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The Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia is delighted to announce that the Most Rev. Dr. Thabo Makgoba and his wife, Lungelwa Manona, will be our honored guests at next month's Diocesan Convention, October 26-28 in Martinsburg. Archbishop Thabo will offer the keynote address speaking on our theme, "Grow in Christ." Archbishop Thabo has served as the Archbishop of Cape Town and the Metropolitan of the Anglican Province of Southern Africa, one of the fastest-growing provinces in the Anglican Communion, since January 2008. He is the youngest person elected to this office, which was held by Archbishop Desmond Tutu from 1986-1996.
Bishop Matthew looks forward to welcoming the Archbishop for our convention, remarking, "This is an excellent opportunity for West Virginia to expand our international, Anglican relationships and to better understand the challenges and similarities that both of our unique territories and people face. Archbishop Thabo is leading the way in evangelism and Church growth in South Africa and his witness to Jesus Christ will help us set the tone for growing in Christ in our own diocese."
Archbishop Thabo was ordained in 1990 and served in a number of cathedral, parish, and chaplain roles before becoming Bishop Suffragan of Grahamstown in 2002 and Bishop Diocesan of Grahamstown in 2004. His ministry has been shaped by his work as a social & climate justice activist and as an education activist. In 2008, then-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams awarded Archbishop Thabo the St. Augustine’s Cross for service to the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Thabo has served the Anglican Communion in a variety of capacities, including as a member of the design team for Lambeth Conference in 2008 and as chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network. In the Episcopal Church, he has been awarded honorary degrees from General Theological Seminary, Sewanee: The University of the South, and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.
In 2009, Archbishop Thabo received his PhD from the University of Cape Town, where his thesis was on workplace spirituality among South African mine workers. The thesis was turned into the book Workplace Spirituality: In a South African Mining Context (2012); he is also the author of Faith and Courage: Praying with Mandela (2019).
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