A special day for education in the city will be taking place this Sunday, 5 February at the St Stephen’s Anglican Church‘s Annual Education Service in New Brighton.
The special service will see local businessman and community builder, Sipho Pityana as the guest speaker as he will encourage the many high school pupils that will attend the service, to prioritise education as it is a key to their future.
Pityana will also be joined by the Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor, Cllr Zanoxolo Wayile, who is currently involved in a fundraising campaign that will see him begging barefoot for school shoes at Greenacres on Saturday, 4 February.
It’s the third year the St Stephen’s Anglican Church will be hosting an education service, it was inspired by the church adopting Cowan High School in New Brighton as their community development project in their bid to help improve the matric pass rate of Cowan High School
Local business leaders such as The Boardwalk Chairlady, Bongi Siwisa and former Cowan High School pupil, Khusta Jack have also come out in full support of Cowan High School over the past three years and will be in attendance at the special church service.
Mayor Wayile, joined by Sipho Pityana and St Stephen’s Church rector and Archdeacon, Zweli Tom will present a bursary of R10 000 to a top performing matriculant from Cowan High School at the church service.
Mayor Wayile said that education was the cornerstone of a society.
“A nation that does not look after its youth deserves to parish” said Mayor Wayile as he encouraged other churches to follow suit and unite in the bid to ensure that education is a priority in Nelson Mandela Bay. “There is no noble cause such as championing education” he added.
Father Zweli Tom said: “The local church has a biblical imperative to incarnate with the community (like Jesus), for a better life.”
Members of the public are invited to attend the service which will start at 9:00 am and end at 11:30am.
Contact St Stephen’s Anglican Church.
Editor’s Notes: In a strange co-incidence there is ANOTHER St. Stephen’s church in Brighton, England. Strange because the local St. Stephen’s has it’s origins in Richmond Hill before being forced to move to the Red Location and then New Brighton.
