Antananarivo, Madagascar - Antananarivo’s skyline is full of churches. Dozens of old church steeples cascade down the almost vertically steep hills of the Madagascan capital. Christianity is a powerful force on the huge Indian Ocean island of 17 million people, where 41 percent are Christians, 7 percent Muslims, while the rest pursue indigenous beliefs based on ancestor worship. For centuries the badge of the educated elite, Christianity, has been used to legitimise kings, foment rebellion or start revolutions.
Inside grand stone buildings, Anglican congregations in Antananarivo receive communion and sing hymns translated into Malagasy by Welsh missionaries in the 19th century. In red-brick churches built by French colonists, Catholic worshippers chime bells, light candles and burn incense. As in many African countries, the historical tug-of-war between British and French missionaries traditionally split the balance of power between Catholics and Anglicans. Yet both now face a new challenge.
“I need more faith,” said Odile Andriananisolotoandro who was baptised a Catholic, but has just joined a brand new Malagasy sect that practices miracle healing among other things. “I am more aware of who is God in my new church.” The 27-year-old felt something was missing from the regular Sunday visits to the local Catholic church she had been making since childhood. “In my Catholic church I am happy but I am sleeping. It’s the routine, it’s about the same programme, the same speech,” she said. “I need more, I want something happening in my life.”
Each year, the pews in the old Catholic and Protestant churches grow a bit emptier. Religious leaders say Madagascans are switching to younger religious sects. The spiritual marketplace has more choice, and more people than ever are choosing alternative brands of the gospel. Pulpit-thumping born-again churches, sects from Brazil and new charismatic Malagasy faiths are sprouting up and enjoying growing interest. Religious leaders are worried that a once religiously conservative island could be changing. “We are losing too many faithful to these religious sects,” said Jean Paul Randriamanana, the Catholic archbishop of Antananarivo.
“Why? I suspect because there is too much structure in the old churches that inhibits people expressing their feelings.” Randriamanana said sects were tempting people with religious freedom. “It’s a real danger for the church. When people enter into sects, they get brainwashed. They feel free. They think there is another way to God than through the blessing of the priests.” Yet for many Madagascans, it was this desire to cut out the middleman that drove them away from the established churches in the first place. Oni Rabearivelo recently joined the Mormon church or Church of the Latter Day Saints – an American sect that has been going since the 19th century with its own prophets and an additional testament. Mormonism now claims 2,000 followers in Madagascar.
Growing popularity of sects
Rabearivelo used to be Anglican, but found it too stuffy and authoritarian. “(The Anglican church) is quite boring,” she said. “You go there and you don’t read the Bible but someone reads it for you. There are three hours of sermons, listening to one person’s view.” She said she was attracted to the Mormon church because it was democratic: “Everyone gets a chance to do a reading. There is no one person specialising in preaching.” Madagascan authorities are worried by the growing popularity of sects.
In March, the Interior Ministry closed down one of the island’s biggest sects, the Brazil-based Universal Church of God, two months after one of its priests was jailed for publicly burning Catholic images and sculptures, calling them idolatrous. Ministry officials told Reuters the church was closed for failing to apply for a licence. Church members, none of whom would be named, said they thought Prime Minister Jacques Sylla, a devout Catholic, had personally ordered the closure. “We don’t know why they want to close us,” said one. “The priest who burned idols is in jail, so why not let us be? They are afraid of us.”
Analysts say established churches remain politically powerful. President Marc Ravalomanana, himself a fervent Christian, was re-elected vice-president of the Anglican church last year. The churches were crucial in mobilising the popular support Ravalomanana needed to oust former president Didier Ratsiraka during the 2002 political crisis over a disputed election. Ravalomanana’s supporters say the exodus of faithful to sects is merely a sign of growing freedom of association. “New religious associations are growing because people are attracted to their independence from authority,” said Charles Rakotonirina, general secretary of the Anglican church. “Surely this just reflects better cultural liberty.”