The text of remarks by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba at Bishops School in Cape Town:
Today we give thanks to God for our founder Bishop Robert Gray and his wife Sophy Gray. Thank you, the Revd Terry Wilke, for the invitation and thank you, Mr Pearson, educators and students for your warm welcome.
Today we celebrate the 169th anniversary of the arrival on our continent of Robert Gray, first Bishop of Cape Town and the founder of this school. As you will hear shortly, in the prayer the Church prays to commemorate him, we remember today “the constancy and zeal” with which he laid firm foundations for Anglicanism in Southern Africa.
Showing posts with label Bishopscourt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bishopscourt. Show all posts
Thursday, 31 August 2017
Thursday, 8 May 2014
King Letsie III Renews Family Ties With Bishopscourt
King Letsie III of Lesotho renewed family ties with Bishopscourt going back more than 150 years when he paid a courtesy call on Archbishop Thabo and Mrs Lungi Makgoba in Cape Town on May 2.
He had visited Bishopscourt previously, but said he learned for the first time on this visit that two of his ancestors - the younger sons of King Moshoeshoe I, Tlali and Tsekelo - had studied there. He had known they had been educated in Cape Town, he said, but not that they had been at Bishopscourt.
Tlali and Tsekelo were among the sons and daughters of southern African leaders, among them Maqoma and Sandile of amaRharhabe, who were taken to Cape Town in the late 1850s as part of a project of the British colonial authorities.
They received an education at Bishopscourt in an institution which was first established at the residence of the first Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray, and which later became Zonnebloem College in District Six.
According to a history of Zonnebloem College by Janet Hodgson, Gray described the aim of the Cape colonial governor, George Grey, in starting the school as being "That England might exercise, through means of an institution which conferred great benefits upon them, her due influence over the native chiefs around us, and at the same time give a high education to those who are likely to influence the destinies of the various tribes within our reach."
For his part, Robert Gray hoped that the students might become "witnesses for Christ to their fellow-countrymen, and, if we qualify them for the work, as schoolmasters, catechists, and we trust also, even as ordained ministers".
Bishop Gray also said the aim of the initiative had been to bring the students into "contact with the highest intelligence and the most striking proof of England's power, and of the advantages of civilization to be got in this country".
PHOTOS by Shaun Cozett: Top, Archbishop Thabo and King Letsie III; Middle, the Archbishop and the King with Mrs Lungi Makgoba; and the King's delegation with Archbishop and Mrs Makgoba and Bishopscourt chief of staff, the Rev Margaret Heyns.
He had visited Bishopscourt previously, but said he learned for the first time on this visit that two of his ancestors - the younger sons of King Moshoeshoe I, Tlali and Tsekelo - had studied there. He had known they had been educated in Cape Town, he said, but not that they had been at Bishopscourt.
They received an education at Bishopscourt in an institution which was first established at the residence of the first Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray, and which later became Zonnebloem College in District Six.
According to a history of Zonnebloem College by Janet Hodgson, Gray described the aim of the Cape colonial governor, George Grey, in starting the school as being "That England might exercise, through means of an institution which conferred great benefits upon them, her due influence over the native chiefs around us, and at the same time give a high education to those who are likely to influence the destinies of the various tribes within our reach."
For his part, Robert Gray hoped that the students might become "witnesses for Christ to their fellow-countrymen, and, if we qualify them for the work, as schoolmasters, catechists, and we trust also, even as ordained ministers".
Bishop Gray also said the aim of the initiative had been to bring the students into "contact with the highest intelligence and the most striking proof of England's power, and of the advantages of civilization to be got in this country".
PHOTOS by Shaun Cozett: Top, Archbishop Thabo and King Letsie III; Middle, the Archbishop and the King with Mrs Lungi Makgoba; and the King's delegation with Archbishop and Mrs Makgoba and Bishopscourt chief of staff, the Rev Margaret Heyns.
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Archbishop Makgoba Launches New E-Reader Project Aimed at Africa
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town has inaugurated a new E-reader project to promote electronic learning in dioceses in the Western Cape and at the Province's principal residential college for ordinands. The project aims eventually to give students across Africa easier access to online lectures and electronic libraries.
