Anglican Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist
| Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Ecclesiastical province | Anglican Church of Southern Africa |
| Statistics | |
| Parishes | 24 |
| Information | |
| Rite | Anglican |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Martin Breytenbach |
| Website | |
| anglicanchurchsa.org | |
The Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, in the geographical area of the Limpopo province in the north of South Africa.
The area now known as the Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist used to be part of the Anglican Diocese of Pretoria. The Anglican church in the North was administered by the Diocesan Administrator and Bishops in Pretoria. The ordination of deacons and priests was done at St Albans Cathedral in Pretoria. The Bishop and Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Pretoria would visit the area to take confirmation services and to preside at other special occasions. Suffragan Bishop John Ruston was sent to Polokwane (then, Pietersburg) to oversee the northern region of the Diocese of Pretoria. Under his leadership a new diocese was established in the North by the name of St Mark the Evangelist. The Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist was inaugurated on 16 May 1987.
Philip Le Feuvre was elected a bishop in August 1987 and consecrated as the first bishop of the new diocese on 30 January 1988. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Metropolitan and Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Cape Town, conducted the service held at Christ Church, Polokwane. Bishop Philip's vision was for a diocese that would be involved in evangelism and church planting across the Limpopo Province, the least evangelised area of South Africa. His forthright devotion to mission fundamentals typified the work of St Mark the Evangelist's first bishop.
Martin Breytenbach was installed as the second bishop of the diocese on 12 February 2000. The service was conducted by the recently retired Bishop Duncan Buchanan, from the Anglican Diocese of Johannesburg on behalf of the Metropolitan. The service was held at the Mokopane College of Education in the Parish of Mahwelereng.
The diocese shadows the geographical area of the Limpopo Province. Given the size, the diocese has been divided into sub-regions, known as Archdeaconries, to facilitate better administrative and leadership processes. The diocese initially had only four Archdeaconries, which corresponded with the four main roads in the Limpopo Province. They were the Archdeaconries of the North, Centre, South and Mopani. Due to the multiplication of parishes in 2008, another Archdeaconry was added in 2009 and some of the parishes re-allocated. The archdeaconries and parishes that fall under them are as follows:
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