Author: CMM, Cape Town

Central Methodist Mission, in partnership with the District Six Museum, hosted a deeply moving Freedom Day service on Sunday, 27 April 2025 retracing sacred memories and reclaiming the story of faith and resilience rooted in District Six.

The service began at 09h30 at the District Six Museum. The museum is housed in the heart of what was once a thriving and diverse community. The service proceeded with a commemorative walk to Central Methodist Mission in the city centre. This walk symbolically echoed the walk taken by the Buitenkant Street Methodist Church in 1988.

Families with deep roots in District Six, some up to five generations strong, gathered to honour their shared heritage. The program featured reflections by notable figures whose lives are intricately woven into the story of District Six and Buitenkant Street Methodist Church. They participated in a panel facilitated by Chrischene Julius, the Director of the District Six Museum. In the panel was:

Rev. Prof. Peter Storey (1966-1970), who witnessed first-hand the devastation as bulldozers demolished homes and ministered to a grieving community during those painful years.

Mrs Jane Lawrence (née Abrahams), who grew up in District Six and was a child of the Buitenkant Street Methodist Church. She became Pastoral Assistant to Rev. Peter Storey during his time as a minister at the church. Her family’s home was among those destroyed.

Mr David Newby, who as a minister (1990-2000) helped guide the painful amalgamation of Buitenkant Street and Metropolitan Methodist congregations and was a founding force behind the creation of the District Six Museum — preserving memory as an act of resistance.

The program also included contributions from Travis Johnson and Rose-Anne Reynolds, both of whom grew up attending Buitenkant Street Methodist Church and Sunday School, bearing witness to the resilience of faith through generations.

The sermon was delivered by Rev. Sikawu Makubalo, who preached from John 20:21, challenging the gathered community to be agents of courageous memory, healing justice, and enduring peace in a still-fractured world.

A special display commemorating the life and witness of the closed Buitenkant Street Methodist Church was launched at Central Methodist Mission as part of the service, a lasting testament to the faith, community, and hope that apartheid could never destroy.

The gathering was not only a time of remembering and lament, but also a call to recommit; across generations; to walk in the spirit of those who came before, to tell the truth of the past, and to build a future rooted in justice, dignity, and the radical peace of Christ.

In his sermon, Rev. Makubalo stated that “Apartheid was not just political; it was spiritual violence. The Group Areas Act was not just about geography; it was about desecrating the image of God, segregating God’s people.

Forced removals were not just relocation; they were acts of defiance against the Creator who gathers and does not scatter. They were an act of disobedience to the Creator.

Freedom Day is not just a public holiday; it is a summons to remember whose freedom was stolen, whose dreams were buried, and whose faith calls us still to the unfinished work of justice and healing.”

The service left all who attended with a searching question: What does freedom truly mean for South Africans today?

It laid down a challenge that this generation, and the generations to come, should not rest until freedom, peace, and justice are made real for all people in every place, without exception.