History
On 21 May 1502 an uninhabited island was discovered by the Portuguese admiral, João da Nova. Da Nova anchored in the lee of the island opposite a deep valley. A timber chapel was built in the valley which later became the site of Jamestown. The island was named St Helena. Portugal, Spain, Holland and England all took an interest in the island as a place to refresh ships and sailors on long voyages.
The English Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell granted a new charter to the East India Company in 1657, which gave the Company the right to fortify and colonise any of its establishments. Because of the strategic importance of St Helena as a fortress and staging post on the way home from India, the Company claimed the Island on 5 May 1659. The building of the fort was commenced immediately. A little town sprang up in the valley with the chapel and was subsequently named Jamestown, after King James II.
In 1671, the East India Company sent the first of a long sequence of Church of England chaplains. The early, modest little church was replaced by a slightly bigger one in 1674, but was only later named St. James church. Another church ("the Country Church") was built shortly afterwards near the present St. Paul's church.
By 1774 the first parish church in Jamestown showed signs of decay, and so finally a new building was erected. St. James' is the oldest surviving Anglican church south of the Equator.
On 7 March 1849 the first Bishop of Cape Town, Robert Gray, arrived to conduct the confirmations on the Island. Bishop Gray made a further two visits in 1852 and 1857. Ten years later, in 1859, the Diocese of St. Helena was established by Queen's Order in Council, and included the islands of Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Furthermore, until 1869 the diocese also included the British residents of Rio de Janeiro and other towns on the eastern seaboard of South America as well as the Falklands. The first Bishop, Piers Calverley Claughton, was consecrated in Westminster Abbey and arrived later the same year. St Paul's Cathedral, built 1850–51, became the cathedral in 1859.
Following the Zulu War, Chief Dinizulu, son of Cetshwayo kaMpande, and his family were exiled to the Island in 1890 for nine years. Dinizulu became a convert to Christianity and was baptised and confirmed by the Bishop.
In the 1960s, Tristan da Cunha was transferred to the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town. The diocese now consists solely of Saint Helena and Ascension Island.
The diocese is the fourth oldest diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.
Read more about this topic: Anglican Diocese Of Saint Helena
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