Cape Town - Considered the “People’s Cathedral” in the bustling Cape Town Central, whose presence and worship is rooted in Struggle, inclusivity, and global and interfaith solidarity, St George’s Cathedral has announced The Venerable Terrence Lester as Dean-elect.
Ven. Lester, 64, will be installed as Cathedral Dean on Sunday, February 2, 2025.
He will assume the position following the retirement of Reverend Michael Weeder, who had been serving the Church as Dean since 2011, and will serve a three-year term.
According to the Office of the Archbishop of Cape Town, Ven. Lester has over 40 years of experience in the church and with deep roots in the church’s anti-apartheid Struggle.
The application process for the new Dean closed on August 31, thereafter a process of review and interviews with applicants took place.
According to a previous notice, the Archbishop would present a nomination for the position to a specially appointed Council.
The Council would then accept or reject the nomination.
In a notice on Facebook, the church said: “We welcome our new Dean, with his wife Nicolette, and his many children and grandchildren to our family. We are grateful for his demonstrated commitment to faith, his grounding in liberation theology, and wealth of experience using the radical message of Jesus to speak on behalf of justice, equality and a better world for all South Africans and oppressed people.
“His wealth of experience and leadership led to a unanimous vote of the Council specified by the acts to approve his nomination as new Dean. We look forward to the following years of his service with us.”
Ven. Lester is currently an Archdeacon to the Ordinary and Interim Archdeacon to Ibonguletu.
He served as the sub-dean of the cathedral from 2000 to 2011.
He serves as the Rector of Christ Church, Constantia, where he resides and where his family had been forcibly removed from Strawberry Lane, Constantia, as a result of the apartheid-forced removals.
On his appointment, Ven. Lester said: “It’s hugely significant. This cathedral has carried a torch for justice… Each (Dean) in their own way have over the years, made that space and interpreted what it means to worship a God of love and what it means to have a passionate God for justice, as a religious and spiritual space in the heart of our City, trying to reflect what our interpretation is of what would be closest and nearest to the heart of God at a particular time in which we live.”
On behalf of and part of the team of Wardens responsible for the Cathedral, Emma Arogundade said the process to elect the new Dean started in 2023 and a call for applications was placed in April until August, 2024.
Arogundade said a Council of 12 lay people and clergy from various bodies in the Diocese met to consider the Archbishop’s nomination and the meeting of this Council on December 8 at Bishop’s Court, unanimously accepted the nomination.
“Fr Terry was ordained as a Deacon at St George’s Cathedral in 1984, having found a refuge in the faith life, justice commitment, and stance of the Anglican Church in speaking truth to power.”
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za