On Easter Sunday, one of the largest mass wedding ceremonies ever held in South Africa saw at least 800 couples go down the aisle.
The International Pentecostal Holiness Church performs mass weddings three times a year: at Easter, in December, and in September, when it celebrates its founding anniversary in 1962.
The wedding was held at the Jerusalem congregation of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church at 62 miles (100 kilometres) north of Johannesburg.
According to Reuters, the church approves polygamous marriage, which is widespread in several African cultures.
The church is one of the biggest congregations in the nation, with more than three million members.
Current spouses wore colourful clothes to the ceremony on Sunday, while newlyweds chose classic white gowns.
“I’m extremely happy today; it’s a special day. I am incredibly grateful to be a member of the Mahluku family at this time. Lebogile Mamatela, 38, a government employee who later married the man who bore her child, was reported as stating, “It’s a lovely feeling.
Roto Mahluku, her new spouse, is 40 years old, a church member, and has three kids from his marriage to Ditopa Mahluku, whom he wed 16 years ago.
In 1993, Mr Mahluku became a church member.
In her words, Ms. Mahluku’s husband’s second marriage “fulfilled what God has planned for us, fulfilling the scripture that states women will be leaning towards one man.”
Armed guards and metal detectors were deployed to screen the congregation before the ceremony on Sunday.
The event is celebrated as the church struggles with a leadership crisis.
Following the passing of the church’s leader, Glayton Modise, in 2016, a succession conflict among the three brothers erupted.
Two years after Modise’s passing, a shootout reportedly occurred at the church in 2018, according to local media sources.
A rivalry between various factions at the congregation’s other church resulted in a siege that left five people dead in 2020.
