Episcopacy and parochialism in early South African Anglicanism: Bishop Robert Gray and the antecedent churches of the Cape Colony, 1806-72

Bester, M

Thesis

Episcopacy and parochialism in early South African Anglicanism: Bishop Robert Gray and the antecedent churches of the Cape Colony, 1806-72

Abstract:: This thesis considers the development of ecclesiastical authority in early Cape Colonial Anglicanism under the episcopacy of Robert Gray (1809–72), the first Bishop of Cape Town (1847–72). It explores the nature of opposition that Gray’s episcopacy faced from the fourteen independent worshipping congregations established privately or by the colonial state between 1806 and 1847, and how he brought these disputes to resolution, or, in some cases, failed to do so.

Anglicanism in the Cape Colony prior to Gray was a state-dominated minority denomination established under a system of colonial ordinances. Its ten churches, mostly founded by local mercantilist and socially aspirant élites, were controlled by commercially motivated investorshareholders. Gray’s very arrival, and his exertion of episcopal authority, subjected him to allegations of ‘tyranny’, ‘papalism’, and ‘ritualism’, from these antecedent independent congregations. However, the theological deprecations are misleading: parochial opposition to Gray arose primarily from resistance to episcopal authority, made acute by colonial identity, conservatism, and geographic isolation, rather than differing ecclesiology. Gray held ‘high’ ecclesiological views, especially on the state-church nexus and the role of episcopacy, but it is incorrect to characterise him as a Tractarian. In fact, his ecclesiology developed over time, and even his later struggles with heterodoxy made Gray only cautiously sympathetic to Tractarian and Anglo-Catholic ideas.

Cape Tractarianism found initial practical expression in parochial contexts through the work of imported English clergymen. Unlike England, opposition to such churchmanship was parochial rather than episcopal in character. Parochial dissent from Gray’s policies was also founded primarily on questions of ecclesiastical authority rather than churchmanship. The older parishes were eventually reconciled to diocesan authority, but dissent from this milieu nonetheless persisted in a minority.

This new research challenges standard narratives of the development of Anglicanism in South Africa, and contributes towards a more nuanced understanding of its persisting divisions.

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APA Style

Bester, M. (2023). Episcopacy and parochialism in early South African Anglicanism: Bishop Robert Gray and the antecedent churches of the Cape Colony, 1806-72 [PhD thesis]. University of Oxford.

MLA Style

Bester, M. Episcopacy and Parochialism in Early South African Anglicanism: Bishop Robert Gray and the Antecedent Churches of the Cape Colony, 1806-72. University of Oxford, 2023.

Chicago Style

Bester, M. 2023. “Episcopacy and Parochialism in Early South African Anglicanism: Bishop Robert Gray and the Antecedent Churches of the Cape Colony, 1806-72.” PhD thesis, University of Oxford.
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