Graaff-Reinet : St James the Great Church

Hi, I had some trouble connecting to the internet during the December holiday and could unfortunately not write blog posts or read any blogs.  It looks as if I am back online today and I will be doing a lot of reading and hopefully publish some of my posts.  I will start the year with the last few posts about our holiday in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

St James the Great Anglican Church in Graaff-Reinet is another of the churches designed by Sophy Gray.  We visited the church on a warm autumn day in May 2012.  We were lucky because there was a gardener busy in the garden and he let us go into the church.
This church is the oldest original church building in Graaff-Reinet that is still in use. The congregation was started in 1845 but they used the school, library and the Dutch Reformed Church building.  It was declared a National heritage Site in 1996
Bishop Robert Gray visited the town in November 1848 and encouraged the congregation to raise funds for a church.  The original church, consisting of the present nave, was built in 1850. In 1868 the chancel and sanctuary was added and the entrance porch in 1874. 
 

















The church is surrounded by a beautiful garden and the gardener let us take a look inside.  It is a small church with beautiful stained glass windows.  Along the walls there are memorial plates for men who died in battles while serving their country or for people who served the church.
Also on display are the colours of the Middellandse Regiment.  King George VI presented it to the regiment on 31 March 1947 in recognition for their active participation in the Middle East and Italian campaigns during World War Two.
The visit to this church was one of the highlights of our visit to Graaff-Reinet. 





Comments

  1. Anonymous10 March, 2016 14:58

    Thank you - somehow I missed this church while wandering about Graaff Reinet and so have linked to my blogsite

    ReplyDelete

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