Diocese of Grahamstown
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. 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, in 1851 Gray brought the question before a synod of clergy. He realised in his canonical visitation of 1850 that Natal and Kaffraria must be separate sees, for precipitous mountains made communication in those days impossible. Saint Helena, 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, 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 River.
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 John William Colenso went to Natal; the two sees were constituted under Letters patent in 1853 and, a fortnight Gray received his new Letters patent for his diminished See of Cape Town and as Metropolitan of South Africa. The story of the foundation of the Grahamstown diocese under its first bishop, John Armstrong, is different from that of Natal. Archdeacon Merriman had set the key of missionary enthusiasm and self-devotion to which the new diocese was tuned, he arrived in Grahamstown in 1848 and his journeys on foot through his huge archdeaconry are famous. He offered to be the first missionary to the Xhosas, but Bishop Gray could not spare him as archdeacon, wished him to be the first bishop; the Grahamstown diocese bordered on the often-debated and altered boundary between the Colony and Kaffraria.
From the time of the first Kafir War of 1779, massacres and counter-attacks had taken place on both sides of the River Fish or Keiskama or whatever the authorities had decided the Kafirs must not cross. Different governors had tried to subdue the invading Xhosas by force of arms, but they had returned, the problem seemed to be insoluble when either the astuteness of Moshesh, or the credulity of the natives when their witch-doctors speak, brought about their own undoing by the tragic cattle-killing of 1857. Galekas, Tembus, at the bidding of a witch-doctor and his niece, slew their cattle, believing that, when, done, their chieftain ancestors would appear and lead them to victory against the hated white men. Instead, famine came and death from starvation, though Sir George Grey and High Commissioner, 1854-1861, sent food, missioners housed all they could, the numbers in British Kaffraria alone fell from 184,000 to 37,000, the Kafir power disappeared as it seemed for ever; this wise Governor had realised before this catastrophe that, owing to the Crimean War, it was impossible for Britain to spare troops to keep the natives behind the boundary lines of their territories, he had settled German legionaries and others in the confiscated native reserves on military tenure, had offered large Government grants to the various missions to build churches, industrial schools, believing that educating the natives was cheaper than sending troops to shoot them.
Many new mission schools were being built by Methodists with these grants, both Bishop Gray and the new Bishop of Grahamstown realised the enormous opportunity given to the Church to found missions to the ama-Xhosa. Both bishops wrote imploring S. P. G. to send men. As soon as possible after his arrival Bishop Armstrong visited Umhalla, of whom Bishop Gray had written on his visitation in 1850: "I have undertaken to found a mission in Umhalla's country midway between King William's Town and the Kei river; the chief has about 10,000 people under him, here we hope to begin work." The chief had granted to the Church a site for a mission near the deserted Fort Waterloo. Mr. Clayton was the first missionary there, the stone of the first church for the Xhosas was laid on St. Luke's Day, 1854, the mission took that evangelist saint as its patron. From there the bishop travelled up the Booma Pass, where many British troops had been ambushed and massacred, to Keiskama Hoek, a military station, with Mr. Dacre as its chaplain.
Here in the fastnesses of the Amatolas lived the Gaikas, under their lame chief Sandile, but when they were expelled their land was given to the Fingoes, who had helped the British in the Xhosa wars. The Fingo chief gladly heard the bishop's proposal for a mission among his people, where they would learn about Christianity, about better ways of agriculture; the chief offered land not far from the Hoek, Mr. Dacre nobly began work in the time he could spare from his military duties, he made the invaluable water-furrow for the mission lands, still in use, by his influence paved the way for the first resident missionary there, H. B. Smith, who arrived in September, 1855. Sir George Grey granted 693 acres of land to this mission, called St. Matthew's. During Bishop Armstrong's second journey in 1855, he visited Sandile, who at once consented to have Church missions in his land, offered a site near his kraal on the Kabusie river; this was called St. John's. There still remained the great Kreli, w
Hanover Park, Cape Town
Hanover Park is a township of the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Benni McCarthy, South African footballer
Diocese of George
The Diocese of George is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The seat of the diocese is the Cathedral of St Mark in George in South Africa. Henry Bindley Sidwell 1911-1936 Herbert Linford Gwyer 1937-1951 John Hunter 1951-1966 Patrick Harold Falkiner Barron 1966-1978 William James Manning 1974-1984 Derek George Damant 1984-1999 Donald Frederick Harker 1999-2010 Brian Melvin Marajh 2011- The diocese assumed arms at the time of its inception, had them granted by the College of Arms in 1953: Argent, on water in base barry wavy an ancient ship under sail to the sinister proper, within a bordure Azure charged with eight plates, a canton Vair thereon a celestial crown Or surmounted by an anchor Sable. Official website
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has extended the term "stained glass" to include domestic lead light and objects d'art created from foil glasswork exemplified in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany; as a material stained glass is glass, coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture. The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are used to enhance the design; the term stained glass is applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass and fused to the glass in a kiln.
