Christ Church, Polokwane

Christ Church is a parish in the Anglican Diocese of St Mark the Evangelist, which falls under the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It is the only Anglican church in Polokwane (previously, Pietersburg). The church has a long and diverse history going back over a hundred years.

Pietersburg was founded in 1886 and by 1895 there were about 800 residents. Prior to 1894 there had been occasional services for the English Church held by visiting priests in the local Court House. In 1894, Hugh Bousfield, son of Henry Bousfield, the first Bishop of Pretoria, was prospecting near Pieterburg. A congregant, E.G. Ireland, later Pietersburg's first mayor, impressed upon Bousfield the need for the bishop to visit Pietersburg.

In 1895 a message was again sent to the Bishop of Pretoria, telling him there was a strong feeling that he should visit the area and make arrangements to establish the church on a more permanent basis. The bishop duly arrived and agreed to provide a clergyman for the town and district. A. Weinstein arrived soon afterwards and in his first service on 12 May 1895 preached on "God’s love to Men." The first entry in the Vestry Book of the "English Church in Pietersburg" is a statement of accounts for the period 12 May 1895 to 31 March 1896.

Work began on building a church in Market Street in 1895 and two years later the work was completed. In 1897 it is recorded that services were also held out at Leydsdorp, Spelonken and Nylstroom (now, Modimolle). Members of the congregation otherwise had to trek many miles to attend services in Pietersburg.

In the 1898 register, prayers for smallpox and drought were recorded. On several occasions no services were held because of heavy rains. During 1899 church attendance dropped as church members left town because of the threat of war. The last meeting of the church council, before the Anglo-Boer war (Boer Wars), took place on 2 August 1899. By that November only twenty British subjects were left in Pietersburg. Church records are sparse during the war, but it appears that the rector may have even been imprisoned during 1900. Church services resumed in November 1901.

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