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.
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa claims 3–3.57 million members. In the 2001 South African Census, there were a recorded 1.7 million Anglicans out of a total South African population of close to 45 million. No census information has been available since although further studies have been done. The Anglican Church of Southern Africa estimated in 2006 that there were between 3 and 4 million Anglicans across Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and the island of St Helena. A study published in 2020 produced an estimated figure of 2.3 million (4%) Anglicans in South Africa as of 2015. In 2021, the World Christian Database produced an estimated figure of 3,502,000 Anglicans or 6% of the population of South Africa as of 2020. Anglicans were estimated to make up around 167,388 people or 7.4% of the population of Lesotho in 2021. The Diocese of Swaziland had 90,000 members in 2021. In Namibia, 17% of the population, or 374,000 people, are Anglicans as of 2013. The majority of Saint Helena's population of 4,439 people are Anglicans. In 2017, Growth and Decline in the Anglican Communion: 1980 to the Present, published by Routledge, collected research reporting there were 3,007,200 Anglicans in the countries forming part of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, excluding Angola and Mozambique.
Up until September 2021 four dioceses in Mozambique and Angola (three in Mozambique and one in Angola) were part of Anglican Church of Southern Africa, these dioceses now form part of the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola.
The primate is the Archbishop of Cape Town. The current archbishop is Thabo Makgoba, who succeeded Njongonkulu Ndungane in 2006. From 1986 to 1996 the primate was Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.
History
The first Anglican clergy to minister regularly at the Cape were military chaplains who accompanied the troops when the British occupied the Cape Colony in 1795 and then again in 1806. The second British occupation resulted in a growing influx of civil servants and settlers who were members of the Church of England, and so civil or colonial chaplains were appointed to minister to their needs. These were under the authority of the Governor.
The first missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel arrived in 1821. He was William Wright, a priest. He opened a church and school in Wynberg, a fashionable suburb of Cape Town. Allen Gardiner, a missionary of the Church Missionary Society went to Zululand, and arranged for a priest, Francis Owen to be sent to the royal residence of King Dingane. Owen witnessed the massacre of Piet Retief, the Voortrekker leader, and his companions, who had come to negotiate a land treaty with Dingane, and left soon afterwards.
The Anglican Church in Southern Africa was at that time under the Diocese of Calcutta, which effectively included the East Indies and the entire Southern Hemisphere. Bishops en route for Calcutta sometimes stopped at the Cape for confirmations, and occasionally ordination of clergy, but these visits were sporadic. It became apparent that a bishop was needed for South Africa, and in 1847 Robert Gray was consecrated as the first Bishop of Cape Town at Westminster Abbey. The new bishop landed in Cape Town in 1848.
Some Anglican parishes in the then-Cape Colony refused to join the Church of the Province of South Africa when it was constituted in 1870; these parishes constituted themselves as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA). CESA has subsequently renamed itself as the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa.
Desmond Tutu rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid. Tutu was elected and ordained the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town and primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and the Magubela prize for liberty in 1986.
In 2006, the name Church of the Province of Southern Africa was dropped as the name was confusing to some people. The church was renamed the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
In July 2012, Ellinah Wamukoya of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa became the bishop-elect of Swaziland and the first woman to be elected a bishop in any of the twelve Anglican provinces in Africa. She was consecrated on 17 November 2012 at All Saints Cathedral, Mbabane. On 19 January 2013, Margaret Vertue was consecrated the diocesan bishop of False Bay.
Organisation The polity of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is episcopal, like that of other Anglican churches. The church maintains a system of geographical parishes organized into dioceses. The province is divided into various dioceses, each led by its own bishop.
