlled by the “donor” agency. The study of these two control points for access is obviously an important area for future missiological research. Question like “Who is the Ordinary?”, “Are there conflicts in vision and style between different local authorities?”, “Who is chosen to makes up the board of Finance-the- mission?”, “Which interests do they represent in the church?”, “What models of Mission are being propagated?”, “Are there members of the recipient local churches represented on the board?” and so forth would be an important areas for such an investigation.

We must also recognise the difference between the context and culture of the sending church and the context and culture of the receiving church. This article is written from the perspective of the receiving church to which the author belongs. In a comment to a draft version of this work a representative of Finance-the-mission commented that the ecclesial and socio political context of the home country imposes strictures on the vision and praxis of donors like Finance-the-mission.

Finance-the-mission, notwithstanding being a church-related institution, has to compete with many other organisations for the goodwill of the donors. And for the same reason has to uphold its credibility and seriousness. For that reason it has to publish open annual accounts, it has to have public auditing done each year of its projects, etc. All of these regulations are stipulated in the law of [the country] which authorizes organisations like Finance-the-mission to solicit donations. For sure, Finance-the-mission has to be open to new developments within the church, has to represent “missionary” interests rather than “established”ones, has to view the good of a particular local church as much as possible from the perspective of that church.

Our own investigation has focussed in the issue of access within the local church of South Africa. It would appear that those who are zealous, know about Finance-the-mission or other donor organisations, have a plan, can put it down in project form, and know how to motivate the project, are the ones who have access to Finance-the-mission's support. We have shown how these criteria might tend to favour overseas missionaries rather than members from the local church itself. Clearly then not all pastoral workers could be said to have the same access to overseas funding in general. This is not only an issue of full-time or part time church workers. For we can also say that not all full-time workers within the South African church will have the same access. There are cultural and psychological factors at work here which render certain types of people coming from certain cultural backgrounds advantageous in this regard. The western culture and the so called “type A personality” would seem to be examples of the kind of culture and kind of personality which could be deemed to have an advantage. Here is one area where education and empowerment on the part of Finance-the-mission itself might be important. If the local church is to grow in maturity it is essential that the local leaders be cultivated and empowered in order to lead competently. Control mechanisms may need to be set up to help local leaders enter into the culture of ecclesial sharing and funding from richer parts of the church. Nevertheless the question of access becomes very important in step 5 of our inculturation model (Figure 2) since the transition moment represented there implies a change in church leadership with some local Christians as leaders and some missionaries as leaders and with differences in vision and praxis between the two groups.

Requests for funding of the projects and praxis of the local church also require a sense of mission and praxis within the church itself so that goals can be identified, priorities formulated and strategies mapped out. The Catholic Church in South Africa has spent a large amount of the period we have investigated doing precisely that. With the launch of the Pastoral Plan in 1989 after nine years of consultation and planning, this local church has mapped out something of the way it wishes to be church in our part of the world. Such a plan requires ongoing reflection on praxis in order that we continue to discern the presence of the Spirit leading us on this journey. This study wishes to be a contribution to this ongoing reflection. Hopefully we have provided some area of examination and reflection for the local church in South Africa and those who have shown an interest in supporting it with resources.

4.2 Conclusion: An Inculturated Church or Not?

When we consider the emergence of the local church in this context we may say that this study has shown clear signs of such an emergence particularly on the national level. In our model of the process of inculturation we have said the identity and praxis of the new church at step 6 as the local church emerges is one where “local identity emerges with a growing awareness of requirement to respond to local needs”. We have shown how many of the projects funded by Finance-the-mission on the SACBC level, reflect and promote this identity and praxis.

On the local diocesan level we see a situation where the preoccupation is with an earlier stage of the emergence of the local church. It remains a church largely concerned with plantation and primary evangelisation needs. Many of the projects here mirror a church which is not self reliant and not self propagating. One would have to ask for how long will the Catholic Church in South Africa continue to be dependent for primary resources, buildings and vehicles in particular, on overseas sources. South Africa is rated as an “upper-middle-income” country by the World Bank (World Development Report 1997). The problem is that it is a country of wealth and poverty living together. The same report shows that it also has the second highest Gini index (0.58) in the world.[19] Some efforts have been made within South Africa to set up a programme of resources redistributed within the local church. The Bishops Lenten Appeal is the main systematic attempt on this level.[20]From a letter for the Lenten Appeal Campaign 1995[21] In 1996 R2.8m was generated from this source. This compares with R3.4m received in the same year from Finance-the-mission (table 3). Other attempts at redistribution also occur within specific dioceses, especially the richer ones. Here the aim is to tax more wealthy parishes in order to support projects for needy usually within the diocese but sometimes also outside. Nevertheless this remains an area where much work needs to be done in the future.

