Welcome to Our Website

Here is the South African story in microcosm, the tension and violence along with the humanity, humour and compassion.

Imagine a piece of South African highveld, small in area so that you could drive from north to south in an hour, and from east to west in half that time; but hugely populated, probably having doubled its human population in the lifetime of this diocese, just since 1990. Imagine the summer, with temperature in the high 20°C by day and ferocious thunderstorms by night. Imagine the autumn, much as in other temperate parts of the world, with golden leaves and cooler evenings (did you know that geographers officially categorise Johannesburg as a forest, with some of the richest bird life of any of the world cities?).

Here is the South African story in microcosm, the tension and violence along with the humanity, humour and compassion.

Imagine a piece of South African highveld, small in area so that you could drive from north to south in an hour, and from east to west in half that time; but hugely populated, probably having doubled its human population in the lifetime of this diocese, just since 1990. Imagine the summer, with temperature in the high 20°C by day and ferocious thunderstorms by night. Imagine the autumn, much as in other temperate parts of the world, with golden leaves and cooler evenings (did you know that geographers officially categorise Johannesburg as a forest, with some of the richest bird life of any of the world cities?)

Imagine a piece of South African highveld, small in area so that you could drive from north to south in an hour, and from east to west in half that time; but hugely populated, probably having doubled its human population in the lifetime of this diocese, just since 1990.

Imagine the summer, with temperature in the high 20°C by day and ferocious thunderstorms by night.  Imagine the autumn, much as in other temperate parts of the world, with golden leaves and cooler evenings (did you know that geographers officially categorise Johannesburg as a forest, with some of the richest bird life of any of the world cities?)

Imagine the winter – the season which visitors find most “different” from what they know in Europe or America.  This is a summer rainfall area at 6000 feet of altitude, which means that between Easter and September the skies are clear, the grass dies brown and burns black.  Thirty nights a winter will freeze because of the absence of cloud cover – and the very same lack of cover lets the sun through by day, warming us in the morning to pleasant sunny weather at lunchtime in the depths of winter; then cooling sharply in the afternoon.  By late August the scenery is drab; the soil – and the soul - long for springtime.  

Now imagine the spring – with blossom exploding in the first week of September all over the city and peach trees bursting pink in the poorest of shantytowns and tin-shack backyards, as if God were promising that his promise to the poor shall never fail.  Then come the rains in October, the grass grows green and the soul can live again in one of the greatest year-round climates in the world.

Now imagine the people – in the traditionally unfashionable south of Johannesburg, commercial and residential; in the Vaal Triangle around Sharpeville and Sebokeng, Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark, residential and industrial; with a little rural piece in the middle, increasingly encroached upon by low-cost government housing and informal tin-shack communities.

Imagine the crowding; imagine the poverty and unemployment; imagine the ravages of HIV and AIDS, linked in to TB and malnutrition; imagine the stress upon clinics and schools, land and housing, roads and graveyards. 

Historically home to some of the most conservative of South Africa’s white people, and the most radical of her blacks; home to an Indian town and four major “coloured” communities, cheeck by jowl.  The car parks are guarded by French speaking refugees from the Congo, the restaurants are served by Zimbabweans, pieces of Portuguese are spoken by recent Mozambican migrants as much as those who fled Frelimo in the 1970s and established seafood restaurants all over southern Johannesburg. 

Here is the South African story in microcosm, the tension and violence along with the humanity, humour and compassion.  Here it is our privilege to serve the Anglican Church, and through it, our multilingual and many-hued community.  Above all, Christ is king here and we rejoice above all in the fact of it.

We hope that browsing through our website will give you a sense of why we love it, what we seek to do, and what our needs are. 

Please pray for us and come to see us some time.

Yours in Christ

BISHOP PETER LEE