St John's

 

The present parish church building goes back to 1923, but the earlier history leading up to the building of our church reaches back, as far as our records show, to 1906. In that year, Fr Leeson, who was attached to the Cathedral, was appointed visiting priest to this area. He attended to the area on horseback and offered Mass on the Thursday before each first Friday in the Alexandra Home.

In 1911, Bishop Rooney bought a house and the large piece of ground, called Miramonte, that went with it, from Captain Parow. This house was used as a home for the Holy Cross Sisters, and the largest room was prepared as a chapel for the Sisters and as a church for the parishioners on Sundays until 1916, with Fr. Nolan as visiting priest.

In 1916, Fr Luke O'Reilly was appointed Priest-in charge of Maitland. He bought a tin shanty which he subdivided, using half as a Church and half as a “presbytery” and from this humble abode, he looked after Parow, Bellville and Pinelands, also visiting these areas on horseback.

As could be expected, the tin shanty became far too small to accommodate the growing number of parishioners and Fr O’Reilly, without any hope of “outside” money, started to build the present church. Apparently building was done on a ‘start and stop’ enterprise - have money, will build; no money, no building: all the funds coming from the generosity of the members of the parish. The tin shanty became the first non-European school for Catholic children - not, of course, recognised by the Cape Education Department, and Sr Hilary of Holy Cross Congregation was the one and only teacher.

Expansion was the name of the game and when the shanty became too small to house all the children, in 1926 the hall was built to serve as a parochial centre and also as a school. Apparently, it was not long before this school was recognised by the Department.

And then the church proved to be too small, owing to Fr Luke's strenuous apostolic efforts, and a wing was added to the church in 1929. This was used as a church on Sundays and a school during the week. It served its purpose until 1938 when Bishop Hennemann built five classrooms and which necessitated the appointment of new teachers.

Towards the end of 1939, Fr Burke was sent to help Fr O’Reilly whose health was beginning to fail. Fr O’Reilly was in and out of hospital until he died in 1942, and Fr Burke became priest-in-charge. Fr Burke purchased the old presbytery in Coronation Road, diagonally opposite the church. Fr Burke was replaced by Fr Stubbs with Fr Power as an assistant.

The altar was consecrated on 27th February 1945 by Bishop Hennemann, who was Vicar Apostolic of Cape Town. The relics in the altar stone are of the martyrs, SS Vincent and Auretia.

Not long after, also in 1945, Fr Power was transferred to Woodstock. Fr Stubbs carried on at Maitland until 1948, when he was moved to replace Fr McCann as editor of the Southern Cross.

In 1948 Fr McManus became priest-in-charge of Maitland, which at this time included Brooklyn, Rugby and Milnerton. Two years later, in 1950, these other areas were entrusted to Fr Butler.

It is unfortunate that our records stop at 1951 with the entry that Archbishop McCann purchased a large plot of ground in 8th Avenue with a view to building a church and a school...

From 1986, on various 'additions' were made to the parish property. A much needed toilet was built next to the sacristy; concrete floors were laid in the hall and the present working-sacristy; a new porch was built; and the whole property was enclosed by a face-brick wall. Fr Cedric Myerscough SJ reported that all these works were made possible by the generous help of all the Maitland parishioners and the many cake-sales and fund-raising events which they organised to raise funds.

St John’s Catholic Church, Maitland was consecrated on 26th January 1997 by Archbishop Lawrence Henry.

Fr Cedric Myerscough died on 22nd May 2002.

On 1 February 1997 Fr Billy D’Arcy was appointed as Parish Priest of the Parishes of St John’s, Maitland and St Luke’s, Factreton. Fr D’Arcy faithfully and with total selfless dedication served in this capacity until he finally retired (due to increasing health issues) from active priestly ministry at the end of January 2007 (he turned 78 on 24 November 2006). Fr Darcy died very unexpectedly in his accommodation at Nazareth House on the night between Friday 16th and Saturday 17th November 2007 – exactly one week before his 79th Birthday.

Fr Mark Foster served as parish priest from February 2007 to the end of 2013. In Fr Foster’s time, the old presbytery was sold, and a new presbytery built on the parish church grounds. Fr Telford Bray was parish priest in 2014. Fr Zane Godwin was appointed to the parish in December of 2014.

Since 2015 the interior of the church, with special emphasis on the sanctuary, has been renovated, the church roof replaced, and the hall renovated and re-roofed.

On 13 December 2018, in a special prayer, the crucifix in the side chapel of the parish church was dedicated in memory of the presence and service of the Holy Cross Sisters in the parish for more than 100 years.

On 19 February 2023 the parish held a celebration for its centenary year together with Archbishop Stephen Brislin, who, unveiled and solemnly blessed a plaque, installed above the 1923 slate plaque, marking one hundred years of God’s faithful love.

The celebration was vibrant and joyful, involving young and old. A particularly poignant moment was seeing the children of the parish bringing up the gifts to the Archbishop at the Offertory. The liturgy and music were representative of the rich diversity of cultures and languages in the parish.