St. Monica's - KwaNokuthula

Welcome to St. Monica’s

In the 1980’s the Anglican church had a congregation in Bossiesgif, an informal settlement bordering Plettenberg Bay, and later in Kwanokuthula which held services in whichever venue was available. The driving force in this congregation was Derrick Tenge.

In August 1998 the Rev. Hartley Pikele, (recently appointed to the Parish) approached Tony Venn, a member of the Parish Council, for help in raising money to establish an Anglican church in Kwanokuthula.

He couldn’t have chosen better. Tony an old boy of St John’s College, Johannesburg immediately set about the project and enlisted the help of two other old boys of St John’s,  Derric Reid and Bill Harrison at that time also a member of the Parish council. Thus St Monica’s Mission Fund was started, with the committee augmented by a few from the kwaNokuthula Anglican community.

The first requirement was to purchase a house for Hartley in close proximity to the church site. A donation of R 15 000 was received for this purpose and a house was purchased and suitably altered to meet a priest’s requirements. This house is currently (2014) used by the Plettaid Foundation for the care of people with HIV/Aids.  The stand on which the church was to be built had been set aside in the town planning of Kwanokuthula but this was not large enough for the Mission’s requirements. After much negotiating with the adjoining house owner, agreement was reached, an laternative house of  her choice was purchased and a swap arranged.

In addition to evangelical work, the objectives of the Mission were to provide training and social welfare services to the community and the premises were accordingly designed to accommodate these additional services. Andrew Hrabar was the appointed architect and Bennie Botha the building contractor.

Fundraising began with canvassing a wide range of possible benefactors, not only in this country but also the U K and U S A., with training and social service strongly emphasised in the fund raising efforts. This paid off handsomely as a Plett resident, Guy Balderson, (also an old boy of St. John’s and known to both Tony and Bill) had for some considerable time been financially supporting various projects with similar aims. Guy made a significant donation to the appeal and when subsequently Bill went to discuss the transfer of the funds, Guy said he that he was keen to see the project get underway and single-handedly funded the outstanding amount required. What wonderful news to break to the committee when the heading “Finance” came up in the committee meeting later that morning! An amount in excess of R 1 250 000 was raised and a panel listing the names of the major donors is in St Monica’s Church hall.

The foundation stone was laid by Bishop Donald Harker on 9 June 2000 and the church was consecrated on 12 November 2000.

The final task of the Mission project was to build a priest’s house. Close to the church was another stand designated for a church and earmarked for the N G Kerk. As they had no intention of taking using the stand, it became available for St Monica’s.

The funds in the Mission project were insufficient to meet the building expenses and the then Rector, Revd Rhodes Arendse, approached the Diocese of George. He argued that that the whole project had been completed at no cost to the Diocese and was able to obtain a ‘Rand for Rand’ commitment from the Diocese for the priest’s house. Although he had moved on by the time the house was completed, Hartley Pikele’s dream had been fulfilled.

The planned training and social welfare ideals have yet to be formally realised, although there are on record in the kwaNokuthula community many acts of compassion by the various organisations of St Monica’s Church.

Wedding Ceremonies

Our Beautiful Church is the perfect venue for the “Idyllic Wedding Ceremony”. Combine a ceremony at St Michael’s with a reception at one of the area’s many wonderful Wedding Venues. Contact us for available dates and counseling requirements.

Counseling

Do you or a loved one need someone to talk to? We are here to help. Please contact us.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor 1)