Dioceses
DioceseBishopTerritoryCathedralFoundedCape Town (Archbishop)Joshua Louw (suffragan Bishop of Table Bay)Cape Town and nearer suburbs, and Tristan da CunhaSt George's Cathedral, Cape Town1847Christ the KingVaal Triangle and southern suburbs of Johannesburg1990 (from Johannesburg)False BaySoutheastern suburbs of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, the Overberg and the Breede River Valley2005 (from Cape Town)Free StateFree State provinceCathedral of St Andrew and St Michael, Bloemfontein1863 (from Cape Town, as Diocese of Bloemfontein)GeorgeGarden Route, Little Karoo, Langkloof and Great KarooSt Mark's Cathedral, George1911 (from Cape Town)GrahamstownArea of Albany, Ciskei, King William's Town and East London in the Eastern CapeCathedral of St Michael and St George, Grahamstown1853 (from Cape Town)HighveldEast Rand and southern MpumalangaSt Dunstan's Cathedral, Benoni1990 (from Johannesburg, as Diocese of South Eastern Transvaal)JohannesburgSepadi MoruthaneCentral Johannesburg, its northern suburbs and the West RandSt Mary's Cathedral, Johannesburg1922 (from Pretoria)Kimberley and KurumanNortheastern half of Northern Cape, western part of North WestSt Cyprian's Cathedral, Kimberley1911 (from Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Grahamstown)LesothoMolemo Edwin BaatjiesLesothoCathedral of St Mary and St James, Maseru1950 (from Free State, as Diocese of Basutoland)MatlosaneCentral part of North WestCathedral of the Resurrection, Ikageng1990 (from Johannesburg, as Diocese of Klerksdorp)MbhasheSouthern part of the former Transkei, around Butterworth and NgcoboAll Saints Church, Ngcobo2010 (from Mthatha)MpumalangaVacantNorthern Mpumalanga province2004 (from Pretoria)MthathaCentral part of the former Transkei, around Mthatha and Port St JohnsSt John's Cathedral, Mthatha1872 (from Grahamstown and Natal, as Diocese of St John's)NamibiaNamibiaSt George's Cathedral, Windhoek1924 (as Diocese of Damaraland)NatalKwaZulu-Natal southwest of the Buffalo and Tugela RiversCathedral of the Holy Nativity, Pietermaritzburg1853 (from Cape Town)Port ElizabethWestern part of the Eastern Cape, from Port Elizabeth to ColesbergSt Mary's Cathedral, Port Elizabeth1970 (from Grahamstown)PretoriaNorthern part of Gauteng and northeastern part of North WestSt Alban's Cathedral, Pretoria1878 (from Bloemfontein)Saint Helena and Ascension IslandSaint Paul's Cathedral, Saint Helena1859 (from Cape Town)VacantLimpopo provinceChrist Church Cathedral, Polokwane1987 (from Pretoria)Saldanha BayNorthern suburbs of Cape Town, the Swartland, the West Coast and Namaqualand2005 (from Cape Town)SwazilandEswatiniAll Saints Cathedral, Mbabane1968 (from Zululand)UkhahlambaNorth-central part of the Eastern Cape, from Queenstown to Aliwal NorthCathedral of St. Michael, Queenstown2009 (from Grahamstown)UmzimvubuGriqualand East and the northeastern part of the former Transkei1991 (from Mthatha)ZululandKwaZulu-Natal northeast of the Buffalo and Tugela RiversCathedral of St Michael and All Angels, Eshowe1870 (from Natal)
Angola and Mozambique At its Autumn 2020 meeting the provincial standing committee approved a plan to form the dioceses which were part of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in Mozambique and Angola into a separate autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, to be named the Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola (IAMA). The plans were also outlined to the Mozambique and Angola Anglican Association (MANNA) at its September 2020 annual general meeting.
The new province would be Portuguese-speaking, and would initially consist of twelve dioceses - four formed out of the existing diocese of Angola, plus eight formed out of the existing three dioceses in Mozambique. The plan has also received the consent of the bishops and diocesan synods of all four existing dioceses in the two nations.
The Anglican Church of Mozambique and Angola was formally inaugurated on 24 September 2021, in an online teleconference.
There are more than 800 Anglican church congregations in Angola and Mozambique, and the new province would have an initial membership of approximately half a million people.
Liturgy and prayer books
The Anglican Church in Southern Africa has used the following prayer books:
The 1662 English Book of Common Prayer
The Anglican church was a product of the English Reformation and political contexts of the sixteenth century. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, was instrumental in determining the form Anglicanism was to take, not by writing confessional statements or significant theological treaties, but through his authoring of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and 1552. All expressions of Anglicanism forever after defined itself in relation to the concept of the Prayer Book, whether being faithful to the Reformed tradition or seeking different approaches. Other denominations have found unity in confessional documents, or doctrinal formularies, or a systematically articulated theology, or the pronouncements of magisterial authorities.
When the work of revising the liturgy in the twentieth century was undertaken it was with the understanding that it was touching the nerve-centre of the Anglican ethos, since Anglican identity takes a more intangible form, deeply dependent upon the influence and binding effect of its liturgical worship. The most recent revision of the Prayer Book resulted in the publishing of An Anglican Prayer Book (1989). The Anglican Prayer Book stands alongside the South African Book of Common Prayer (1954). Both the 1989 and 1954 prayer books have the English 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a common source.
The work of the revision reflected the worldwide liturgical renewal, most notably in relation to the Roman Catholic Church as a result of decisions reached at its Second Vatican Council. Another influence was the charismatic renewal, which has had a marked impact on the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Particular care was taken to meet evangelical concerns in a Province that is historically High Church rather than Low Church in its main emphasis. Theological breadth – catholic, evangelical, charismatic, and liberal – was aimed at in order to achieve balance and to accommodate these various convictions.
These sensitivities and influences are most evident in the Eucharistic liturgy. Four Eucharistic prayers are given to accommodate different theological preferences. Two are taken from the Church of England, one is borrowed with permission from the Roman Catholic Canon, and pride of place is given in the First Eucharistic Prayer to an indigenous product. The influence of the liturgical movement can be seen in the overall structure and language of the Eucharist, including seeking a sense of continuity with the early, apostolic church.