Fillers: The Province of South Africa
Diocesan Press Service. October 1, 1962 [III-7]
The Province of South Africa is comprised of 14 dioceses which extend beyond the Republic of South Africa and include a variety of political administrations: a Crown Colony (St. Helena), High Commission Territories (Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and Swaziland), Mandated Territory (Southwest Africa), and Portuguese East Africa.
The oldest diocese in the Province of South Africa is Capetown, founded in 1847. Its Archbishop, the Most Rev. Joost de Blank, is also the Metropolitan of the Province.
The first Christian work in South Africa was begun by the Moravians in 1737, 240 years after Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
The first Bishop of Capetown, Robert Gray, was consecrated in Westminster Abbey in 1847.
In 1870, the Provincial Synod ratified a Constitution for the Church in the Province of South Africa, a self-governing and fully autonomous Province of the Anglican Communion.