Rogers Govender MBE | |
---|---|
Dean of Manchester | |
Church | Church of England |
Province | York |
Diocese | Manchester |
In office | 2006–present |
Predecessor | Ken Riley |
Orders | |
Ordination | 1985 (deacon) 1986 (priest) |
Personal details | |
Born | Rogers Morgan Govender 29 June 1960 Durban, Province of Natal, South Africa |
Alma mater | St Paul's College, Grahamstown University of Natal |
Rogers Morgan Govender MBE (born 29 June 1960) is a South African Anglican priest. Since 2006, he has been Dean of Manchester. He is a sixth generation South African and he was England's first black cathedral dean.
Govender was born on 29 June 1960 in Durban, Province of Natal, South Africa. [1] He is a sixth generation South African of South Indian ancestry. [2] In 1983, he entered St Paul's College, Grahamstown, an Anglican theological college, to train for ministry in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa. [3]
Govender was ordained deacon in 1985 and priest in 1986. [3] He was priest in charge at St Mary's Church, Greyville, Durban from 1988 until 1993 when he was transferred to St Matthew's Hayfields, Pietermaritzburg where he was rector and subsequently St Thomas's Musgrave Road. He graduated from the University of Natal with a Bachelor of Theology (BTh) degree in 1997. [3] He emigrated to the United Kingdom in 2002 after 15 years of service in the Diocese of Natal.
On arrival in England, he was priest-in-charge of Christ Church, West Didsbury in South Manchester and Area Dean of Withington. In 2006 he was appointed Dean of Manchester. [3] The Dean is based in Manchester, England and is the head of the Chapter of Manchester Cathedral. At the time of his appointment was England's first black cathedral dean, and the third most senior black or Asian churchman in the Church of England. His aim is to accommodate people of all races in the inner city.
Govender filled in for Tom Hanks in a spoofed Da Vinci Code movie poster in 2006, [4] to promote a "Da Vinci Code Mass" at the cathedral intended to address issues raised by the controversial book, and the movie based on it. The mass was inspired by a poll revealing that the book and movie may have undermined public trust in the Catholic Church. [5]
Govender is married to Celia. They have two children, Jonathan and Claire. [2]
In 2018 Govender was awarded an MBE for his services to interfaith relations and to the community in Manchester. [6]
Durban, nicknamed Durbs, is the third most populous city in South Africa after Johannesburg and Cape Town and the largest city in KwaZulu-Natal. Durban forms part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, which includes neighbouring towns and has a population of about 3.44 million, making the combined municipality one of the largest cities on the Indian Ocean coast of the African continent. Durban was also one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The Durban University of Technology (DUT) in English and Inyuvesi Yasethekwini Yezobuchwepheshe in isiZulu, is a university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was formed in 2002 following the merger of Technikon Natal and ML Sultan Technikon and it was initially known as the Durban Institute of Technology. It has five campuses in Durban, and two in Pietermaritzburg. In April 2021, approximately 30,439 students were enrolled to study at DUT. The university is one of five technical institutions on the African continent to offer Doctoral Degrees. The current Chancellor is Nonkululeko Nyembezi.
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.
Alan Michael Lapsley, SSM is a South African Anglican priest and social justice activist.
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.
The Diocese of Natal is in the region of Natal, South Africa, the diocese has its northern boundary at the Tugela River. The episcopal leader of the diocese is the bishop of Natal.
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Philip Welsford Richmond Russell, was a South African Anglican bishop.
The Dean of Manchester is based in Manchester, England and is the head of the Chapter of Manchester Cathedral. The current dean is Rogers Govender MBE.
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The 2006 video game Resistance: Fall of Man, developed by Insomniac Games, published by Sony Computer Entertainment and released for the PlayStation 3 video game console, features combat scenes that take place within a virtual representation of Manchester Cathedral in England set in an alternate history. It was released on 23 March 2007 in the United Kingdom. The use of images of the cathedral caused controversy with the leaders of the Church of England, which claimed its depiction to be desecration and copyright infringement, and that it was inappropriate of Sony to allow players to fire guns in a city with a gun problem. They have made several legal threats against Sony. They intended to make several demands of Sony, including an apology, a substantial donation, complete withdrawal of the game or modifying the segment featuring the interior of the cathedral, and financial support of Manchester groups trying to reduce gun crime in the city.
Kessie Govender was a pioneering voice in South African protest theatre, a playwright, actor and theatre director, who founded the Stable Theatre, a Durban-based theatre company in 1970 and is best known for his plays, Working Class Hero (1979) and The Shack (1979).
Michael Nuttall is a former South African Anglican bishop and author.
Sathiseelan Gurilingam "Ronnie" Govender was a South African playwright, theatre director and activist known for his community theatre efforts. He was known as a pioneer of Indian South African theatre in the country. Some of his notable works included Black Chin White Chin, Song of the Atman, and At the Edge and Other Cato Manor Stories. At the Edge won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa.
Robert David Silk is an English priest of the Roman Catholic Church. He was formerly an Anglican bishop and was the Bishop of Ballarat in the Anglican Church of Australia.
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.
Richard David Fenwick OStJ is an Anglican prelate, and was Bishop of St Helena from 2011 to 2018.
Nicholas James Henshall is a British Anglican priest and author, who has been Dean of Chelmsford since 2014.
Dino Gabriel is an Italian-born Anglican bishop of Natal in South Africa. He has a Swazi wife and they have four children. He is a fluent speaker of Zulu.
Matthew Thompson is a British Anglican priest. Since 2017, he has been the Dean of Birmingham – head of the chapter of canons of Birmingham Cathedral and the most senior priest in the Diocese of Birmingham. He was previously, since 2008, vicar of Bolton Parish Church in the Diocese of Manchester.