DIOCESE OF NATAL
Diocese established in 1853, a division of the Diocese of Cape Town.
Cathedral: St Peter’s, Pietermaritzburg.
Bishop’s residence: Bishopstowe, outside Pietermaritzburg.
Afrikaans
Arms apparently adopted in 1853 by Bishop John William Colenso. The blazon reads:
Azure a saltire Argent, above it an estoile Or.
Brownell[1] writes: “In this version of the arms borne throughout the controversial episcopacy of John Colenso, Woodward states that the star was an estoile, i e with wavy rays and it was gold, not silver.
“The ‘St Andrew’s Cross’commemorates the founding of this Diocese, with that of Grahamstown, on St Andrew’s Day in 1853. The star is an allusion to the Star of Bethlehem, the Terra do Natal traditionally having been discovered by Vasco da Gama on Christmas Day 1497, while pioneering the sea route to the East, although this was not recorded in his logbook.
“Although this name originally referred to the coast of Pondoland, it was later in the Portuguese period extended to cover the coast northwards, probably as far as the Durban Bluff.
“These arms were incorporated into the upper half of the arms of the Diocese of Maritzburg in 1869 and also provided the basis for the arms borne from 19830-1952, and ultimately for a grant of arms by the College of Arms.”
About the diocese and its first bishop:
Bishop Robert Gray discovered soon after his arrival that the diocese he had been sent to, which stretched from St Helena island in the Atlantic to an undefined limit in eastern Africa, was far too much for one man. He arranged for bishops to be consecrated for service in Grahamstown and Natal.
However his choice of John Colenso was to lead to a long
controversy. In 1862 he published Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans and subsequently The Pentateuch Critically Examined.
On 17 November 1863, Bishop Gray and his fellow bishops tried Colenso in absentia for heresy, found him guilty and deposed him. The story is told in more detail here. The Privy Council ruled that Gray did not have the authority to depose Colenso, and specifically ordered that Gray should not appoint another bishop of Natal “or of any other place”. Gray obtained a legal opinion that Maritzburg was “not a place” and in 1869 appointed William Macrorie as Bishop of Maritzburg.
Colenso nonetheless maintained his cathedral church of St Peter and his residence at Bishopstowe, held visitations across the colony of Natal and worked at translating the Scriptures into a form of isiNguni which he called Zulu.[2]
He and his daughters became known as fearless defenders of the rights of the indigenous peoples – a reputation that did not stand them in good stead with many of the colonists or officials.
And he inspired a strong feeling of loyalty among those who adhered to him as bishop, rather than Macrorie. Only in 1981, when a new cathedral was consecrated in Pietermaritzburg, was the division between the Church of the Province and the “Colenso church” finally seen as being something of the past.
Even after Colenso’s death in 1883, Macrorie continued to be styled Bishop of Maritzburg, and it was only after Macrorie’s own death in 1893 that a new Bishop of Natal was consecrated.
Afrikaanse blasoen:
Die wapen mag soos volg geblasoeneer word:
In blou ’n skuinskruis van silwer, waarbo ’n golwende sespuntige ster van goud.
