The Berlin Mission Church in Cape Town 1899-1923

Abstract

The study describes the formation and the establishment of the first urban congregation of the Berlin Mission in the Cape at the turn of the century. The establishment of the Cape Town Congregation was not a result of urban mission work but rather a result of the townward movement of rural coloured people who already belonged to the Berlin Mission Church. At first the mission headquarters in Berlin resisted an involvement in Cape Town, but the members there and the missionaries of the Cape Synod urged the Berl in Mission to accept the responsibility. Fol lowing the advice of the Moravian Mission the Berliners finally sent a missionary, and declared the congregation as a proper mission station on May 7, 1907. The study closes with the consecration of the church building in Searle Street in 1923 as a visible sign for the establishment of the Berlin Mission Church in Cape Town.