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Anglican Diocese of Cape Town

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Desmond Tutu was archbishop from 1986 to 1996 and was archbishop-emeritus until his death in 2021. The current archbishop is Thabo Makgoba. Because of the archbishop's responsibilities as primate, many of his diocesan duties are delegated to a suffragan bishop known as the Bishop of Table Bay, an office currently held by Joshua Louw. (This is similar to the Bishop of Dover in the Church of England Diocese of Canterbury, who has held such a role since 1980.)

History

The diocese came into being in 1847 with the consecration of the first bishop, Robert Gray, and was the first diocese of what was to become the Church of the Province of Southern Africa and subsequently the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The original territory of the diocese, which had previously fallen under the Diocese of Calcutta, included the whole of Southern Africa.

In 1853, the territory was reduced by the creation of the Diocese of Grahamstown in the eastern parts of the Cape Colony and the Diocese of Natal in the Colony of Natal. In 1859, the Diocese of St Helena was created for Saint Helena and Ascension Island. In 1863, the Diocese of Bloemfontein was created, taking over all the territory north of the Orange River and the Drakensberg mountains. In 1866, J. Harries Thomas was archdeacon of Cape Town and H. Badnall, archdeacon of George; and N. J. Merriman, archdeacon of Bloemfontein (by then separated) was still a canon of Cape Town cathedral. The territory of the Cape Town diocese was further reduced in 1911 by the creation of the dioceses of George and Kimberley and Kuruman. Finally, in 2005 the diocese was divided into three, with the part to north of the city of Cape Town becoming the Diocese of Saldanha Bay and the part to the east of the city becoming the Diocese of False Bay.

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