Archbishop Makgoba launched the new initiative when he opened and blessed a new Centre for Reflection and Development at Bishopscourt, his official residence and offices in Cape Town, on January 28.
"We're continuing a tradition of a passion for education," he said during the opening ceremony. Bishopscourt has played a pioneering role in South African education, beginning with an exiled Xhosa princess and the boys of Bishops School in the 19th century.
Initially, students will be supplied with electronic readers or tablet computers to give them access to webcast lectures from Bishopscourt and other venues. At Bishopscourt, they will also be able to download readings, and at the College of the Transfiguration (COTT) in Grahamstown, they will be able to log into electronic academic library resources.
The inaugural director of the project, the Revd Godfrey Walton, said: "In the first phase of the project, students from COTT and students and ordinary church members from four dioceses in the Western Cape will be covered. In later phases, we plan to extend the project to cover the Church in the rest of southern Africa, and then to the whole continent.
"Currently, most theological colleges in the African continent have under-resourced libraries. The e-reader project will serve as a major electronic resource for students and clergy involved in academic reading and research."
Archbishop Thabo added: "Bishopscourt has a long history as an educational pioneer. The private church school, Bishops (Diocesan College), was established here in 1849.
"A decade later the sons and daughters of 19th century leaders, including Maqoma and Sandile of amaRharhabe and Moshoeshoe of the Basotho, studied here before the church launched Zonnebloem College in District Six. Their number included Princess Emma Sandile, a renowned 19th century writer of letters in English.
"Later, in the 1980s, Bishopscourt established one of the country's first electronic bulletin boards, used by Archbishop Tutu to circumvent hostile media reporting during the anti-apartheid struggle. It was here too that my predecessor, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, conceptualized and started the Historic Schools Restoration Project to revitalize schools played a pioneering role in educating black pupils.
"So the E-reader Project continues a strong tradition of educational and ICT innovation.
"We are grateful for support we have so far received from the Compass Rose Society, the Anglican Communion Office, Trinity Church Wall Street, the Motsepe Foundation and The Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Development Trust."
Archbishop Makgoba launched the new initiative when he opened and blessed a new Centre for Reflection and Development at Bishopscourt, his official residence and offices in Cape Town, on January 28.
"We're continuing a tradition of a passion for education," he said during the opening ceremony. Bishopscourt has played a pioneering role in South African education, beginning with an exiled Xhosa princess and the boys of Bishops School in the 19th century.
Initially, students will be supplied with electronic readers or tablet computers to give them access to webcast lectures from Bishopscourt and other venues. At Bishopscourt, they will also be able to download readings, and at the College of the Transfiguration (COTT) in Grahamstown, they will be able to log into electronic academic library resources.
The inaugural director of the project, the Revd Godfrey Walton, said: "In the first phase of the project, students from COTT and students and ordinary church members from four dioceses in the Western Cape will be covered. In later phases, we plan to extend the project to cover the Church in the rest of southern Africa, and then to the whole continent.
"Currently, most theological colleges in the African continent have under-resourced libraries. The e-reader project will serve as a major electronic resource for students and clergy involved in academic reading and research."
Archbishop Thabo added: "Bishopscourt has a long history as an educational pioneer. The private church school, Bishops (Diocesan College), was established here in 1849.
"A decade later the sons and daughters of 19th century leaders, including Maqoma and Sandile of amaRharhabe and Moshoeshoe of the Basotho, studied here before the church launched Zonnebloem College in District Six. Their number included Princess Emma Sandile, a renowned 19th century writer of letters in English.
"Later, in the 1980s, Bishopscourt established one of the country's first electronic bulletin boards, used by Archbishop Tutu to circumvent hostile media reporting during the anti-apartheid struggle. It was here too that my predecessor, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, conceptualized and started the Historic Schools Restoration Project to revitalize schools played a pioneering role in educating black pupils.
"So the E-reader Project continues a strong tradition of educational and ICT innovation.
"We are grateful for support we have so far received from the Compass Rose Society, the Anglican Communion Office, Trinity Church Wall Street, the Motsepe Foundation and The Archbishop Thabo Makgoba Development Trust."
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