Esthablishment of the SCA

On July 28th, 1896, the Students' Christian Association (SCA) was formed through the work of missionary workers. One of these were Andrew Murray, a South African pastor who championed the South African Revival of 1860 through the invitation of American missionary workers to Southern African and the work of the World Student Christian Fellowship (WSCF).

The SCA/SCM

After the political influence of segeration in South Africa - the SCA, while remaining a constitutionally unified body, effectively operated along racial lines.

English and Afrikaans speakers each had their own “sections”, as did black, coloured and Indian students. At a meeting held in January 1965, it was eventually decided to formalise this de facto situation; the original body was dissolved and
reconstituted as four new organisations.

These entites focused on tertiary institutions: the Students’ Christian Association (SCA), representing the (mainly) English speaking white student body; the Afrikaanse Christen Studentevereeniging (ACSV); the Association for Christian Students (ACS), which grew out of the original Coloured Section, and the Student Christian Movement (SCM), originally the Bantu Section. The Scripture Union (SU) was approached to take over the SCA’s work in schools.

The SCO of today

In January 1992 representatives of SCA, SCM, ACS, ACSV, SU and Student Union for Christian Action (SUCA) met in Stellenbosch for consultations. Repenting of the “unbiblical” division that had occurred in 1965, they committed themselves “to a vision of a united ministry/movement in schools and tertiary institutions for the sake of our Christian witness in the world".

After a process of negotiations ACSA and ACS reunited to form the Uniting Christian Students’ Association of SA (UCSA) and SCM and SCA reunited to form the
Students’ Christian Organisation (SCO) at it's Merge Conference on July 5th, 1997.