Robert Gray, the first Bishop of Cape Town and his pioneer band of earnest young Victorian clergy landed in Tanle Bay in February 1848 and was soon reinforced by others.
Camps Bay to Maitland
Before their day there had been at the msot only three priests at any time to serve the whole area between Camps Bay and Mowbray and northwards to Maitland and beyond. With such an unmanageable parish, they had had no time to minister in Papendorp (Woodstock).
But Robert Gray's men soon realised the vital need to work in this field and as early as 7 June 1848, obtained a grant from the Cape Government of the 56 square roods of the Bellen Alliance Farm, which included Van Papen's old home, probably called by this time the Treaty House.
Mission Chapel
Much restoration was needed to make the building habitable and it was not till October 1849 that ministry began in what was first named Papendorp District Chapel and then St. Mary the Virgin's Mission Chapel. One of the Cathedral clergy rode or walked out on most days (from Cape Town), and taught basic Christian truths to adults and children alike and held a service on Thursday evenings.
A further step forward was taken on 4 November when W.A. Newman, who was soon to become the first Dean of Cape Town, baptised some 25 persons. He also conducted the second anniversary service on 6 October 1851 when a seraphine, which the congregation had just purchased was played for the first time.
The church community (110 Coloureds, 35 Afrikaners, 80 English, 6 Dutch, 6 Irish and 6 Americans) steadily increased, partly through a discreet form of bribery which consisted of gifts of clothes and tabacco to the grown-ups and sweets for the children.
Mission School
Each scholar in the mission school was, however, required to contribute a penny to the funds, and most did so.
Some of the students were rather disconcerting towards the staid English clergy. There was a Hottentot (Native Cape Descendant) who was so astounded by the novelty of education that he "laughed, shouted and jumped about" for most of his first dat at school but soon became a model student. Just before he was due for baptism, he set off for the Namaqualand Copper Mines but was drowned on the way. Bishop Gray however had the joy of baptizing his widow and two sons and eight "others" on Whit Sunday in 1855.
The school (St. Mary's) rendered a valuable service to Papendorp in its teaching of English, in which the Dutch-speakers soon became fluent and this, in its turn, faciliated the education of the Christians and the conversion (to Christianity) of a few Muslims.
The school was in fact serving the whole community so well that from 1851 onwards the Cape Government made a grant towards the stipend of a full-time resident master.
The priest also looked after his people's more material interests by starting a savings bank and provident society in 1853 and even the poorest folk managed to keep up their deposits. This qualified them to receive medical treatment, free medicines, a weekly allowance during sickness and funeral expences.
Schooling
By 1854 ther was a service on every Sunday afternoon and Wednesday evening, with and average attendance of 91 members. The school's curriculum had expanded in the year following to include English, Grammar, Arithmetic and Geography.
All were taught to write, 70 of them on paper and the rest on slates.
In addition the master's wife, although un-salaried, taught Sewing and Knitting to the women and girls. Teachers were always scarce and sometimes posed their own problems.
There was, for instance, a young woman teacher who the parish diary records was caught, "writing a letter to a much younger girl, full of evil, and written in some peculiar way that it could only be read when held up to the light". Her services were no dought dispensed with.
When Robert Gray founded his Zonnebloem College in 1859, its wardens became the priests in charge of Papenorp and one of Treaty House's two rooms became the home of T.C. Faulkner, the foreman of the college's carpentry department and the chapel's earliest warden.
When no piest was available, Faulkner took the services and he was often the only teacher in the Subday School.
Anglican Growth
By now (1859) Anglicans were the most numerous local religious body.
There were 243 of them, of whom 10 Coloureds, 35 Afrikaners, 80 English, 6 Dutch, 6 Irish and 6 Americans. And the priest was glad to report that "more respect is shown to the Sabbath," even by "the Mohometan and Heathen population".
In 1865, Papendorp's Anglicans acquired a higher status when it declared a parochial district of Cape Town Parish, irs territory running eastwards from Morning Market (later called Sir Lowry Market) for a distance of three miles to beyond to Salt River.