New Church Planted in Mokone Annual Conference
By Sipho Mfundisi, Contributing Writer
Bishop E. Earl McCloud, Jr., made history at the 35th Session of the M. M. Mokone Memorial Annual Conference of the 19th Episcopal District. After studying statistics of the Ga-Rankuwa Presiding Elder’s District, Bishop McCloud established a new church, the S. S. Manyane Memorial AME Church from the rib of the Agnes B. Hildebrand AME Church in Mabopane. This brought the total number of churches in the District to nine.
The circuit is named after Shimmy Seth Manyane, a lay member, class leader over the same area, and a very active member of the 19th Episcopal District. The Agnes B. Hildebrand AME Church has also birthed the John E. Hunter, Soshanguve and Mt. Zion AME, Klipgat circuits.
The establishment of the church is a welcome measure to ensure that the AME Church is not only confined to the erstwhile black residential areas of the past regime. In the few months that the church was established, they have had their inaugural quarterly conference under Presiding Elder Lekubela S. Moobi, where the Rev. Maria S. Diale, the first appointed pastor to the fledgling church, gave a good account with the Steward Board. The church offered financial, statistical, and literary reports.
The church has to find ways and means to raise funds to build an edifice for worship as current worship is held in an old classroom in a rented facility. Membership is not stable yet; but on average, attendance ranges between 50-139 since 17 November 2019. There is hope for growth; and in the spirit of Richard Allen and Mangena Maake Mokone, our founding fathers, we know we shall overcome. Significantly, Pastor Diale and a lay member will be among the delegates to the 51st General Conference.
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, worship services and meetings of boards are being conducted virtually. The church has resolved to be in worship over Whatsapp. Holy Week and Good Friday services were conducted over the same channel as well as Sunday services.
Social responsibility exercises have also been conducted. The Charlotte Maxeke Ladies Fellowship (CMLF) gave food parcels to needy families. The Women’s Missionary Society (WMS) and Young People’s Division (YPD) donated clothes and blankets to the homeless shelter stationed at the Akasia Hall and the Richard Allen Young Adult Council (RAYAC) donated magazines to an old age home.
