On his way to South Africa

From 10 to 13 December 2015, Chief Apostle Schneider will visit his brothers and sisters in South Africa. On Sunday, 13 December he will celebrate a festive service in our Tafelsig church. Some 3,000 members are expected to attend. The Chief Apostle will place Apostle Brian Ernest de Vries (65) into retirement and appoint Apostle John Leslie Kriel (59) as a District Apostle Helper. He will also ordain two Apostles for the Cape district: Peter Lambert (51) and Robert Ernest Worship (44).

Thursday: an evening service

The Chief Apostle and the invited Apostles and District Apostles will arrive in Cape Town on Thursday, where they will be welcomed by District Apostle Noel E. Barnes. Also expected are the District Apostles Patrick Mkhwanazi and Joseph Opemba Ekhuya, as well as District Apostle Helper Robert M. Nsamba.

That evening the Chief Apostle and the District Apostles are scheduled in various congregations around Cape Town. Chief Apostle Schneider, District Apostle Barnes, and the Apostles Matthew Arendse, Brian Ernest de Vries, and Walter Reginald Diedericks will be in the congregation Somerset West 1819.

District Apostle Mkhwanazi, together with the Apostles Peter Thompson, Allister Kriel, and Ndodomzi Terence Nene will conduct the service in Malmesbury, a town about 65 kilometres north of Cape Town. District Apostle Ekhuya will celebrate the Thursday evening service in Heathfield. He will be accompanied by Apostle John George Stephens, Marc Ashley Diedricks, and Gerome Thomas Mintoor. The congregation of Athlone is looking forward to District Apostle Helper Nsamba and the Apostles John Leslie Kriel and Harold Brian Swartbooi.

Friday: Apostles and Bishops assemble for conference

The agenda for Friday calls for meetings. The Chief Apostle will meet with the leading ministers of South Africa at the Dennekraal Conference Centre to cover a number of topics.

Saturday: visits, meetings, and a concert

On Saturday morning, the Chief Apostle and the Apostles will visit different congregations and be taken for a short tour of Cape Point, the extreme south-western tip of the Cape Peninsula. The Chief Apostle’s agenda for the afternoon calls for further meetings with the Apostles and a festive concert in our Tafelsig church at five o’clock.

Sunday: divine service and return trip

The service in our Tafelsig church on Sunday will begin at 10 a.m. The large church building seats about 3,000 people. The members of the Portland district have been invited to the Tafelsig church for the service. This includes the congregations Portland One, Portland Two, Portland Three, Blue Horizon, and Eisleben South. Also the three congregations of the Eastridge district have been invited: Eastridge Two, Eastridge Three, and Eastridge Four. This is the district for which Apostle de Vries is responsible, who will be retired in this service.

Originally it had been planned that the Chief Apostle would conduct a divine service in our Eisleben South congregation, which is located in the area that Apostle de Vries looked after for many years. But the church only seats about 1,300 members so that the venue was changed, Bishop Gregory February reports.

The congregations that are invited to Tafelsig all belong to the so-called Cape Town township district, which is comprised of a total of 36 congregations and 30,000 members. Most congregations in this area of Cape Town are only five to ten kilometres apart.

The District Church Cape, for which District Apostle Noel Barnes has been responsible since 1996, has a membership of 300,000. There are 1,044 congregations, which are looked after by 13,957 ministers.

Around 10 p.m. on Sunday evening, the Chief Apostle will leave the hotel for the airport. Before the year winds down, the Chief Apostle will conduct three more divine services in three different district churches.