St. Michael and St. George Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George is the home of the Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown in Grahamstown, South Africa in the Eastern Cape Province. It has the tallest spire in South Africa (53.6m/176ft). [http://www.planetware.com/grahamstown/grahamstown-anglican-cathedral-saf-ec-gtc.htm]

Founded in 1853, the cathedral is located on Church Square. It is an episcopal cathedral of the Bishop of Grahamstown, under the Primate of South Africa, currently Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane. The current Bishop of Grahamstown, Thabo Makgoba has been Bishop of the Diocese since 2004.

Historical Controversy

South Africa today is a melange of colors, politics and theological controversy.

The early days of the Anglican church in Grahamstown provide us with an awareness of the unstable nature of the relationship between the indigenous peoples and the English Settlers, as this quote from John Armstrong First Bishop of Grahamstown attests.

cquote|On the calm, quiet day, as we were travelling along so peacefully, the rumours of war could not but come back to us, as our drivers pointed out the spots where many a bitter struggle for life had taken place, and especially where a body of poor Sappers had been surprised and slaughtered by the Kafirs in the late war. [A Memoir Of John Armstrong, D.D.,Late Lord Bishop of Grahamstown, By the Rev. T. T. Carter Oxford and London: John Henry and James Parker, 1857]

The cathedral was the theological center of the community of Grahamstown. "Graham's Town" which was originally a military outpost on the Eastern Frontier of the Cape Colony, was founded by [John Graham (Albany)|Colonel John Graham. The British campaign to push the amaXhosa residents from the Eastern frontier was defined by Graham's plan to use "A proper degree of terror." [http://www.ecampus.com/book/0869752359] Hence, a number of the battles of the Xhosa Wars were centered around Grahamstown.

The cathedral became the primary location for memorials to those fallen soldiers of the conflicts between the original residents of the lands and the European settlers. Many of these memorials referred to the opposition in the battles using terms which are no longer acceptable in the Rainbow Nation of South Africa, today.

Today, these memorial plaques are completely covered as a further acknowledgement of the diversity which is a principle of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa;

Gallery

References

External

* [http://www.scifac.ru.ac.za/cathedral/ Official website of The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George, Grahamstown, South Africa]
* [http://www.scifac.ru.ac.za/cathedral/profile.htm Parish Profile for the Grahamstown Diocese.]
* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4200%28198806%2918%3A2%3C99%3ABAATIS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M&size=LARGE]