Reverend Mdhluli plans on reaching out to communities in Standerton area
“I am willing to bring communion to old age homes and the sick in town to revive the Anglican community.”
Reverend Lindiwe Mdhluli from the Anglican Parish of St Andrews -Standerton has been in town since April last year and endeavours to fill up the pews.
“I am trying to get people back to church after Covid-19,” she emphasised.
Mdhluli hails from Mangaung, Bloemfontein, and despite the Zulu connections with her surname, she is a Sotho.
“I found the people in Standerton to be warm,” the reverend said.
“I am, however, still struggling with Zulu.”
She completed a BSocSci at the University of Cape Town. She followed it up with honours in Practical Theology at the University of the Free State, which included courses in Hebrew and Greek, before enrolling for a diploma in theology at the College of Transfiguration in Makhanda (Grahamstown).
Freshly back from a retreat in Benoni, which proved to be soul-heartening, the time for reflection proved worthwhile.
“The retreat is one of the jewels of the Anglican Church,” she added.
The church ordained Mdhluli as a priest in 2015 and she ministers to St Andrews in town and St Peter and St Paul in Sakhile, which includes Thuthukani and Platrand.
Her parish role involves about 200 congregants.
The role of women in the Anglican Church began in the nineties and was a long, drawn-out debate to allow women on the pulpit.
The church now also has women as bishops.
Mdhluli and a non-stipendiary priest, Reverend Vusi Maseko, work together in Standerton, presiding over the Eucharist and baptisms, anointing of the sick and weddings.
The current Bishop Charles May does the confirmations.
“I am willing to bring communion to old age homes and the sick in town to revive the Anglican community.”
There are mid-week services in Sakhile and they ideally serve communion every Sunday.
They renovated St Andrews in town in 1951 and the former Eastern Transvaal Advertiser published an article on it.
Mdhluli would like to get in contact with the families of those present at the service on June 23, 1951.
Several ministers and couples were present at the service and the offspring of the Brownings, Reverend Comber and his wife, Reverend Walls and his wife, Reverend L Tonkin, Reverend Walker and his wife, mayor WG de Beer, the Jandrells, matron McKenzie, the Naudés, Sprightons, DA de Waals, Keevies and Outrams can contact him at 078 616 7846.
Several people from Val, Holmdene and Platrand also attended the service, led by the Bishop of Johannesburg, Reverend RA Reeves.
The Doubell family donated an altar rail.
They invited everybody to lunch afterwards at the then Standerton Hotel where ‘Oom’ Boetie Michel made sure the inner man was fortified, free of charge.
“We live in a world with so much noise and need to fill it with the presence of God,” was one of Mdhluli’s observations.
