Holy Spirit Church in Port Elizabeth Celebrates Golden Jubilee

By Samuel Snayer – Holy Spirit Church in Arcadia, Port Elizabeth/Gqeberha, celebrates its golden jubilee on May 4. Here is a brief summary of the origin of the parish and which priests were responsible for the actual physical construction of the church.

Created under Apartheid

Holy Spirit Church’s creation was due to the forced removals under apartheid. In terms of the Group Areas Act of 1950, large numbers of families, including many Catholics, were forcibly removed from places like South End, Salisbury Park, Fairview, Willowdene, North End and other areas. They were relocated to Salt Lake, Arcadia, West End, Salsoneville and Sanctor in what became known as the “Northern Areas”. These new residential areas served as the feeder communities for what would become Holy Spirit parish.
Although there have been many parish priests assigned to Holy Spirit parish over the past 50 years, three priests need special mention for their direct involvement in the physical building of the church.
The first parish priest, appointed by Bishop Murphy in 1972, was Fr Theo Klaassen, who was from the Netherlands.

Father Theo Klaassen

Before his arrival, Mass had been celebrated in parishioner homes, so building a church was a priority. With funds from Holland, Fr Klaassen initially built a crèche in Esterhuizen Street, Arcadia,which doubled up as a daycare centre — and as a temporary church building for Mass and other events. This building was named the Theo KlaassenCrèche.
Fr Klaassen again secured funding from Europe, and a “church” — which was actually a multi-purpose hall with partitioning — was built on the corner of Harrington and Rensburg Streets, with the altar at the Harrington Street entrance side, facing inward. Thus, on May 4, 1974, Bishop Murphy blessed the foundation stone of the newly completed church.
Fr Klaassen, who can rightly be called the founder of Holy Spirit parish, was forced to return to the Netherlands due to ill health. Though there were other priests in the interim, the second priest who impacted the transformation of the building structure was Fr Max Salsone who arrived in October 1976.

Fr Max Salsone

Fr Max, who himself came from a local family of displaced people, was young and soon became very popular. Under him, the parish grew to such an extent that the church building could no longer accommodate the large congregation at Holy Mass on Sundays.
Having obtained permission to enlarge the building, Fr Max had the interior swung around so that the altar was switched to the far end (away from the Harrington Street entrance, as it is today) and the multipurpose hall converted into an area with pews to accommodate the congregation. While numbers kept on growing, Fr Max was suddenly assigned to another parish in October 1983.

Fr John Clarke

The third priest to continue the changes to the church buildings was Fr John Clarke who came to the parish in November 1983.
On his arrival, it soon became apparent that the church building needed further enlargement and alterations. Renovations, which not only included extensions to the church building but also alterations to the presbytery and the addition of the multi-purpose double-storey hall next door, remain the legacy of Fr (later Monsignor) John Clarke.

On February 8, 1987, Bishop Michael Coleman of Port Elizabeth blessed and re-dedicated the brand-new church to the Holy Spirit. The church buildings as parishioners know them today have remained unaltered since 1987. The current parish priest is Fr Coleman NwokorieSDV who has been in the parish since 2018.
The parish plans to have a comprehensive history of the church printed in booklet form as a memento of its golden anniversary.