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>>Home>> English >> Obitiries >> Fr Simon Thamaga
Fr. Simon August Thamaga was born on 19 November 1946, and grew up at Onderstepoort, north of Pretoria, where his father worked in the veterinary institute. He was baptised in Ethiopian Catholic Church in Zion at age of 12 in Lady Selborne, Pretoria.
In 1960 a group of the Ethiopian Catholic Church in Zion under Surgeon Lennon Motsepe joined the African Orthodox Church (AOC) under Bishop Daniel William Alexander. August Thamaga was a teenager at the time, and remembered the occasion when they were received.
Soon afterwards Motsepe was made a bishop in the AOC during a visit of two bishops from the American branch of the church. There was a dispute, however, and the American bishops deposed Daniel William Alexander, and appointed Motsepe "administrator pro-tem". After Motsepe's death the AOC split into several factions, one of which was led by Genesis Nkosi. August Thamaga was assistant to Samson Mabula who succeeded Nkosi, and was elected bishop of this group in 1984 after Mabula died. He changed the name to the African Orthodox Episcopal Church to distinguish it from other African Orthodox groups, and adopted the title of Archbishop.
In the late 1980s some of the leaders of the various factions of the African Orthodox Church in South Africa began enquiring about Orthodoxy. With the death of their earliest leaders, they realised that though they called themselves Orthodox they knew little about Orthodoxy or Orthodox theology.
Father Chrysostom Frank and Stephen Hayes of the mission Society of St Nicholas of Japan visited some of them. We explained that the Orthodox Church in Africa was under the jurisdiction of the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, and that the African Orthodox Church was non-canonical, and that its bishops were not regarded by the Orthodox Church as being in the apostolic succession. These discussions were reported to His Beatitude Parthenios, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, and in 1992 we started the St Moses of Ethiopia Theological course for enquirers about Orthodoxy from the various branches of the African Orthodox Church. The course was discontinued when most of them joined the Coptic Church.
In 1993 August Thamaga enquired about the St Moses Course, and though it had been discontinued, we put him on the mailing list of Evangelion, the newsletter of the Society of St Nicholas of Japan. August Thamaga persisted in wanting to learn more about Orthodox theology, and in 1995 visited Stephen Hayes to ask how he could learn more. After several discussions, and visits to Orthodox Churches (and members of the Society of St Nicholas visiting some of the AOEC congregations to explain Orthodoxy to them), August Thamaga said he wanted to become Orthodox.
In February 1997, with the help of Father Michael Visvinis of Pretoria, August Thamaga and the other leaders of the AOEC formally applied to His Eminence Paul, Archbishop of Johannesburg and Pretoria, to be received into the Orthodox Church, and began receiving catechetical instruction along with some other leaders. The catechetical instruction was interrupted when August Thamaga had to have heart surgery in September 1997. Ill health then forced him to take early retirement from his job as a messenger with the Department of Transport. There were more delays occasioned by the appointment of a new Archbishop, His Eminence Ioannis, in 1998, who first had to learn more about the Archdiocese, and then himself suffered a fatal illness.
In July 2001, after His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim had become Archbishop, August Thamaga and some other former members of the AOEC were baptised. He was given the name Simon in baptism. In September 2003 he was ordained priest. His health remained poor, however, and during 2004 he was in and out of hospital for several months before his death on 4 September 2004 at the age of 57.
Father Simon will be remembered chiefly for his persistence in leading his community towards union with Orthodoxy, in spite of the many obstacles he encountered, most notably the illness he suffered in his later years.
Deacon Stephen Hayes
The baptism of the Fr Simon Thamaga
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