The theological and moral justification of apartheid and a status confessionis.A comparison between the way in which the world alliance of reformed churches and the reformed ecumenical synod approached this matter Both the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the - then - ReformedEcumenical Synod (RES) eventually declared a status confessionis against thetheological and moral justification of apartheid. In this process the Afrikaans ReformedChurches came under serious fire. The questions arising from this are: Whenis a status confessionis a relevant option for the church? How did both the WARC andthe RES handle the matter and were there any differences in their approach due totheir differences as ecumenical bodies? The conclusion is that the WARC followed certain anti-apartheid elements in theyounger Dutch Reformed Churches uncritically while the RES took a more independentstand. A further problem was that the WARC did not qualify the apartheidit was speaking out against. That complicated dialogue with the Dutch ReformedChurch. Both organizations, however, showed clear indications of an awareness thatthey tried to consider the basic conditions for a status confessionis.