CAPE TOWN As interest grew around the notion of new parish schools there was an increasing disquiet from amongst the pupils of the former parish schools. The feeling was that these schools had come and gone with little recognition from the Church.

Surely it would be proper for the Church to honour these deserving Parish Schools before transferring its attention to something new. Thus the ABE put its mind to holding a celebratory service to achieve just that. It was then pointed out that, while the "Coloured" population had been served by the Parish schools in the Western Cape, the Xhosa population, then concentrated in the Eastern Cape, had been served by the mission schools. Now, however, in the Western Cape the two groups were both strongly represented. To focus upon the former parish schools while ignoring the mission schools would not be fair. It was with this dilemma in mind that attention was turned to the role which the Zonnebloem Teachers Training College and its cohort Practice Schools had played in the lives of both communities. Surely something could be done to win the support of the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Rev Thabo Makgoba, who, ex officio, is the sole trustee of the Zonnebloem Estate, to consider the restoration of the Zonnebloem complex to its former responsibility as teacher training college and practice schools. The Anglican Board of Education has no formal connection with the Historic Schools Restoration Project, whose scope is so much wider as it looks to schools of historic interest all over South Africa and derived from a range of initiatives. Nevertheless, its leader, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, knows Zonnebloem well and has it listed as one of the Historic Schools. There are possibilities for cooperation here. The Historic Schools Restoration Project is in a much stronger position to address the restoration Zonnebloem while the Anglican Board of Education can do little more than speak up in its favour. Undoubtedly the Restoration of Zonnebloem as a Teachers Training College and Practice School complex, as it was intended, would be healing and uplifting to a wide band of South African people. A meeting with the Trustee of Zonnebloem, the current Archbishop, The Most Rev Thabo Makgoba, has been arranged to discuss the matter.

PRAYER FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Eternal God worthy of all worship your Son sat amongst scholars asking them questions: bless all schools, colleges and universities that they may be lively centres for sound learning, new discovery and the pursuit of wisdom; and grant that those who teach and those who learn may praise you as the source of all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord.