75 Mountain Road, Cape Town
Protopresv. Father Nicholas Giamouridis
Telephone: 021-5510788 & 082-5787415
e-mail: revng@sadomain.net,
P.O. BOX 809, Milnerton,
7435, South Africa
The Agios Georgios Cathedral
More than a century of worship in Woodstock
Several prominent South African writers of the pioneer period vividly described the strong religious feelings of the early Greeks and their attachment to the Greek Orthodox Church. One of them was Juliet Konig, who wrote The Seven Builders of Johannesburg.
Those who understand the eternal and deep relationship between Hellenism, the Diaspora and Orthodoxy do not, of course, need to look further than their own historical roots to understand this reality.
The Church in the Diaspora has been the alter ego of Hellenism, a part of the everyday struggle and experience of strange lands, lands of opportunities and lands of despair.
This was true of Cape Town at the turn of the century. The first elected Executive Committee of the Hellenic Community was expected to build a church as a first priority, as prescribed in Article 1 of the Community’s constitution.
Protopresv. Father Nicholas Giamouridis
Father Artemios, a priest from a monastery, arrived in Cape Town from Crete in 1901. He played a key role in the mobilisation of people and financial resources for the above purpose. After a sanctification ceremony for the Community, he launched the fundraising for the construction of the church. The sum of £1000 was raised (another source gives the figure of £620).
The Administrative Committee began corresponding with Hellenic communities in other parts of the world, such as Chicago, Manchester and Liverpool, regarding the process of building a Greek Orthodox Church and regulations surrounding its functioning. They also sought references from the Patriarchate of Alexandria on Father Artemios. They informed the Patriarchates of Constantinople and Jerusalem about their plans to build a church and sought information regarding communal life from Egypt, America and elsewhere.
In 1902, Father Artemios was succeeded by Archimandrite Anthimos Lappas. The first act of duty was to equip the Community with the necessary holy books. With all this, enthusiasm for building the church was increasing and reached tremendous heights when Archimandrite Anthimos laid the foundation stone for the erection of the church of St George in September 1903.
The church and the adjoining priest’s house were completed over a period of six months in April 1904. The contractor was Rollandi Co. and the total cost of the project was £2 200.
The first Greek Orthodox marriage in Cape Town took place at St Philips Mission Church on Sunday 24 July 1902. The groom was Anastasios Michael Trouposkiades and the bride Katerina Demetriou Abatzi. Archimandrite Anthimos Lappas officiated. The first marriage in the St George’s Church was held on 12 July 1905 with Archimandrite Stephanos Makaronis officiating. The newlyweds were Efstathios Kalogeropoulos and Argyro Theopoulou Abatzi. For a long period (6 November 1905 to 10 September 1908), for unknown reasons, marriages were held in houses and not in the Church.
Kyriakos Mantzaris, son of Christos and Penelope, was the first child to be christened.
The church services were followed by socials either in the communal house or in the surrounding area, where picnics or occasionally a dance band was organised. The church was officially consecrated on 29 July 1930, under the presidency of N Maratos.
Archimandritre Anthimos left in May 1904 and the new priest, Archimandrite Stephanos Makaronis, served the Community between October 1904 and May 1907. Archimandrite Stephanos was instrumental in bringing together various factions that had caused a split in the Community.
He was succeeded by Archimandrite Damianos Ermogenis, who served the Community from January 1908 to July 1909. Archimandrite Nektarios Mavrokordatos followed, and he remained from May 1910 to February 1912. Archimandrite Timotheos Vyzantios served the Community for a few months after the departure of Archimandrite Nektarios.
November 1912 saw the arrival of Archimandrite Athanasios Katsis, from Kalavryta in the Peloponnese. He became the link the Greek pioneers in Cape Town needed in order to rekindle their zeal and enthusiasm towards the Community. A well-educated cleric with impeccable religious and nationalistic credentials, Katsis made service to the pioneers his mission, in conjunction with the Executive Committees of the Community. President at the time was Nikolaos Adelinis, who was elected at the 1908 General Meeting.
Archimandrite Athanasios began teaching the Greek language to youngsters and gave Sunday catechism classes after the main church service. He was also a pioneer in relief work among all social groups in the Cape, work with which the Greek community has been associated for decades. For him, relief work was the wish of God, an activity which should not be directed towards people of Hellenic descent alone, but rather to all those who suffered. He was instrumental in persuading the Community and its leaders to donate money to hospitals, orphanages and similar institutions.
Archimandrite Athanasios himself was instrumental in collecting hundreds of pounds for benevolent work among the needy, the poor and the destitute. His main concern was young children, war orphans in particular, and so the bulk of his collections found its way to the White Cross Association, a relief organisation in Greece that catered for this category of children.
For many years Archimandrite Athanasios travelled hundreds of kilometres, sometimes even on foot, to collect the vast amount of money required. He undertook a very moving journey in 1920, covering the whole of South Africa as well as other countries in the Southern African region. His own salary covered the costs. The £800 he collected in those three and a half months was sent to Greece for distribution among war orphans and cripples. N Adelinis himself contributed a large sum of money towards this cause, for which he received the Silver Cross of the Order of our Saviour from Eletherios Venizelos.
Although records show that Archimandrite Athanasios arrived in Cape Town in 1912, he did not remain there continuously till his death. The priests that filled in during his absences were Archimandrite Genadios Gianangas (1925), Protopresviteros Elias Bertolis (1928 and again in 1931) and Father N Skandalis (1932 and again in 1938). Father Athanasios Katsis passed away on 4 July 1934, aged 56. He was buried at the Greek Section of the Maitland cemetery. His grave still exists.
Archimandrite Dionysios Mavreas came to Cape Town in 1934 to take over from Archimandrite Athanasios, bringing many new ideas especially for rejuvenating the Greek school.
The Community’s next major project was the construction of a hall for social events and for celebrating Greek National Days. This was accomplished thanks to fundraising around 1932, when a small hall and a new priest’s house were built adjacent to the church on a piece of land purchased in 1920. Antoni and Sophia Protoulis were the first to have their wedding reception in the new hall.
Archimandrite Dionysios Mavreas was followed in 1938 by Archimandrite Nikolaos Harondakis, brother of Despina Kostiris, and he remained in Cape Town until his death in September 1950, aged 47. He studied theology at the University of Thessalonika and made his mark in Cape Town because he was well educated and a good speaker. A short story on his life has been recorded in the centenary book.
The buildings satisfied the needs of the Community for many years. However, when legendary singer Sophia Vembo visited from Greece in 1948, it became clear that a larger hall was now essential. A fund was started for the extensions, which consisted of adding a wing on either side of the existing hall, building a new stage, enlarging the kitchen and adding an entrance portico with classical Greek columns. The architect was a newcomer from Greece named K. Sgoutos, and work commenced in 1951. By 1953 the hall was altered to the present shape.
In 1968, St George’s Church was elevated to the status of a cathedral when Cape Town became the seat of the Archbishop of the Cape of Good Hope. The first Archbishop enthroned was Paul Varnavas, in February 1969. Archbishop Paul Varnavas collected money from his entire archdiocese to purchase a large house at 127 Milner Road, Rondebosch, which became the Metropolis.
By the late 1970s, the church had become too small for the number of faithful who attended services on Sundays and other religious days. A written proposal, prepared by Laki Parolis and Basil Conidaris, had been put forward for the building of a new community complex, incorporating all the community’s buildings (as well as a larger church) and sport facilities on one site. Ground in Kenilworth was offered on leasehold to the community for this purpose. The proposal was rejected by the members at a Special General Meeting, firstly because of the locality of the ground and, secondly, because of the opportunity to acquire a piece of land for a Clubhouse only on Green Point Common. Plans were therefore made to enlarge the existing church.
The firm of Conidaris & Greshoff was appointed to draw up plans for the extension. Construction started in February 1983 and was completed in December of the same year. Where the original church had a suspended wooden floor and was rectangular in shape, the extended church is in the form of a cross and includes a dome. A concrete slab with wooden parquet flooring replaced the suspended wooden floor.
Priests who succeeded Father Nikolaos Harondakis up to 1994 were Father Klimis Gialourakis, Father Herodion Pratsikakis, Archimandrite Savvas Papasavas, Father Panagiotis Hamodrakas, Father George Foundenekas, Archimandrite Klimis Kapetanakis, Father Platon Meimirakis, who was the first priest to introduce English into the church service, Father Dimitrios Balafas and Father Costa Xenos (1994).
Bishop Ioakim arrived from Greece in July 1994 to assist the ailing Archbishop Paul Varnavas. Among other achievements, he initiated the decoration of the interior of the church with hagiographies (religious paintings). A Rumanian priest and hagiographer, Father Nikolai, and two assistants were appointed to do the work with the approval of the Administrative Committee under the presidency of Mike Comitis. Money for the hagiography, which cost R300 000, was raised through donations from the members. Arta Kyritsis co-ordinated the fundraising and the dedicatory inscriptions on each religious painting.
In 1995, Father Minas Konstantinou arrived from Durban. He was fully bilingual in Greek and English and, besides giving an English service once a month, he undertook to deliver sermons in English for the English-speaking members of the congregation. For about 10 years prior to that, Demetri Zitianellis and Laki Parolis, with the blessing of Archbishop Paul, delivered sermons in English, along with Tassos Papadatos, who in the beginning also assisted for a couple of years.
The departure of Father Minas in 1996 saw the arrival of Archimandrite Panteleimon Lambadarios, who was also fully bilingual as he had lived and studied in America. This was his second term in Cape Town; he came to the city first in the early 1990s as a preacher, continuing the good work he had started in Johannesburg among the young and old. However, the Patriarch soon transferred Father Lambadarios to Alexandria, and for some time several priests from other parts of the country came to assist the parish. Eventually in 1997, Archimandrite Nikodimos Boulaxis came to Cape Town as the parish priest and remained for about two years.
In January 1999, Archbishop Paul Varnavas passed away, and the Patriarch of Alexandria, Petros VII, officiated at his funeral. Archbishop Paul had been incapacitated for many years and was confined to the Metropolis. During his illness the priests would perform the necessary duties of the Metropolis, such as issuing birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.
In December 1999, a new Archbishop was appointed to the Archbishopric of Good Hope – Archbishop Sergios Kykkotis was enthroned on 13 February 2000. Previously the parish priest in Port Elizabeth, Archbishop Sergios was a dynamic church worker, even establishing an Orthodox mission school about 50 kilometres outside Port Elizabeth for black children in the area. One of his first priorities was to renovate the Metropolis, which was in a bad state of repair. At a meeting of all the Presidents of the Communities within the Archdiocese, and with input from architect John Hagis and contractor John Vlissides, an amount was budgeted for the repairs, and all the communities contributed.
