Church of the White Bird
Encyclopedia
The Church of the White Bird (or Shiri Chena Church) was a Christian church
in Rhodesia
(now eastern Zimbabwe
) that combined
Christian
religious beliefs with traditional Shona
symbolism.
The Church of the White Bird was founded by Matthew Chigaga Zwimba, the son of a government-appointed chief of the Zwimba Reserve. After years of difficulty with the white authorities (including being dismissed as a teacher in 1907), Zwimba founded the church in 1915 by physically occupying the existing Methodist
station. The Church of the White Bird was the first of a number of independent Shona churches
.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
in Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
(now eastern Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
) that combined
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
religious beliefs with traditional Shona
Shona people
Shona is the name collectively given to two groups of people in the east and southwest of Zimbabwe, north eastern Botswana and southern Mozambique.-Shona Regional Classification:...
symbolism.
The Church of the White Bird was founded by Matthew Chigaga Zwimba, the son of a government-appointed chief of the Zwimba Reserve. After years of difficulty with the white authorities (including being dismissed as a teacher in 1907), Zwimba founded the church in 1915 by physically occupying the existing Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
station. The Church of the White Bird was the first of a number of independent Shona churches
African Initiated Church
An African Initiated Church is any of a number of Christian churches independently started in Africa by Africans and not by missionaries from another continent, in which they sometimes hold to one or more African tribal belief systems syncretised with Christianity.-Nomenclature:A variety of...
.