The United Congregational Church of Southern Africa traces it's beginnings in Africa to the arrival, on 31st March 1799, of four missionaries sent to the then British Cape Colony by the London Missionary Society. From the vision and mission of that small beginning 200 years ago, uncounted thousands have served the cause of God's kingdom in five countries of southern Africa: Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Early beginnings at the Cape. In the year 1806 Britain sent the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment to the Cape as an occupying force. These Scottish soldiers were an unusually devout group of Presbyterians. Although they had no chaplain or minister of their own, they formed themselves into "The Calvinist Society" which met every week for prayer, Bible study and public worship. They continued their religious activities until 1814, always inviting oassing missionaries to preach for them.
In 1812 the Rev George Thom arrived at the Cape. He was a Presbyterian minister on his way to India as a missionary with the London Missionary Society (LMS). After meeting with the Calvinist Society he decided to stay at the Cape and the first Presbyterian Church was established there. In 1814 the Scottish regiment was withdrawn from the Cape and the Presbyterian congregation was almost totally depleted. In 1818 the Rev George Thom resigned his charge and the first Presbyterian Church virtually came to an end.
The setback was only temporary. In 1824 the once more growing number of Presbyterians re-established the congregation and built a church. Completed in 1827, it stands to this day in Cape Town and is known as "the Mother Church" of the Presbyterians in Southern Africa. The Rev John Adamson arrived from Scotland in 1827 to be the first minister of St Andrew's as the congregation is called. He served as their minister until 1841.
The United Church of Zambia came into being in 1965 and has since evolved into a very large protestant Church. The UCZ is the fruit of missionary labour of love of about four mainline separate missions namely; the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society in 1884; the London Missionary Society in the northern part of Zambia in 1885; the Primitive Methodists who were later on joined by the Wesleyan Methodists in 1886 and the Church of Scotland (the Presbyterians)I in North–Eastern Zambia in 1885.
The formation of the United Church of Zambia was truly driven by the African spirit of integration.
The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM) grew out of the union of three different missionary bodies. The London Missionary Society (LMS), the Friends Foreign Mission Association (FFMA) and the French Protestant Mission (FPM). These bodies united on the 18th of August 1968 in Toamasina on the east coast of Madagascar to form FJKM.