Seth Mokitimi Methodist seminary web page goes live!

The Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary web page has gone live this evening. Please have a look through and let me know what you think. Here is an excerpt from the website.

http://www.smms.org.za

What's in a name? Seth Mokitimi Methodist seminary.

Commenting on the news that the new Methodist Seminary in Pietermaritzburg would be named in honour of the late Rev. Seth Molefi Mokitimi, Mokitimi�??s biographer, Dr Simon Gqubule, says that it is a "fitting name for the Seminary"� because Mr. Mokitimi spent most of his ministry in educational institutions.

Quite apart from being the first black President of Conference, Mr. Mokitimi's distinguished role in education culminated when he chaired the negotiations that established the Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa (Fedsem), where generations of ministers were trained.

Dr. Gqubule says that the link began when the Rev. Arthur Wellington, Governor of Healdtown Missionary Institution, was elected President of Conference in 1937. Wellington needed somebody trustworthy on campus while he travelled and appointed Mokitimi, one of his earlier students, to be Chaplain and Housemaster of the school attended, among others, by the young Simon Gqubule.

Mr. Mokitimi handled this task with distinction, gaining the affectionate nickname, 'The Brown Bomber' from the students. In 1951 he was the first African appointed as Governor of Osborn Mission, near Mount Frere, where he raised the Secondary School to High School status and built the 500-student Noniko hostel. In 1961 he succeeded the Rev. Price R. Mbete as Governor of Bensonvale Missionary Institution, near Sterkspruit, in the Eastern Cape.

Mr. Mokitimi was also Secretary of the Board of Examiners for many years, responsible for the studies of African Methodist probationer ministers throughout the Connexion (in those segregated days, sadly, there were still two Secretaries, one for African, and one for European, Coloured and Indian probationers).

Dr. Gqubule reminds us that this remarkable person was also a prolific hymn-writer, contributing 31 hymns to the Sesotho Hymn Book.

Meet The Brown Bomber ? An Account of the Life and Work of the Rev. Seth Molefi Mokitimi� is the title of Dr. Gqubule's biography, published by Lovedale Press.