This study has also presented us with warnings about our present practices and challenges for the future. In the first place we have noted that the nature of the funding exercise, its context and its culture present a danger that the system is likely to promote projects which are a western cultural pastoral response to the emerging culturally mediated pastoral needs. Projects which have a clear goal, a clear time frame and a clear result which can be measured quantitatively are easier to submit as projects and easier to assess. The question needs to be asked therefore about how can donor agencies and the local church here be more creative in empowering projects which may not be so easy to describe and motivate. Cultural pastoral responses coming from an African cultural mediation are often likely to emphasise the relational and the communal rather than the tangible and the material. How can such projects receive a fair hearing and motivation?

We have already demonstrated that many ministry initiatives are emerging in the South African context which do not fit easily into Finance-the-mission's categories. Projects concerned with healing, the empowerment of women and inculturation (Bate 1996) would be examples of this. Finance-the-mission is also constrained by the demands of its own context and culture to which it must remain true. Thus the demand for creativity and initiative in requesting aid for pastoral projects must fall on the pastoral actors in the local context.

The mission to Africanise the church and the issue of youth remain vitally important. Vocations in the country are on the rise and this is a pleasing development. But only a minimal amount of time and money is being spent on this central group of Christians. Youth work is possibly the greatest missionary challenge facing the Catholic Church in South Africa at this time. The local church needs to quickly find resources of people, strategies and finance to do this work in an effective way. No easy task!

In sharing its resources the church shows that it is one body in one Lord (Rom 12). This ongoing expression of the church's unity touches the fundamental essence of its mission as well: “that the may all be one as you Father are in me and I in you (Jn 17,20). Studies of the financial dimension of the church's mission are few and far between. This is a pity since it is such an important area. This particular study has been a small attempt to redress this issue and provided some filling for the gap. Our study has raised more questions than it has answered. But this is perhaps the true nature of research. Hopefully it will contribute to more debate in missiological circles about issues of money and resources and in that way help the church to continue in its mission in accordance with the will of the Father.

References Cited

Alexander, T

1996 Unravelling Global Apartheid: An Overview of World Politics. London: Polity.

1965Ad Gentes Divinitus Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity. Vatican II.

Bate, S C

1991 Evangelisation in the South African Context. Rome: Centre "Cultures and Religions" - Pontifical Gregorian University.

Bate, S C

1994 “Inculturation: The local church emerges.” Missionalia 22,2:93-117.

Bate, S C

1995 Inculturation and Healing: Coping-Healing in South African Christianity. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster.

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1996 Serving Humanity. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster.

Bate, S C

1998a “Method in contextual missiology.” Missionalia 26,2:150-185.

Bate, S C

1998b “Inculturation in South Africa.” Grace and Truth 15,3:26-43.

Bate, S C

1999a “One Mission, Two Churches.” In Brain, J & Denis, P eds. The Catholic Church in Contemporary South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster: 5-36.

Bate, S C

1999b “The Church under Apartheid.” In Brain, J & Denis, P eds. The Catholic Church in Contemporary South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster: 151-186.

Bate, S C

1999c “Does Religious Healing Work?” Neue Zeitschrift fur Missionswissenschaft 55,4: 259-278.

Bate, S C

1999d Inculturation of the Christian Mission to Heal in the South African Context. NY: Edwin Mellen.

Bate, S C

2000a “Money, the Catholic Church and Settler culture in South Africa: The leaders of the mission” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae (Forthcoming).

Bate, S C

2000b “Money, the Catholic Church and Settler culture in South Africa: The role of Religious Institutes” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae (Forthcoming).

Bonk, J J

1991 Missions and Money. NY: Orbis.

Bühlmann, W

1977 The Coming of the Third Church. Slough, UK: St Paul.

Brain, J

1997 50^th Year Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Golden Jubilee 1947-1997. Pretoria: SACBC.

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1999 The Catholic Church in Contemporary Southern Africa. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster.

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nd Guiding rules for the allocation of funds for pastoral projects.

Finance-the-mission 2

nd Guidelines for the Funding of Pastoral Projects.

Hartin, P J, Connor, B F & Decock, P B (eds)

1991 Becoming a Creative Local Church. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster.

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1987 The Making of Economic Society. London: Prentice-Hall.

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1979 The Churches and Apartheid in South Africa, with Special Reference to the Catholic Church. Cyclostyled, Bound Book. n.p.

Maslow, A H

1970 Motivation and Personality. NY: Harper and Row.

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1976 OMI: Mazenod, Lesotho.

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1978 “What is so new about inculturation?” Gregorianum 59:721‑737.

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Todaro, M

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1997 NY: World Bank.

[1]See Bate 2000a and b for recently published works in the series.

[2]For an understanding of the Catholic Church in South Africa as a settler church for whites and a mission church for blacks see Bate 1999a.

[3]Statements of the vision goals and method of Finance-the-mission were found in documentation provided by the organisation during a visit to its headquarters.

[5]The South African currency. This is a better measure of the buying power of the donations. The SA rand fell from 0.87 per $US in January 1979 to 4.90 per $US in December 1997 (Source Financial Mail 5 Jan 1979; 19 Dec 1997).

