Diocese of Mthatha | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | South Africa |
Ecclesiastical province | Southern Africa |
Metropolitan | Cape Town |
Archdeaconries | 19 |
Statistics | |
Parishes | 96 |
Information | |
Rite | Anglican |
Established | 1872 |
Cathedral | St John's Cathedral, Mthatha |
Patron saint | St John |
Current leadership | |
Bishop | Thembinkosi Jamuel Ngombane |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Thabo Makgoba |
Website | |
www |
The Diocese of Mthatha is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Before 2006 it was known as the Diocese of St John's, [1] and earlier still as that of Kaffraria. [2] The diocese currently has 96 parishes.
When the Diocese of Grahamstown in the south under Bishop John Armstrong, and Diocese of Natal in the north-east under Bishop John William Colenso were founded, they each included part of an area which in 1872 became the diocese of St John's. [3]
Bishop Henry Callaway was consecrated in Edinburgh in 1873 as the first bishop of the diocese. In Bishop Callaway's new diocese, apart from the mission station he started at Clydesdale, there were five or six other centres of missionary work. The oldest being St Mark's. The first part of Callaway's work was spent trying to find the best way to organise the diocese. The chief problem was to link Clydesdale with the St Mark's group in the south. [4] He first attempted to establish the See at Clydesdale, which was too far north, and then at St Andrew's, not far from Lusikisiki, which turned out to be inaccessible except by sea. He finally settled on a place on the Mthatha River. A town sprang up around the bishop's mission station and Pro-cathedral. [3]
The first Pro-Cathedral of the diocese was built of wood and iron and was also the first church in Mthatha. It could seat a congregation of 250. [5] It was dedicated at the Diocese of St John's second synod on 24 June 1876. [3]
By the turn of the twentieth century a stone-built cathedral had been erected on the top of a hill leading to the administrative and commercial centre of Mthatha. George Fellowes Prynne was the architect and originally designed an impressive looking cathedral. His plan shows a cruciform church, with a nave 147 feet in length, by 36 feet in width, divided into 7 bays. The chancel is 67 feet long by 30 feet wide. The north and south transepts from chapels accommodating 189 and 146 people respectively. East of the chapels are the vestries and organ chamber, the latter being over the clergy vestry, and speaking into the south chapel and chancel. [6] Only the nave was completed, which is the present cathedral of St John the Evangelist.
In 2010 the southern part of the diocese, around Ngcobo and Butterworth, was separated and constituted as the new Diocese of Mbhashe. [7] [8]
Bishops of St John's | |||
---|---|---|---|
From | Until | Incumbent | Notes |
1873 | 1886 | Henry Callaway | (1817-1890) |
1887 | 1901 | Bransby Lewis Key | (1838-1901) |
1901 | 1922 | Joseph Watkin Williams | (1857-1934) |
1923 | 1943 | Edward Harold Etheridge | (1872-1954) |
1943 | 1951 | Theodore Sumner Gibson | (1885-1953) |
1951 | 1956 | Henry St John Tomlinson Evans | (1905-1956) |
1956 | 1980 | James Leo Schuster | (1912-2006) |
1980 | 1984 | Godfrey William Ernest Candler Ashby | (b 1930) |
1985 | 2000 | Jacob Zambuhle Bhekuyise Dlamini | |
2000 | 2006 | Sitembele Tobela Mzamane | |
Bishops of Mthatha | |||
2006 | 2017 | Sitembele Tobela Mzamane | |
2017 | 2021 | Nkosinathi Ndwandwe | translated from Natal [9] |
2021 | Thembinkosi Jemuel Ngombane | ||
In 1962, Alphaeus Zulu was Assistant Bishop of St John's. [10]
The diocese assumed arms around the time of its inception, and had them granted by the College of Arms in 1954: Azure, Saint John the Evangelist Argent holding a chalice Or. [11]
Henry Callaway was a missionary for the Church of England and bishop of St John's, Kaffraria, in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa.
