On 28 June, St John’s College lowered the St George flag for the final time and replaced it with the flag of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
The St George flag has been flown at the St John’s College clock tower since time immemorial, but the origins of this tradition have been lost in the midst of time.
It is said that the practice was meant to give recognition to the fact that the college was established as a school for the Anglican parish church of St Mary’s or the fact that the Community of the Resurrection (an Anglo-Catholic religious order in the Church of England) was the ‘second founder’s’ of the school.
As part of a dignified ceremony attended by the college community on 28 June, the St George flag was lowered for the final time. The flag will now be displayed in the college museum. In its place was raised the flag of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa after which the national anthem and school hymn were sung.
The change of flag signified a recognition that it is not common for Anglican cathedrals or parishes anywhere in the world to fly the St George flag since the flag is not the flag of the Anglican church, but rather the flag of England.
The change also signified recognition that despite originally having been modelled on English ‘public schools’, St John’s College is an Anglican school in and for Africa.
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