Diocese of Grahamstown
| Diocese of Grahamstown | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Ecclesiastical province | Southern Africa |
| Archdeaconries | 11 |
| Statistics | |
| Parishes | 56 |
| Information | |
| Rite | Anglican |
| Established | 1853 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of St Michael and St George |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop of Grahamstown | Ebenezer St Mark Ntlali |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Thabo Makgoba, Archbishop of Cape Town |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Diocese of Grahamstown is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It is centred on the historic city of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The diocese extends to East London, in the east and Port Alfred to the south.
Very early in his episcopate the first Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray saw the necessity for a division of his diocese. The wars in the Eastern Province stressed the need for a missionary bishop to the natives harrying the borders, and in 1851 Gray brought the question before a synod of clergy. He realised in his Visitation of 1850 that Natal and Kaffraria must be separate sees, for precipitous mountains made communication in those days almost impossible. St. Helena, too, with the islands of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, needed more regular spiritual help and supervision than a bishop at Cape Town could give. Therefore, in 1852 Bishop Gray went to England to ask advice about such a division, and to beg for men and money for new sees. In spite of painful illness he spoke all over England, 300 times on that visit, to let churchmen know the need of reduction in the size of his diocese which stretched north to the Orange river and eastward to the Great Kei. With the help of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel the new sees of Grahamstown and Natal were created with the money the bishop had begged.
John Armstrong became the first Bishop of Grahamstown and John William Colenso went to Natal. The two sees were constituted under Letters Patent in 1853 and, a fortnight later, Gray received his new Letters Patent for his diminished See of Cape Town and as Metropolitan of South Africa.
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Wikipedia