Nelson Wellesley Fogarty (1871–1933) was the first Anglican Bishop of Damaraland (Namibia) from 1924 to 1933.
The Diocese of Cape Town is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) which presently covers central Cape Town, some of its suburbs and the island of Tristan da Cunha, though in the past it has covered a much larger territory. The Ordinary of the diocese is Archbishop of Cape Town and ex officio Primate and Metropolitan of the ACSA. His seat is St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town.
Robert Gray was the first Anglican Bishop of Cape Town.
The Cathedral of St Michael and St George is the home of the Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Grahamstown. The cathedral is located on Church Square and has the tallest spire in South Africa 176 feet (54 m). The cathedral is dedicated to St Michael and St George and celebrates its patronal festival on the Sunday closest to Michaelmas.
The Diocese of Grahamstown is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It is centred on the historic city of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The diocese extends to East London, in the east and Port Alfred to the south.
The Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, and encompasses the area around Kimberley and Kuruman and overlaps the Northern Cape Province and North West Province of South Africa. It is presided over by the Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman, until recently Ossie Swartz. On 19 September 2021 the Electoral College of Bishops elected to translate the Right Revd Brian Marajh of George to become the 13th Bishop of Kimberley & Kuruman. The seat of the Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman is at St Cyprian's Cathedral, Kimberley. There had been so far 12 bishops of the See, though one of these served for two different periods of time.
Bransby Lewis Key (1838–1901) was the 2nd bishop of St John's in what was then known as Kaffraria and is now Mthatha, South Africa. Born into a medical family he was educated at Kensington Grammar School and St Augustine's College, Canterbury. Ordained deacon in 1864 and priest a year later, his first post was as a missionary in the Transkei. After 19 years he was appointed coadjutor bishop of the diocese, and four years later took full control of the see.
The Rt Revd Edward Harold Etheridge (1872–1954) was the 4th Bishop of St John's in what was then known as Kaffraria and is now Mthatha.
Sitembele Tobela Mzamane is a South African Anglican bishop. He is a former Bishop of Mthatha, and although the first bishop to bear that title, he is the 10th incumbent, since the bishopric was previously known as St John's.
St George's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, and the seat of the Archbishop of Cape Town. St. George's Cathedral is both the metropolitical church of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa and a congregation in the Diocese of Cape Town.
The Diocese of the Free State is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It was formerly known as the 'Diocese of Bloemfontein'.
The College of the Transfiguration in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, is the only provincial residential college of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, offering a contextual approach to theology studies.
The Cathedral Church of St Cyprian the Martyr, Kimberley, is the seat of the Bishop of the Kimberley and Kuruman, Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The building was dedicated in 1908, becoming a Cathedral when the Synod of Bishops mandated formation of the new Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman in October 1911. The first Bishop, the Rt Revd Wilfrid Gore Browne, was enthroned there on 30 June 1912.
William Edmund Smyth (1858–1950) was an Anglican bishop in the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first two of the twentieth.
The Diocese of Mbhashe is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa situated in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It was established on 16 December 2010 out of part of the Diocese of Mthatha. The diocesan cathedral is All Saints Cathedral in Ngcobo, while the diocesan office is in Butterworth. The diocese includes the areas of Cala, Cofimvaba, Dutywa, Elliot, Kentani and Tsomo. The diocese's first bishop was Sebenzile Elliot Williams. The current Bishop is Mluleki Fikizolo.
Annie Cecile Ramsbottom Isherwood was an Anglican nun and founder of the Community of the Resurrection of our Lord in Grahamstown. She was known as Mother Cecile CR.
Peter Bingham Hinchliff was a South African Anglican priest and academic. He was the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford from 1992 to 1995.
Peter (Petrus) K. Masiza was the first black Anglican priest ordained in South Africa.
The Cathedral of St Mark in George, South Africa is the seat of the Diocese of George of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The present bishop is Edwin Desmond Pockpass.