42 members of the Zulu, Tsvan and Sutu tribes were baptised into the Orthodox Church in South Africa on the day after St Nicholas Day (19 December). The baptism took place after a year’s catechism in Tembisi, a suburb of Johannesburg. Serbian monks had been teaching catechism for some years at St Athanasius School, where the Africans were received into the church by the Serbian Metropolitan Seraphim of Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Fr Johannes, a Zulu Orthodox priest ordained by the Metropolitan, already teaches at the school.
This story is inaccurate in almost every particular. The pictures were taken at a diocesan youth conference in Dec 2006, and the youth are from various parishes. The story of where the pictures was taken is here:
http://methodius.livejournal.com/2006/12/11/
Thank you, Steve, for the correction!
We love your blog, by the way.
In addition: Alexandria follows the new calendar and so the feast of St Nicholas would have been on 6 December; the (former) Metropolitan was not Serbian but Cypriot; and I presume that “Tsvan” and “Sutu” refer to Tswana and Sotho. As for the rest, Deacon Stephen knows the details better than I do but some of it sounds decidedly dicey.
As st Ignatius of Antioch said were there is a church there is Bishop and were there is a Bishop there is church, the spirit of the church of south Africa is alive under the able leadership of the metropolitan of Johannesburg and South Africa.
This is fascinating and I would like to learn more about baptism in South Africa as I found an Ancestry.com record of a possible 4th Great Grandmother’s baptism.
How do I find reliable records/information on South African Baptism?
Audrey
Contact the local diocese there.