[6]During 1990 the organisation changed its computer system as a result some figures for 1990 appear in table 2 and others in table 3. The total for that year is given by combining these figures.

[7]See SACBC 1989 for the details of the Pastoral plan of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa. For theological reflections on this plan see Hartin et al 1991 and Bate 1991 & 1996

[8]The subject of the inculturation process is the local church and Roest Crollius (1978:733) describes it in terms of three moments: translation: as the local people are initially evangelised by translation of cultural categories of the missionaries, assimilation: as values and practices of the local culture are assimilated into church practice and transformation as the local church transforms the local culture into a Christian one.

[9]Included under the figure for churches is that for building priests’ houses. This is included here since many projects include both items together whereas very few are purely for priests’ residences alone.

[10]See SACBC 1989, Bate 1991, Hartin et al 1991.

[11]In his study of the Catholic Church in South Africa, Hulsen (1979:151) made the comment: “In no other Church of South Africa do we find that 80% of the laity are black, whilst 80% of the clergy are white. And so the voices in Africa that speak of Africanisation, indigenisation and incarnation of the church should be listened to with more than just interest”. This concern expressed at the beginning of the period we are considering needs to be tested here to see whether we can verify an increasing financial empowerment of black Catholics in this study. See also Oblate Orientations 1976:10 quoted in Hulsen (1979:144).

[12]From 1974-1981 Archbishop Fitzgerald a native of Ireland was president. From 1981-1987 Archbishop Hurley was president and from 1987-1988 it was Bishop Orsmond. Both of these are white South Africans. From 1988-1993 Bishop, later Archbishop, Napier, a “Coloured” South African was president and from 1994 to the present the president is Bishop Ndlovu a black native of Swaziland. Source Brain 1997:23.

[13]Enculturation refers to the process of learning one’s own culture which is a process that all children go through. For children of practising Christians this will include a Christian component.

[14]Maslow’s (cf 1970) famous hierarchy of needs proposes a psychological structure of five levels of human need from the most basic (food, air and water) to the most transcendent (self-actualisation). Whilst this hierarchy may tell us something about the ontological structure of the human person in general the point we are making here is that these needs will always be articulated in terms of cultural categories.

[15]All these figures can be determined by calculation from the data available in table 5

[16]The term “Global Apartheid” has been coined to illustrate the relationship between the Rich, and predominantly white nations of the world and the poor and predominantly non-white nations. In this relationship the white nations are accused of attempting to protect their privileged lifestyles through immigration restrictions and economic exploitation of the underdeveloped nations of the world. See Alexander 1996.

[17]Contextual Missiology is a missiological approach which examines the contextual and cultural dimensions of mission using interdisciplinary mediations and multi-disciplinary conclusions see Bate 1998a for an overview of the methodology.

[18]Canon 134 §1 uses the term ordinary to refer to bishops, vicars general and episcopal vicars and the major superiors of clerical religious institutes and clerical societies of apostolic life of pontifical right.

[19]The Gini coefficient is a statistical measure of aggregate inequality which can vary between 0 perfect equality and 1 perfect inequality. It is used to measure the income distribution within a country. Those which have high inequality typically fall between 0.5 and 0.7 whereas those countries with relatively equitable income distributions fall between 0.2 and 0.35. Source: Todaro 1989:152.

[20]The Bishops’ Lenten Appeal was the first attempt on a national basis to develop a local source of funding for the various projects of the church. The ethos of the “Lenten Appeal” is that the lenten period of fasting and sacrifice should also be the occasion for alms giving and charity. The money raised by the “Lenten Appeal” is used for the work of the church and for the poor.

Year	Projects through SACBC		Projects through Local Dioceses
	No	Amount (rands)	No	Amount (rands)
1979-1990	128	4169508	540	11570653
1990-1997	60	4370567	270	18668401
Total	188	8540075	810	30239054
Table 1: Total number of projects and amounts donated in rands (1979-1997)

Year	Projects through SACBC		Projects through Local Dioceses
	No	Amount (rands)	No	Amount (rands)
1979	21	222880	68*	601850
1980	6	376173	58	611571
1981	12	307951	42	380974
1982	10	147862	37	340443
1983	13	326505	38	395788
1984	6	94200	39	434098
1985	5	91013	37	770011
1986	17	688419	62	2167168
1987	10	495284	41	1409263
1988	11	449173	39	1397637
1989	9	393001	47	1909148
1990a	8	577047	32	1152702
Total	128	4169508	540	11570653
Table 2: Yearly totals of number of projects and amounts Donated in rands (1979-1990)

Year	Projects through SACBC		Projects through Local Dioceses
	No	Amount (R)	No	Amount (R)
1990b	1	15870	7	401987
1991	3	78192	23	1273715
1992	15	611978	78	5574084
1993	10	947892	39	2408608
1994	8	810757	43	2740655
1995	8	379966	42	3589405
1996	9	1027663	31	2342340
1997*	6	498249	7	337607
Total	60	4370567	270	18668401
Table 3: Yearly totals of number of projects and amounts donated in rands (1990-1997)