​The centenary celebrations of the ANC and their determination to dedicate the country to the ancestral spirits sparked nation wide controversy. How are we as Christians to respond? What does the Bible say concerning the spirits of our ancestors? To whom should South Africa be dedicated? Are there examples in history of other nations that have invoked the spirits of their ancestors? What were the results in those cases?
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Celebrations
The African National Congress started off the year by throwing itself a lavish birthday party in Bloemfontein. To celebrate its journey from anti-apartheid movement to ruling party, they scheduled a golf outing, champagne toasts, and an inter-faith service which involved slaughtering a bull and invoking the ancestral spirits.

Ritual Slaughter
With drums pounding and chants filling the air, the ANC president, Jacob Zuma, initiated the traditional cleansing ceremony by ritually sacrificing a bull, killing it with a spear, while it was tied to a tree. ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, explained: “traditionally the act of slaughtering has different meanings. All nations have a way of celebration through slaughter… it is the same but in different circumstances.” The inter-faith service included messages and blessings from representatives of all major religions, including Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Rastafarian, and traditional Animist witchdoctors. Despite the ANC, secretary general’s assertion that “all nations have a way of celebration through slaughter…” journalists could not think of how the Queen of England, for example, marks national events by ritual slaughter of a helpless animal.

​According to World Council of Churches official, Wesley Ariarajah: Mission work has become unnecessary for “We must not take God somewhere — He is everywhere already.” All claims of uniqueness, he added are harmful in a world of religious pluralism.

The 7th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches took place in Canberra, Australia, from 7 — 20th February 1991 with characteristic pagan ritual.

The opening procession to the large worship tent on the campus of the Australian National University were made to symbolically pass through the fire. The smoke made by burning gum leaves was described by the Ecumenical Press Service as “a traditional cleansing process for Aborigines in Australia” and was thought to signify “the cleansing and refining fire of the Holy Spirit.”

An Aboriginal runner carried a traditional “message stick” ahead of the WCC officials to ask the assembled Aboriginal elders permission to enter the land. Once the permission was ritually granted the WCC officials proceeded through the smoke.