Richard Austin Kraft |
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| Born | (1936-06-03)June 3, 1936 |
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| Died | January 17, 2001(2001-01-17) (aged 64) |
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Richard Austin Kraft (3 June 1936 - 17 January 2001) was an American-born South African Anglican Bishop. [1]
Born in the United States, he was educated at Ripon College, Wisconsin and the General Theological Seminary, NY, NY [2] and ordained in 1961. [3] He moved to South Africa, where his first post was as an Assistant Priest at St Alphege Church, in Pietermaritzburg. From 1963 to 1967 he was Rector of St Chad's Mission, Klip River.
In 1968 he was asked by Bishop Alpheus Zulu to be Director of Christian Education in the Diocese of Zululand. He was also rector of All Saints Parish, Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal from 1974 to 1976. As Director of Christian Education he was responsible for continuing the programme of experienced-based education (also known as group dynamics, sensitivity training or T-groups) pioneered by another American priest, Don Griswold. He also pioneered the training of self-supporting clergy at the diocesan conference centre KwaNzimela, near Melmoth, inspired by the principles enunciated by Roland Allen.
In 1976 he was appointed Director of the Education Department of the Church of the Province of South Africa and then Dean of Pretoria. In 1982 he became Bishop of Pretoria, a post he held until 1998. He was a strong opponent of the apartheid regime. He died on 17 January 2001 in Pretoria.
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure (cura) of souls of a parish. In this sense, "curate" correctly means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term curate is commonly used to describe clergy who are assistants to the parish priest. The duties or office of a curate are called a curacy.
Since the 1990s, the Anglican Communion has struggled with controversy regarding homosexuality in the church. In 1998, the 13th Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops passed a resolution "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture". However, this is not legally binding. "Like all Lambeth Conference resolutions, it is not legally binding on all provinces of the Communion, including the Church of England, though it commends an essential and persuasive view of the attitude of the Communion." "Anglican national churches in Brazil, South Africa, South India, New Zealand and Canada have taken steps toward approving and celebrating same-sex relationships amid strong resistance among other national churches within the 80 million-member global body. The Episcopal Church in the U.S. has allowed same-sex marriage since 2015, and the Scottish Episcopal Church has allowed same-sex marriage since 2017." "Church of England clergy have appeared to signal support for gay marriage after they rejected a bishops' report which said that only a man and woman could marry in church." The Church of England's 2019 General Synod was set to discuss a diocesan motion "to create a set of formal services and prayers to bless those who have had a same-sex marriage or civil partnership". At General Synod in 2019, the Church of England announced that same-gender couples may remain married and recognised as married after one spouse experiences a gender transition provided that the spouses identified as opposite genders at the time of the marriage.
Eshowe is the oldest town of European settlement in Zululand, historically also known as Eziqwaqweni, Ekowe or kwaMondi. Eshowe's name is said to be inspired by the sound of wind blowing through the more than 4 km² of the indigenous Dlinza Forest, the most important and striking feature of the town. Although the name is most likely to be derived from the Zulu word for the Xysmalobium shrubs, showe or shongwe.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of which twenty-one are located in South Africa, and one each in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Saint Helena. In South Africa, there are between 3 and 4 million Anglicans out of an estimated population of 45 million.
The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. "Ministry" commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.
Robert Mar Erskine Paterson is a British Anglican bishop. He was the Bishop of Sodor and Man in the Church of England from 2008 until his retirement in 2016.
Wilfrid Gore Browne was an Anglican bishop, the first Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman from 1912 to 1928. He was described as a saintly bishop with "a keen sense of humour" and "a winning courtesy."
Oswald Peter Patrick Swartz is a South African Anglican bishop. He is the twelfth and current Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman.
The Diocese of Zululand is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa which covers the part of the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal that lies to the northeast of the Buffalo and Tugela Rivers. It is divided in ten archdeaconries.
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Philip Welsford Richmond Russell, was a South African Anglican bishop.
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Brian Melvin Marajh is the thirteenth and current Bishop of Kimberley & Kuruman in South Africa. He was previously the eighth bishop of George, before, on 19 September 2021, the Electoral College of Bishops elected to translate the Right Revd Brian Marajh of George to become Bishop of Kimberley & Kuruman. He was consecrated as bishop at St Mark's Cathedral, George, on 7 May 2011. Marajh was born in Kimberley in the Northern Cape on 2 April 1960.
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Vikinduku Victor Mnculwane is a South African Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Zululand. He was elected at an Elective Assembly of the Diocese of Zululand, held on 20 May 2021 and his episcopal ordination was on 12 September 2021, held at the Cathedral Church of St Michael and All Angels in Eshowe. He succeeds Bishop Monument Makhanya as the fifteenth bishop of Zululand.
