This year the congregation of the Cathedral of St Michael and St George is celebrating 180 years of Anglican worship on this site in Grahamstown. The first Anglican church, founded in 1824, opened for worship in 1830 and was known as St George’s.
This year the congregation of the Cathedral of St Michael and St George is celebrating 180 years of Anglican worship on this site in Grahamstown. The first Anglican church, founded in 1824, opened for worship in 1830 and was known as St George’s.
The ground on which it stood, like the rest of the small town founded in 1812, had formed part of the farm De Rietfontein which the British Colonel John Graham took over as his headquarters.
Prior to that, according to an oral recollection recorded by Archdeacon Woodrooffe, the site was said to have been occupied by a kraal of Chief Ndlambe.
St George’s Grahamstown looked nothing like the present Cathedral, and was a utilitarian building of no special architectural merit.
Now only the south wall remains, the plastered and painted wall facing the Clicks side of Church Square. In 1853 the vast diocese of Cape Town was divided and a Bishop was appointed for Grahamstown, which meant that St George’s became a Cathedral.
The first Bishop, John Armstrong, commented unfavourably on the “plain and uninteresting” Cathedral, but as he lived less than two years after his arrival as Bishop, it was left to his successors to take the matter further.
In the time of his successor, Henry Cotterill, the system of church government by synods was introduced in the Anglican Church in South Africa, ending the unworkable situation by which the church was administered as part of the Church of England.
The relevance of this change in terms of the Cathedral’s story lies in the reaction of the then Dean Williams.
He challenged the new system, taking it as far as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. In the course of the dispute, the Dean even locked Cotterill’s successor Bishop Merriman out of the Cathedral, and after Merriman’s death in 1882 the new Bishop, Allan Becher Webb, was forced to operate in temporary premises known as St Michael’s Pro- Cathedral.
It was only after a change of law in England, and the death of Dean Williams in 1885, that the two factions which had attached themselves to Merriman and Williams were reconciled.
The dedication of the present Cathedral, to St Michael and St George, reflects this coming together. Despite this conflict, the process went on of converting St George’s into a “worthy Cathedral”.
The Victorian Gothic revival in architecture was at its height in England, and one of the best-known architects in this style was George Gilbert Scott.
The first improvement was the erection of the 50m tower according to Scott’s design, which to this day dominates views of Grahamstown from every direction.
This was completed in 1879, with eight bells (there are now 10) and the clock, which is the property of the municipality.
In pre-radio days it was considered a public service to provide a reliable timekeeper for the citizens. Next came the chancel (the part nearest the railway station), designed by Gilbert Scott’s son JO and completed in 1893.
Although many of the fittings were made in England and shipped out, including all the stained glass, the wooden screen which separates the chancel from the rest of the Cathedral was carved by local apprentices.
The nave was only finished in 1912, and the ladies chapel on the north side, which was part of JO Scott’s original plan, was added after the second World War and dedicated in 1952.
Most visitors to the Cathedral comment on the peaceful atmosphere, the beautiful architecture and artwork.
However in the 1990s students from the College of the Transfiguration felt they must point out that the wording of several of the 19th century memorial tablets was totally unsuitable for a place of worship, displaying bias as well as using words which nowadays would result in a finding of crimen injuria in a court of law.
After lively discussion it was agreed that the offensive words be covered with marble strips. The building has witnessed many historic occasions.
Bishop Bill Burnett was the first South Africanborn Bishop of Grahamstown (later Archbishop of Cape Town). The first black African Bishop of Grahamstown was Thabo Makgoba, the present Archbishop of Cape Town.
The Cathedral was the setting for various memorial services in the years of the struggle against apartheid, and Bishop David Russell fasted and prayed there, before the first democratic elections in this country.
The ministry of women in the church was affirmed when the first women priests in the Anglican Church in Southern Africa were ordained there by Bishop Russell in 1992.
There is a tradition of cooperation and combined worship with Christians of other denominations, as when the Cathedral was part of the Yizani Evangelistic Mission in 2003. Sometimes the Cathedral is also used for interfaith prayer, notably on the occasion of the annual Aids Day in December.
In recent years the Cathedral has initiated and played a central part in SpiritFest, the ministry of Grahamstown churches during the National Festival of the Arts.
Under its present Dean, Andrew Hunter, and his three assistant clergy (all of whom happen to be women) the Cathedral is by no means a dead national monument.
As well as hosting special occasions like those mentioned above, the Cathedral is a parish church which maintains a vibrant ministry to all sorts and conditions of people in Grahamstown, from pensioners to children, long-time residents to passing students, of many languages and all races.
Boys from Eluxolweni Shelter are among those who play marimbas for services, and ring the tower bells, and 20 scholars from local government schools form part of the choir.
The Cathedral is kept open on weekdays from 9am to 3pm, and anyone is welcome to come in and take a self-guided tour, using a leaflet in one of half-a-dozen languages.
Or, better still, they are welcome to come and join the Sunday worship, and see the Cathedral in its full glory.
The 180th anniversary will be celebrated over the first weekend of October, with an evening of bring and share, tuck and talents in St George’s Hall at 7pm on Saturday 2 October and dedication services the following day.
