About Us
Our Vision
We seek to be a growing, loving family of Christian people, worshipping, sharing and increasing the knowledge of God in the community.
St Stephen’s Church, Sunninghill, is a vibrant parish which was established 1996 with a new church built in 2005.
It is situated in the suburb of Sunninghill which comprises mixed housing and a business park, a private hospital and the Headquarters of Eskom, at Megawatt Park. Much of the housing is townhouses and apartments.
St Stephen’s is in Region 7 of the Diocese of Johannesburg and our Archdeacon is Ven. Shona Fleming.
St Stephen’s is made up of a welcoming and inclusive congregation. Our congregation is an eclectic, multi-cultural, multi-generational mix of people from various backgrounds, wealthy and modest. The congregation is actively involved in church services and various groups such as Sunday School, Youth, Mothers Union, Divine Divas will lead worship from time to time.
We are a family oriented church with a strong Sunday school led by our full time Youth and Children’s pastor. The children love coming to Sunday School and are involved in leading services a number of times a year.
Our Worship Style
Based on the traditional Anglican Eucharist service, the worship style at St Stephen’s is an inclusive one that does not follow a set pattern each week. We delight in having a variety of traditional, contemporary as well as vernacular songs that speak to the diverse congregation who worship together. We have been blessed with a traditional pipe organ which resonates deep within during the playing of old hymns and also make use of a Clavinova. Liturgical dance, drama, sung solos and personal testimonies are incorporated into Worship from time to time. We have a set of marimbas and a drum kit.
Our History
1993
St Stephen’s Anglican Church started on Pentecost Sunday in 1993 as a church plant from St Catherine’s, Bramley. For the first nine months of our existence we met in the basement of the Sunninghill Hospital. In October 1993 we bought a property in Nanyuki Road and we started to worship in the double garage in January 1994. A brand new church building was built in 2005.
St Stephen’s began with 30 people, adults and children, who lived in the area and who were committed to this new project. The area around Sunninghill at the time was set to be the fastest growing area in South Africa. As early as 1993 our congregation came from different denominations and Sunninghill was already racially mixed.
1996
On Pentecost Sunday 1996, Bishop Duncan Buchanan, Bishop of Johannesburg, came to inaugurate St Stephen’s as a new parish within the Diocese. From this point on we stood on our own two feet both financially and spiritually.
Rectors: Revd. Andrew Gready (16 May 1996 – December 1999)
Revd Canon Trevor Prince( 17 March 2000 – 31 July 2023)
2016
In 2016 we celebrated our 20th anniversary as a Parish with a sequence of celebratory services at which former clergy preached and celebrated, some travelling from overseas to do so. Each one also planted a “Mickey Mouse” bush in the church garden. Our theme for the 20th anniversary was “Transformed by Christ – a continuing journey.”
2021
In 2021 we celebrated our 25th anniversary. Many of our planned activities were curtailed by the Pandemic, but the main project was the upgrade of the Sanctuary. Our theme for the year was “Transforming our Parish from Maintenance to Mission,” a theme that we have been actively engaged with over several years.
St Stephen’s has produced three History books which document the activities of the parish from 2010 to 2021.
Our Services
- Sunday School
- Sunday 1st Service
- Sunday 2nd Service
- Youth Service
Our Ministries
- Mothers Union
- Anglican Women’s
- Fellowship
- Divine Divas
- Link
- YASS
- Hikes
- Church Meals
- Women’s Conference