Bishops climb Jacob's Ladder - and visit oldest St Helena resident

Bishop Stephen Diseko reaches the top.

Thursday November 15 – Morning

Today all four of us visitors – including Bishop Steve, Bishop Allan and Fr Mcebisi - made the early morning climb, 699 steps up Jacob's Ladder!

See more photos below... 

Wednesday November 14

We continued with our Bishops' peer training today, devoting a session to the Bishop in scripture as we shared our experiences.

Then we visited Plantation House, the official residence of the Governor of the island, for a special tour in which we learned a lot of history and background. St Helena being a British Overseas Territory, it has its own Legislative Council and a governor who represents the British monarch. We were glad the current governor has opened the residence for the public to visit.

Also at Plantation House, we met the oldest resident of St Helena, Jonathan the Tortoise, who at an estimated 186 years is also reputed to be the world's oldest known living terrestrial animal. Then we went to visit Longwood House, the house in which Napoleon Bonaparte lived from 1815 to his death in 1821 after the British had defeated him and sent him into exile. There we refreshed our knowledge about the ravages of war in history.

We continued our visit to local parishes and learned more about the history of our church on the island, enjoyed a packed lunch along the road and ended with a visit to a local entrepreneur, a distiller who told us about the challenges of doing business on the island.

We could see the airport runway from where we ate lunch, and appreciated the difficulty of building an airport in that terrain. The South African construction group, Basil Read, built the airport and access road, opening the island up to air travel for the first time in it history.

Tonight we had our last parish bring-and-share dinner, and on Thursday night we will be guests of Governor Lisa Honan. The weather is beautiful and the prediction is that the weekly plane will be able to land, so we are still scheduled to fly out on Saturday.

Bishop Allan Kannemeyer, with Jamestown below.

Coming down....

Plantation House

With Jonathan the tortoise.