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This article tells about the life of the famous leader of the Southampton uprising of 1831, Nat Turner. In the course of the research, the author analyzes the main milestones of his early biography, dwelling in detail on the problems of origin, education, attitude to religion. In the final part, the author offers his own version of the interpretation of the mystical revelations described by Nat Turner himself from the words of lawyer Thomas Gray, linking them with the preparation of an armed rebellion and tracing on their basis the evolution of religious and political ideas of this figure, as well as highlighting the main causes and prerequisites of the uprising. This work is the first attempt in Russian historiography to highlight and critically analyze the facts of Nat Turner’s early biography based on a significant number of sources and Western scientific literature. The main method of research is materialistic dialectics, which allows us to consider the issues of the biography of the leader of the Southampton Uprising in dynamics in accordance with the principle of historicism. Narrative (ideographic), retrospective, comparative, historical-genetic and historical-typological methods are used as specific historical methods in this work.

Using a theological literary study, this article argues that, while there have been significant shifts in the dress code of the ordained clergy of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, these changes are often driven by uninformed personal usages rather than theological principles. This leads to confusion in the usage of liturgical wear and vestments, resulting in marked differences between orders of ordained ministry and the separation of clergy and laity. Furthermore, the inconsistent and often contradictory ecclesiology of ministerial dress leads to tensions along ecumenical lines and does not promote image of the one body of Christ. This article argues that the Methodist Church of Southern Africa needs to revisit its ecclesiology relating to the ministry of the ordained, and for their dress code in their ministry to be relevant in Southern Africa. Contribution: This article contributes towards the ongoing discussion in the Methodist Church of Southern Africa on the usage of liturgical wear and vestments in the practice of ordained ministry. It seeks to clarify the history of the use of clerical wear and other vestments, so that a common understanding and usage can be employed that will negate ecclesiological confusion and promote ecumenical relationships.

Violence is an instrument of segregation, whether it manifests physically, emotionally, verbally or by any other means. Can the church be an instrument of reconciliation where people have been divided through violence? This article explores the reconciliatory role of the Sacrament of Holy Communion in the Methodist tradition, which has as a Christian denomination, experienced many threats of division in its history. Holy Communion, it is argued, is the one place where people, who may find every reason not to be together, are invited to share in an event which unites them.