Stained glass, as an art and a craft, requires the artistic skill to conceive an appropriate and workable design, the engineering skills to assemble the piece. A window must fit snugly into the space for which it is made, must resist wind and rain, especially in the larger windows, must support its own weight. Many large windows have withstood the test of time and remained intact since the Late Middle Ages. In Western Europe they constitute the major form of pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a stained glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or primarily to admit light but rather to control it. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as "illuminated wall decorations"; the design of a window may be figurative. Windows within a building may be thematic, for example: within a church – episodes from the life of Christ. Stained glass is still popular today, but referred to as art glass, it is prevalent in luxury homes, commercial buildings, places of worship.
Artists and companies are contracted to create beautiful art glass ranging from domes, backsplashes, etc. During the late medieval period, glass factories were set up where there was a ready supply of silica, the essential material for glass manufacture. Silica requires a high temperature to melt, something not all glass factories were able to achieve; such materials as potash and lead can be added to lower the melting temperature. Other substances, such as lime, are added to rebuild the weakened network and make the glass more stable. Glass is coloured by adding metallic oxide powders or finely divided metals while it is in a molten state. Copper oxides produce green or bluish green, cobalt makes deep blue, gold produces wine red and violet glass. Much modern red glass is produced using copper, less expensive than gold and gives a brighter, more vermilion shade of red. Glass coloured while in the clay pot in the furnace is known as pot metal glass, as opposed to flashed glass. Using a blow-pipe, a "gather" of molten glass is taken from the pot heating in the furnace.
The gather is formed to a bubble of air blown into it. Using metal tools, molds of wood that have been soaking in water, gravity, the gather is manipulated to form a long, cylindrical shape; as it cools, it is reheated. During the process, the bottom of the cylinder is removed. Once brought to the desired size it is left to cool. One side of the cylinder is opened, it is put into another oven to heat and flatten it, placed in an annealer to cool at a controlled rate, making the material more stable. "Hand-blown" cylinder and crown glass were the types used in ancient stained-glass windows. Stained glass windows were in churches and chapels as well as many more well respected buildings; this hand-blown glass is created by blowing a bubble of air into a gather of molten glass and spinning it, either by hand or on a table that revolves like a potter's wheel. The centrifugal force causes the molten bubble to flatten, it can be cut into small sheets. Glass formed this way can be either coloured and used for stained-glass windows, or uncoloured as seen in small paned windows in 16th- and 17th-century houses.
Concentric, curving waves are characteristic of the process. The center of each piece of glass, known as the "bull's-eye", is subject to less acceleration during spinning, so it remains thicker than the rest of the sheet, it has the distinctive lump of glass left by the "pontil" rod, which holds the glass as it is spun out. This lumpy, refractive quality means the bulls-eyes are less transparent, but they have still been used for windows, both domestic and ecclesiastical. Crown glass is still made today, but not on a large scale. Rolled glass is produced by pouring molten glass onto a metal or graphite table and rolling it into a sheet using a large metal cylinder, similar to rolling out a pie crust; the rolling can be done by machine. Glass can be "double rolled", which means it is passed through two cylinders at once to yield glass of a specified thickness (typically about 1/8" or
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, was a British Royal Navy officer and statesman, an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. During the Second World War, he was South East Asia Command, he was the first Governor-General of independent India. From 1954 to 1959, Mountbatten was First Sea Lord, a position, held by his father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, some forty years earlier. Thereafter he served as Chief of the Defence Staff until 1965, making him the longest-serving professional head of the British Armed Forces to date. During this period Mountbatten served as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee for a year. In 1979, his grandson Nicholas, two others were killed by a bomb set by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, hidden aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland. From the time of his birth at Frogmore House in the Home Park, Berkshire until 1917, when he and several other relations of King George V dropped their German styles and titles, Mountbatten was known as His Serene Highness Prince Louis of Battenberg.
