Parish Information

Good Shepherd
Archdeaconry: Tsitsikamma
District: Humansdorp
Telephone: 042-291-0753
Fax: 042 291 0753
Email: stmark.s@mweb.co.za

Postal Address:
PO Box 66
Humansdorp
6300

Street Address:
Cnr. Main and Voortrekker road
Humansdorp

Assistant Priest: Revd Mkwananzi Churchwarden Mgedezi
Rector: Revd Charles James Church
Retired : Permission to Officiate: Revd Fiona Catherine Esterhuysen
Retired : Permission to Officiate: Revd Jacqueline Isobel Trollip
Self-supporting : Permission to Officiate: Revd Charles William Jacobs
Parish Secretary: Jean Trusler

Service Times:
Eight Chapelries:
8.30 am: Jeffeys Bay, St Mark, Santareme Chapel, St Paul
8.00 am: St Mary's
9.00 am: St Patrick
10.00 am: St Faith, St Boniface,

Worship Style:
Varied - low church and traditional

History:
St Francis of Assisi

The Parish of St Francis of Assisi, Humansdorp embraces the Chapelries of All Souls, Blue Lilies Bush; St Boniface, Kruisfontein; and St Mary the Virgin, Graslaagte, set in the vast area of the Tsitsikamma. All Souls was founded in 1898 and when built it provided the only church and school in the whole Tsitsikamma. The Anglican Church has played a prominent part in the provision of schools in this region, and headmasters of Blue Lilies Bush have played a significant role in the development of the church. There has been marked growth in the past 30 years under the leadership of Mr L Taute, the Revd Bob Petersen (who was priested, becoming the first priest to live in the area) and currently Mr DAW Muller, headmaster and chapelwarden. St Boniface was started with a very committed group of people who met in a home years before the chapel was built in 1938. It was serviced by St Mark's, Humansdorp until it became part of the Parish of St Francis of Assisi. The chapel was extended in 1980, and again in 1994. St Mary, Blessed Virgin, was started when the site of the present school was secured in 1958, and both men and women joined together in making blocks on site and building the chapel. The congrgation also gathered together and built a beautiful Rectory which the present Rector moved into as soon as it was ready. Under his ministry the Parish has gone from strength to strength and the Chapelry was exteded in 1994 to house the enlaged congregation.

St Mark, Humansdorp

The parish of St Mark, Humansdorp covers a huge area at the Western edge of the Diocese - a strip approximately 100km long and 40km wide. When the parish was founded in 1893, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk donated the land on which St. Mark's now stands. Services had been held in the town since 1870 when the then Rector of Uitenhage, the Revd W Llewellyn, used to trek in by ox wagon on a quarterly basis The church of St Mark's was built in 1898 and extended by the addition of the chancel and a tower as a memorial to those who fell in the Great War of 1914-18. In its 102 years the parish has now had 20 incumbents. During the apartheid era the original parish of Humansdorp was been divided into three parishes - St Mark's, St Francis of Assisi and St Patrick's -all serving the same area. The chapel of St Paul, was built in the farming community of Hankey in 1910 and was the smallest church in the diocese of Grahamstown. When the building and land were taken away by the Department of Community Development, a new, very attractive small church was built in its place in the town in 1971. The chapel of St Francis was built in Jeffreys Bay in 1938. This lovely church has served the community well. It provided a home for the neo-natal Methodist Church when they started a work in Jeffreys Bay, and is currently providing a starting base for the Presbyterian Church.

St Patrick, Humansdorp

The original Church was built in c1899, but the Humansdorp Municipality moved the Church to a new site in 1926. The Parish was served by a Catechist for many years and now has the limited services of a Priest from Port Elizabeth who visits the Parish each month. At one time the Parish had 11 outstations including St Paul, Goedgeloof and St Barnabas, Snyklip.

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