Page 7 - Bulletin 3 1999

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was permitted to officiate here. Forty-six years later the British seized the Cape and brought

Anglicanism with them. The first clergy were naval and military chaplains, but, after the
second British occupation of 1806 a few civil or ‘colonial’ chaplains were appointed. In

October 1827, Dr James, the Bishop of Calcutta, became our first Episcopal visitor when he
stopped here for a few days on his way to India. He was followed by his successor to the see

of Calcutta, Dr Turner, in October 1829, who in turn was followed by his own successor to
the see, Dr Wilson, in September 1832. Wilson confirmed hundreds of candidates; preached

four sermons; celebrated Holy Communion twice; conducted the first two Anglican

ordinations in Africa in the Reformed Church, Cape Town, under special commission from
the Bishop of London; and consecrated sites for the erection of churches in Wynberg and

Rondebosch.

The next Bishop to arrive was Dr Corrie, first Bishop of Madras, in September 1835. He was

here for six days, during which he held a confirmation in St. George’s, Cape Town “the first
episcopal function exercised in that church.” He was followed by Dr Nixon, the first Bishop

of Tasmania, who arrived here for a few days in May 1843, and consecrated two churches -
St. John’s, Wynberg and St. Frances’, Simon’s Town.

In 1847 a memorial was drawn up by a group of church members in the eastern province

addressed to the administrators of the Colonial Bishoprics Fund. They noted that there were

only 11 clergymen in the colony to serve an Anglican population of some 10 000 souls spread
over an area of 110 000 square miles. The church was disorganised and not in a position to

carry out its own rules and discipline. They asked the administrators to use their “influence in
procuring the early appointment of a Bishop for the Cape of Good Hope.” That amazing

nineteenth century philanthropist, Miss - afterwards Baroness - Burdett-Couts gave the fund

£17 500 towards the endowment of a Bishopric at the Cape, and accordingly a Bishop was
chosen.

Gray’s Consecration and Arrival at the Cape

In 1847 Gray was chosen as first Lord Bishop of Cape Town. He was awarded the degree of
Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, by the University of Oxford, on 16 June 1847, and

consecrated in Westminster Abbey on St. Peter’s Day, 29 June 1847 by the Archbishop of