Beauty and her priest come to All Souls Anglican church

Finding love in and through the passion of Jesus Christ, a dynamic duo has move to Salt Rock where they continue sharing the gospel.

Formerly of Pietermaritzburg, Bruce (46) and Buli Woolley (37) relocated in January, with Bruce taking over the position of rector at All Souls Anglican Church, with Buli, an assistant priest at St Martin’s in Durban is also a semi-finalist in Mrs South Africa.

The beautiful, willowy mother of teenage daughter Zoliswa, Buli said despite the seemingly stark contrast between the church and Mrs SA, she felt as though she had been called into both by God.

“What you preach about is something that you live,” Buli said, who wants to bring attention to the needs of South Africa’s young women through the pageant.

“Mrs South Africa is not just a pageant. It is about empowerment, sisterhood and building relationships,” she said, adding that in many rural families not enough attention was being given to the girl child, with boys often being the ones who went to school.

“A lot of girls are confused with who they are. If we begin to teach young girls that they have value and can become leaders, we can expect to see the change we want seen in our communities,” said Buli.

While she found her calling in the Lord at the age of 10, Bruce was a later bloomer and abandoned his career in the restaurant industry in his early 30s after God called him to be a pastor.

He jokes that at first he ‘kept running away’ but eventually he could run no more and as he put it: “Here we are”.

Both have also ministered abroad, with Buli having returned from Brunei, Asia following mission work in 2019 shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic struck – their method of sharing the gospel had to change, they soon realised.

“We were locked down, not locked out,” said Buli, while Bruce said they were able to connect to a larger audience which is when they realised that we could all be one community.

Not confined to the walls of their church, the couple will continue bringing aid to the impoverished community of Nkobongo.

They work side-by-side with the Anglican church based there and originally born out of All Souls, KwaKristu iNkosi.

“God wants us to put as much effort into that, as we do in this church. We want to build one community and the future of the church is multi-cultural. It is not one specific group or church, we are one people,” said Bruce.

“I love being part of the community. It’s not just about preaching on a Sunday, but are you actually looking after the lives of the people you are preaching to?” said Buli.

To vote for Buli in Mrs South Africa sms Buli Sihlali-Woolley to 35959.