Mary-Anne Plaatjies van Huffel


Mary-Anne Plaatjies van Huffel was a South African pastor and academic. She was the first female minister to be ordained by a Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Africa.
Plaatjies van Huffel was educated at the Bergriver High School in Wellington, and studied at University of the Western Cape, the University of South Africa and Pretoria University. She was the holder of two doctorates in Theology, one from UNISA and one from University of Pretoria.
This honor was bestowed on her during the General Synod of URCSA in Namibia 2012. She taught Church Polity at Stellenbosch University. She was elected as one of eight presidents of the World Council of Churches at the General Assembly of the WCC in Busan, Korea, 2013. She would have served in this position until 2021, however she died at age 60 on 19 May 2020 from complications of undisclosed surgery.

Publications

  1. Reading the Belhar Confession – as historical text in Reformed Churches in South Africa and the struggle for justice – Remembering 1960–1990, Sun media, 2013
  2. The Belhar Confession – as historical text
  3. The remarkable career of Christina Landman, pioneer feminist theologian, rooted in the Reformed tradition
  4. The search for a common understanding with regard to ecology and justice in the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa Studia Historicae Ecclesiasticae XXXIX, December 2013
  5. The URCSA’S engagement on legal matters in South Africa – 102 – NGTT Deell 54 Supplementum 4, 2013 p. 101–113.
  6. The Belhar Confession: Born in the struggle against apartheid in Southern Africa, guiding light today 2013. pp.1–11.
  7. Michel Foucault se historiografiese benadering as lens in historiese ondersoeke Acta Theologica Jaargang 32 No. 1 Junie 2012
  8. Die stryd om die aard en omvang van die tugreg by die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk ’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 68 2012,
  9. Die reis met kerkeenwording tussen die Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk in Suider-Afrika en die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Afrika
  10. Patriarchy as empire: a theological reflection Studia Historicae Ecclesiasticae, December/December 2011 ● Volume XXXVII ● Supplement.
  11. Control, secede, vested rights and ecclesiastical property. Studia Historicae Ecclesiasticae Vol. 37, September 2011
  12. The Institutionalization of Christian women’s organisations: from docile recipients to agents of change in Studia Historicae Ecclesiasticae Vol. 37 May 2011.
  13. Die kerkreg en kerkregering van die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Sendingkerk in NGTT 2011..
  14. Vroue in die teologiese antropologie in die Afrikaanse Gereformeerde tradisie in Studia Historicae Ecclesiasticae Vol 31. 2005.