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Currently, over 80 percent of the mpiandry, or shepherds; practitioners in the movement; and a great number of the raiamandreny, literally, “father-mother,” elder or leader, of the movement are women, and the most famous and influential of the leaders of the movement was female as well.3 The question of how women are viewed and received as people with spiritual authority among Christians on the island becomes complex in the context of these opposing realities.
Another striking dissimilarity between the AICs and the Fifohazana is the comparative unity of the movement in Madagascar. While some scholars have noted the multiple-center and multiple-leader nature of the movement,4 they also have noted the self-understanding of the shepherds of a basic unity within the movement as a whole. Shepherds are trained at a particular toby, that is, movement camps, and have a lifelong allegiance to that toby, returning there for special days and annual meetings. Yet, apart from an important break that resulted in a large independent group of shepherds operating in the Soatanàna area, all of the other shepherds ministering on the island understand themselves to be part of one movement and understand themselves to be related to and obligated to participate in the life and ministry of a local congregation. Indeed, many shepherds serve on the staff of local congregations and take official roles there in the ministry. While the movement is ecumenical and the shepherds represent all of the major historic, mission-founded Christian denominations present in Madagascar, all of the shepherds outside of the aforementioned independent group have an understanding of the Fifohazana as largely one movement with variations coming in local practice and not in basic principle or belief structure. This constitutes a remarkable difference between the movement and the AICs, which are made and are constantly being remade in many contexts by schism and by attraction to new leaders who arise and go in differing, and sometimes opposing, directions from those who came before.
While the shepherds share a significant unity and ally themselves with Madagascar’s historic, mission-founded churches, scholars have noted some differences between the principles, practices, and operative belief structures of the movement and the churches. Theological issues, including but not limited to Christology, pneumatology, and the understanding of the role and interpretation of scripture, figure significantly in these differences.