Rivonia Has a New Church!

The parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes in Rivonia, Johannesburg, have settled into their brand-new church, which was consecrated last month, after having used a church hall for the past 56 years.

The parish had previously used facilities that were inadequate, so in August 2010, under Fr Peter Doherty and then-pastoral council chairman George Skinner, it began to explore the feasibility of building a church that would meet the community’s needs.

The parishioners, led by Mr Skinner, eventually appointed professional construction consultants, with Ed Rouillard as principal agent, John Banahan as project manager, and architects Flavio Maraschin and Paseko Sebolecwe of NWS Quantity Surveyors. Tex Teixeira served as the electrical consultant and Dave Pritchford as fire consultant. They were supported by Richard Tyack, a quantity surveyor and parish representative.

The new church was consecrated by Bishop Duncan Tsoke, auxiliary of Johannesburg, at a Mass concelebrated with several priests, including Fr Doherty, and attended by more than 800 parishioners as well as representatives of the Carmelite Sisters. Mr Skinner was also present.

It has been a long way for Rivonia parish, which in its early days was linked with the Carmelite Convent, said current parish pastoral council chair Tim Simba.

At the invitation of Bishop David O’Leary, vicar-apostolic of the Transvaal, the Discalced Carmelite nuns opened a convent in Rivonia, then farmland, in September 1931.

“The original intention of Bishop O’Leary was to build a seminary to train diocesan priests on this piece of land, which extended from the present day 1st Avenue to 3rd Avenue,” Mr Simba explained.

“In 1954 Fr Terence Kelly was appointed to Carmel as chaplain and was asked to investigate the possibility of establishing a parish in this northern corner of the diocese. Initially, due to funding constraints a hall-church was opened in January 1962,” Mr Simba said.

At the time, the parish served roughly 400 active parishioners.

“Massive urbanisation in Sandton led to the need for the hall-church to be extended to accommodate those attending Mass from the adjoining areas of Bryanston, Buccleuch and Kelvin, as well as the growing suburbs of Gallo Manor, River Club and Morningside,” he said.

A parish hall was built in the 1970s and ’80s to include meeting rooms and catechetics classrooms, since the parish had no Catholic school within its boundaries.

Mr Simba said that various priests had undertaken studies to build a proper church in the late 1980s but had decided the cost of construction was not feasible.

This changed in 2010, when Fr Doherty planted the mustard seed for the new church.

“The main difference with the old church is that the new church has been designed and built to Catholic Church specifications—it is a church building whereas the old one was a hall converted to serve as a church,” Mr Simba said.

The new church can hold 800 people, including about 100 on the balcony, or even up to a thousand on special occasions.

The new church serves 1120 families registered with the parish as active parishioners, Mr Simba said. Attendance over the four weekend Masses is about 2500 people.

The old church building has been retained to be converted to a place for much-needed catechism classes by erecting subdivisions later on.

Since Fr Kelly, the parish has been served by Frs John O’Donohue OMI, Jack Braniff OMI, David Adam OMI, Michael Austin SJ, Graham Rose (now bishop of Dundee), and since 2005 by Fr Doherty.