He was the youngest child and the second son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and his wife Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine. His maternal grandparents were Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, a daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, his paternal grandparents were Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia, Princess of Battenberg. Mountbatten's paternal grandparents' marriage was morganatic because his grandmother was not of royal lineage, his siblings were Princess Alice of Battenberg, Queen Louise of Sweden, George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven. Young Mountbatten's nickname among family and friends was "Dickie", although "Richard" was not among his given names; this was because his great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, had suggested the nickname of "Nicky", but to avoid confusion with the many Nickys of the Russian Imperial Family, "Nicky" was changed to "Dickie". He was baptised in the large drawing room of Frogmore House on 17 July 1900 by the Dean of Windsor, Philip Eliot.
His godparents were Nicholas II of Russia and Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg. Mountbatten was educated at home for the first 10 years of his life: he was sent to Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire and on to the Royal Naval College, Osborne in May 1913. In childhood he visited the Imperial Court of Russia at St Petersburg and became intimate with the doomed Russian Imperial Family, harbouring romantic feelings towards his maternal first cousin Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, whose photograph he kept at his bedside for the rest of his life. Mountbatten was posted as midshipman to the battlecruiser HMS Lion in July 1916 and, after seeing action in August 1916, transferred to the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth during the closing phases of the First World War. In June 1917, when the royal family stopped using their German names and titles and adopted the more British-sounding "Windsor", Prince Louis of Battenberg became Louis Mountbatten, was created Marquess of Milford Haven, his second son acquired the courtesy title Lord Louis Mountbatten and was known as Lord Louis until he was created a peer in 1946.
He paid a visit of ten days to the Western Front, in July 1918. He was appointed executive officer of the small warship HMS P. 31 on 13 October 1918 and was promoted sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1919. HMS P. 31 took part in the Peace River Pageant on 4 April 1919. Mountbatten attended Christ's College, Cambridge for two terms, starting in October 1919, where he studied English literature in a programme, specially designed for ex-servicemen, he was elected for a term to the Standing Committee of the Cambridge Union Society, was suspected of sympathy for the Labour Party emerging as a potential party of government for the first time. He was posted to the battlecruiser HMS Renown in March 1920 and accompanied Edward, Prince of Wales, on a royal tour of Australia in her, he was promoted lieutenant on 15 April 1920. HMS Renown returned to Portsmouth on 11 October 1920. Early in 1921 Royal Navy personnel were used for civil defence duties as serious industrial unrest seemed imminent. Mountbatten had to command a platoon of stokers, many of whom had never handled a rifle before, in northern England.
He transferred to the battlecruiser HMS Repulse in March 1921 and accompanied the Prince of Wales on a Royal tour of India and Japan. Edward and Mountbatten formed a close friendship during the trip. Mountbatten survived the deep defence cuts known as the Geddes Axe. Fifty-two percent of the officers of his year had had to leave the Royal Navy by the end of 1923, he was posted to the battleship HMS Revenge in the Mediterranean Fleet in January 1923. Pursuing his interests in technological development and gadgetry, Mountbatten joined the Portsmouth Signals School in August 1924 and went on to study electronics at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Mount
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Syriac Orthodox Church, Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Catholic Church. An archdeacon is responsible for administration within an archdeaconry, the principal subdivision of the diocese; the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church has defined an archdeacon as "A cleric having a defined administrative authority delegated to him by the bishop in the whole or part of the diocese." The office has been described metaphorically as that of oculus episcopi, the "bishop's eye". In the Latin Catholic Church, the post of archdeacon an ordained deacon, was once one of great importance as a senior official of a diocese; the duties are now performed by officials such as auxiliary or coadjutor bishops, the vicar general, the episcopal vicars.
The title remains. The term "archdeacon" appears for the first time in Optatus of Mileve's history of Donatism of about 370, in which he applies it to someone who lived at the beginning of that century. From the office of the diaconus episcopi, a deacon whom the bishop selected to administer the church's finances under the bishop's personal direction, the office of archdeacon developed, as certain functions were reserved to him by law; these functions included not only financial administration but the discipline of the clergy, examination of candidates for priesthood. From the 8th century, there was in the West a further development of the authority of the archdeacon, who now enjoyed a jurisdiction independent of the bishop. Large dioceses had several archdeaconries, in each of which the archdeacon, had an authority comparable to that of the bishop, they were appointed not by the bishop but by the cathedral chapter or the king. However, from the 13th century, efforts were made to limit their authority.
