Durban church celebrates eight decades

PAST members of St Peter’s Catholic Church, Point, are invited to attend the church’s 80th anniversary service on Sunday, 1 September from 10am.

Cecile Kathan, church public relations officer, said all who used to attend, or who had old family members who were parishioners at St Peter’s are encouraged to go along and be a part of this special celebration. Presider will be Archbishop Abel Gabuza, Coadjuter Bishop of Durban.

The church currently has 350 parishioners from all walks of life and from different nationalities.

The land for the new church in Point Road was bought from Mrs Nicoll around 1922. Funds for the erection of the church were collected over a number of years. Bishop Delalle gave the 1000 Pounds presented to him on the 25th anniversary of his consecration as bishop in 1929, a parishioner Leo Angelus Coughlan left a legacy of 2000 Pounds and 4000 Pounds was collected from other sources.

Leopold Letord, a Durban architect, designed the new church and the foundations were dug at the end of December 1938.

ALSO READ: Take on Relay for Life

The church was completed in 1939 and had several unusual features including the bell tower, an altar made of onyx mined at Port St John’s, while the baptistry and confessional form wings to the nave and follow the line of the curved front brickwork in the manner of the old galleons. This style was chosen because of the position of the church in what was then the dock area and its association with the Apostleship of the Sea.

St Peter’s was at its busiest during WWII when entertainment took place in the church hall, and a canteen was set up in the hall for use by thousands of soldiers and sailors visiting the port or camped nearby.

Thousands of workers from Basutoland (Lesotho) were brought to Durban in 1952 to work on the construction of the harbour and Father Dupuis went to care for the many Catholics among them, using the church as his headquarters.

Over the years the Point area has changed with warehouses occupying what were originally houses or vacant land. St Peter’s continued to attract good congregations particularly after Addington Hospital was rebuilt and a number of apartment blocks were completed. Point Road, now Mahatma Gandhi Street, began to be upgraded and developed when uShaka Marine World was built in the 1990s.

From 2000 to 2006 Father Faustyn Jankowski became parish priest and during this time the community donated an altar, baptismal front, lectern and other items including a statue of Our Lady of Czestochowa and a plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Polish community in Natal. Father Seamus O’Reilly was the parish priest until the end of 2009.

“The church helps refugee children go to school through fundraising and we run a soup kitchen every Friday and help with donations of clothing. We appeal to the community for any donations of clothes and non-perishable foods, and any funds or sponsorships of paint and building material, as we are fundraising to repair the roof,” said Cecile.

To attend the service or to help with donations, contact Rev Father Georges on 060 498 7857 or Nadia Solange, secretary, on 067 766 4775.

Do you want to receive news alerts via Telegram? Send us a message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 060 532 5535.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Berea Mail Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts

Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.

To receive our free newsletter click here.