{"id":814,"date":"2012-08-17T22:05:17","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T22:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/?p=814"},"modified":"2012-08-18T15:04:43","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T15:04:43","slug":"anglican-cathedral-to-presbyterian-church-the-fascinating-journey-of-a-church-with-a-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/2012\/08\/17\/anglican-cathedral-to-presbyterian-church-the-fascinating-journey-of-a-church-with-a-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Anglican Cathedral to Presbyterian Church \u2013 the fascinating journey of a church with a history"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Main door of St Saviour’s, Randjesfontein, 2012<\/p><\/div>\n

Echoes of a Victorian theological controversy which played out in the British Natal colony are heard in the Presbyterian Church of St Saviour’s in Midrand, Gauteng.<\/p>\n

In 1853 Anglican divine and mathematician John William Colenso was appointed Bishop of Natal by the then Metropolitan Bishop of Cape Town, the Right Reverend Robert Gray. Colenso came to his new bishopric, centred on St Peter’s Cathedral in Pietermaritzburg, in 1854 and was quite soon involved in controversy around two issues \u2013 the first was his liberal interpretation of certain Biblical texts and the second was his, for the times, radical approach to the black people of the colony, the amaZulu of King Cetewayo kaMpanda.<\/p>\n

Bishop Colenso’s views on these matters, especially his Biblical<\/p>\n

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St Saviour’s Cathedral, Pietermaritzburg, 1870<\/p><\/div>\n

liberalism, brought him notoriety (or fame, depending on one’s point of view) throughout the English-speaking world. The High Church party in Britain was particularly worried about the theological and political ramifications of Colenso’s opinions and Gray in December 1863 deposed Colenso after a church trial for heresy.<\/p>\n

Colenso successfully appealed against this action but he was opposed by the Dean of his Cathedral, Dean James Green who on Colenso’s return left St Peter’s with his followers and set up a parallel Church in St Saviour’s in 1868.<\/p>\n

Another Bishop was appointed by Gray, Bishop W.K. Mcrorie, who took his throne in St Saviour’s. Thus for a number of years there were two Church of England dioceses in Natal Colony, a situation which only came to an end after Colenso’s death in June 1883.<\/p>\n

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Looking up the nave towards the sanctuary.<\/p><\/div>\n

The two church buildings however continued to function, with St Peter’s being an ordinary parish church, until St Saviour’s was de-consecrated in 1976 and set for demolition in 1981.<\/p>\n

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The lovely woodwork of the ceiling<\/p><\/div>\n

Two men associated with the development of a residential township on the historical former farm Randjesfontein in Midrand, Gauteng, Charles Lloys Ellis and Keith Parker, heard of the imminent demolition of St Saviour’s and decided to buy the sanctuary, transepts, nave, chapter room and library and transport the fabric to Midrand. Here the former Cathedral was re-built under the guidance of architect Robert Brusse.<\/p>\n

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The north wall of St Saviour’s with the baptistry<\/p><\/div>\n

The re-constructed church is beautifully simple and elegant, retaining much of the Victorian Gothic of the original. The roof is high with lovely Gothic-style trusses and the floor of red tiles is also remarkable.<\/p>\n

On one side of the nave is an organ loft and on the other a small baptistry chapel. The entrance to the church looks still very much as it did in 1870.<\/p>\n

St Saviour’s, Randjesfontein, was consecrated for worship on 16 May 1985 \u2013 appropriately, the Feast of the Ascension.<\/p>\n

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The beautiful grounds of St Saviour’s<\/p><\/div>\n

The church is surrounded by beautifully-maintained gardens shaded by high conifers.<\/p>\n

The building is still privately-owned and is rented to the Midrand Presbyterian Congregation. The beauty of the building has also ensured that is popular as a wedding venue and a venue for musical recitals and other cultural activities.<\/p>\n

A gallery of more of my photos of this beautiful church can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Echoes of a Victorian theological controversy which played out in the British Natal colony are heard in the Presbyterian Church of St Saviour’s in Midrand, Gauteng. In 1853 Anglican divine and mathematician John William Colenso was appointed Bishop of Natal by the then Metropolitan Bishop of Cape Town, the Right Reverend Robert Gray. Colenso came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"2","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"3","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"3","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[4,124,193,27,194,240],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gauteng-places-of-worship","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-church","tag-history-2","tag-john-william-colenso","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":828,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalbuzz-sa.com\/mcgregorza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}