A Bit About Us
This is us
1. HISTORY: From Rural Parish to inner city Church.
The earliest services were held upstairs in a farmhouse on Mataffin and the whole of the Lowveld was served, firstly by the Railway mission and subsequently by the Rector of Barberton. Late in the 1940’s, in the traditional pattern of church growth in S.A.Anglicanism, it was decided to split the Barberton Parish with a new incumbent being appointed to Nelspruit. The probable aim was to have three independent parishes in Plaston, White River and Nelspruit. They were all to be served by one rector and eventually become three.
In December 1949 the first rector, the Rev’d Canon Charles Jones was inducted to the parish by +Wilfrid, Pretoria. The service was held at St George’s as St Michael’s had not yet been completed. St Michael’s became the larger of the parishes and while Plaston disappeared as a separate parish, the others fulfilled the original design becoming separate parishes with their own Rectors by the early 1960’s.
One of the salient features of the parish from the 1950s to the present day has been that this was never an apartheid church. Despite the various experience of the community through these years, members of different racial and cultural groups stayed together. This was one of the reasons that the building has neither been sold nor moved from its original inner city location. With the expansion of the city since 1994 and its development as the provincial capital of Mpumalanga, the congregation has changed accordingly, though the farming and small town origins remain evident, too.
2. PARISHIONER PROFILE: Where are we now?
Adult Membership:
There are 270 members in 184 family units – where a family unit is defined as a single entry on the parish roll, either as an individual or as a couple.
There are 86 married couples in the parish which comprises 64% of the membership; and a further 20 members are married but the spouse is not a member. 29 members are widowed (11%), 30 are single-never-married (11%) and 15 are single-divorced (6%).
Youth Membership:
There is a youth pastor who works on three days and runs the Children’s Church on Sundays the church has a crèche and a cry room. The youth group is active in outreach to the community having recent raised the funds for a JoJo at a township orphanage.
3. WORSHIP AND CHURCHMANSHIP
Liturgy and Music
Worship at St Michaels follows a Low Church model and it centres round the Anglican Prayer Book (1989) and the Eucharist. Services are in English and both the liturgy and the hymns are put up on the screen at the front. The services at Mataffin are in Zulu. Music includes traditional hymns and also choruses (which reflect a desire to remain topical and relevant to a younger congregation). There are services where the music is led from the organ an others led by a music group including guitars, drums and the keyboard. There is also a singing group.
Services
At the two Sunday Services, one at 7.00 and the other at 9.00 there are two fairly distinct patterns. At 7.00 there is the traditional Low Church communion service, where the clergy and the layminsters are robed. The 8.30 service follow a fairly typical Anglican Charismatic pattern where the worship is led by the music group and the usual liturgy follow at the confession. The clergy do not robe for the Eucharist in the second service.
The first service has an average attendance of 40-50, while the second service averages at about 95 congregants. There is also a Eucharist on Thursday mornings.
The major seasonal celebrations of Advent and Lent culminating in the Christmas day, Good Friday (usually particularly well attended) and Easter give rise to opportunities for the whole parish to meet together in teaching and fellowship. So do the celebration of rites of passage in Baptism and Confirmation, when the bishop leads the service.
Weddings, funerals and memorial services are more private affairs where members bring their joys and grief into the vicarious experience and participation of people and parish.
4. THE CHURCH COMMUNITY
Faith Development, Teaching and Mission
In keeping with the Diocesan Mission Statement which states that the parishes are the vehicle for the achievement of the vision ‘to know Jesus and to make him known’, they are expected to equip members, both clerical and lay, with the skills need for both ministry and mission.
Naturally much of the teaching is done in the sermons and the small group programmes. There are also confirmation classes and marriage and baptism classes orchestrated by the rector. There have also been very successful training series with visiting teachers and speakers who have brought a broadening horizon to the community in the past few years.
Ministries
Portfolios
The model for the ministry in the parish is Rick Warren’s purpose driven church. To that end the parish is organised through various portfolios which direct and grow the ministries which the parish needs to achieve its aim of being part of the witness to the life and work of Jesus Christ.
Worship (Diocese = Spirituality) This involves the preparation and organisation of the services each week. It also sees to the training and organisation of layministers. At the moment there are seven of them with one on long leave, as well as those operating the computer during worship in the church. There is also the music group and musicians who choose music and lead the congregation into worship.
Discipleship.( Diocese = Youth Portfolio and Ministry Formation) For the younger members of the parish there is a crèche and also the children’s church which
There are one or two members who have registered/ or plan to register for courses at the TEEC and one who is on the Fellowship of Vocation.
Ministry. (Diocese = Pastoral Care) The parish has a well developed service mission which involves caring for those in need who are members; caring for the ailing and infirm. Much of the more formal work of this team is covered by the clergy though there are various members who have a pastoral heart and care for the elderly, shut in and sick. Informally the parish is a caring one and the members take seriously the admonition to love their neighbours. Separated as members are in a growing town, though, this often applies mostly to the immediate neighbour.
Outreach/Evangelism (Diocese = Mission which is divided into 2 portfolios ‘Church Growth’ and ‘Jesus Cares). There are several outreach schemes where the parish support initiatives like Starfish sending food to the needy in and around Nelspruit. The parish has a strong and growing ministry to local retirement centres where the elderly sometime battle to cope with the increasing cost of living.
Church growth
Fellowship This team runs fundraising events as well as holding events like the parish breakfasts designed to build up the community. It is also responsible to hospitality at the church and when there are visitors.
5. RESOURCES
Staff
The parish has one stipendiary position, that of rector. There are currently four non-stipendiary priests working with the rector in various capacities and one who has retired. A secretary is employed on weekday mornings to run the parish office. There is a bookkeeper working on an hourly basis as well as an auditor. The youth worker and the gardener are employed on a part-time basis the verger is full time. All other positions are filled by volunteer members of the parish.
Buildings
Church that holds 180 people
Hall for 160
Parish office(4 rooms, kitchen bathroom and store room
Youth room (kitchen and toilet
Toilets, one with wheelchair access and further store rooms
The gardens have places for quiet reflection