This was effected in part by the institution of the new office of vicar general, who would be a priest rather than a deacon. In 1553, the Council of Trent removed the independent powers of archdeacons. Those, in charge of different parts of the diocese ceased to be appointed. Only the archdeacon associated with the cathedral chapter continued to exist as an empty title, with duties entirely limited to liturgical functions; the title of archdeacon is still conferred on a canon of various cathedral chapters, the word "archdeacon" has been defined in relation to the Latin Catholic Church as "a title of honour conferred only on a member of a cathedral chapter". However, Eastern Catholic Churches still utilize archdeacons. Archdeacons serve the church within a diocese by taking particular responsibility for buildings, including church buildings, the welfare of clergy and their families and the implementation of diocesan policy for the sake of the Gospel within an archdeaconry. An archdeaconry is a territorial division of a diocese.
This type of dual role has only existed in the Bishop suffragan of Ludlow. An archdeacon is styled The Venerable instead of the usual clerical style of The Reverend. In the Church of England the position of an archdeacon can only be held by a priest, ordained for at least six years. In the Church of England, the legal act by which a priest becomes an archdeacon is called a collation. If that archdeaconry is annexed to a canonry of the cathedral, the archdeacon will be installed at that cathedral. In some other Anglican churches archdeacons can be deacons instead of priests; the Anglican ordinal presupposes that the functions of archdeacons include those of examining candidates for ordination and presenting them to the ordaining bishop. In some parts of the Anglican Communion where women cannot be consecrated as bishops, the position of archdeacon is the most senior office a female cleric can hold: this being the current situation, for example, in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. "lay archdeacons" have been appointed, most notably in the case of the former Anglican Communion Observer to the United Nations, Archdeacon Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagoloa-Leota, who retained her title after having served as Archdeacon of Samoa.
In the Eastern Christian churches, an archdeacon is the senior deacon within a diocese and has responsibility for serving at hierarchical services. He has responsibility for ensuring the smooth running of the service by directing the clergy and servers as appropriate; as such, he travels with the ruling bishop to various parts of the diocese, will sometimes act as his secretary and cell attendant, ensuring that he is able to balance his monastic life with his hierarchical duties. The archdeacon wears the double orarion, twice the length of the usual orarion, wraps under the right arm as well as hanging from the left shoulder. An archdeacon may come from either the married clergy. A protodeacon w
Athlone, Cape Town
Athlone is a suburb of Cape Town located to the east of the city centre on the Cape Flats, south of the N2 highway. It is named after Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, Governor-General of the Union of South Africa from 1924 to 1930. Two of the suburb's main landmarks are Athlone Stadium and the decommissioned coal burning Athlone Power Station. Athlone is residential and is served by a railway station of the same name, it however includes commercial zones. There are many "sub-areas" within Athlone, including Manenberg, Rylands, Belgravia Estate and Hazendal. Athlone is the home of the Trojan Horse Memorial, a reminder of the Trojan Horse Incident which took place in 1985, when three anti-apartheid protesters were killed and fifteen others wounded in a police ambush; the incident took place near the Alexander Sinton Secondary School where students had demanded to attend school the month before. Athlone is the home of the Robert Waterwitch / Colleen Williams Memorial, established in memory of two ANC activists who died in the struggle against apartheid.
As of the census of 2001, there were 45,056 people residing in the suburb. The racial makeup of the suburb was 3.21% Black African, 69.66% Coloured, 23.45% Indian/Asian, 3.68% White and 0% from other races. The suburb population age varies with 28.38% under the age of 18, 28.37% from 18 to 34, 26.53% from 35 to 54, 8.04% from 55 to 64, 8.66% who were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 women there were 86.53 males. 82.58% of the population speak English, 15.18% speak Afrikaans, 1.13% speak Xhosa, 0.52% speak another African language and 0.59% some other language as a first language. There are over 100 schools in the greater Athlone area, including Rylands High, Belgravia High, Darul Islam Islamic High School and the Athlone School for the Blind, which has produced several Paralympic medal winning athletes, including Hilton Langenhoven and Jonathan Ntutu; the Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Gatesville Hawkers Association have a strong presence with many members in Athlone. There are many neighbourhood watches in the Athlone area, including Rylands Neighbourhood Watch, Surrey Patrol and Habibia Neighbourhood Watch.
The decommissioned Athlone Power Station is situated alongside the N2. The cooling towers referred to as the "Athlone Towers", were demolished on 22 August 2010. Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa Athlone protest archives
.svg){kind=small}
