Feisty, generous, hard working, “helluva” nice and a “most remarkable” person of deep faith.These were some of the tributes accorded to former Rhodes University academic, lifelong activist and Anglican priest the Rev Canon Nancy Charton, who died in Graaff-Reinet at the age of 95 this week.
Despite formally retiring from the church decades ago, Charton continued to minister in Graaff-Reinet.
Charton was the first woman priest in the Anglican church in Southern Africa after being ordained by Bishop David Russell in Grahamstown Cathedral in 1992.
She worked in the Grahamstown Advice Office at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle, campaigning against forced removals in the former Ciskei and conducting solitary demonstrations on High Street as a member of the Black Sash.
The Rev Gerald Buisman of St James the Great Anglican church in Graaff-Reinet, said Charton was “a wonderful colleague” and “a genuine person with very strong convictions and a sense of fairness and justice”.
She was also very warm and personable and “didn’t take herself too seriously”, with her strong political views moderated by common sense.
Former Rhodes professor Michael Whisson also paid lofty tribute to Charton.
Charton had joined the politics department at Rhodes – with a focus on African politics – in 1967, after her husband died.
Whisson said he and Charton were very close friends and “worked together in all sorts of ways” since 1978, including at the cathedral and during the weekly chapel services at Fort England hospital to which she had recruited him.
“She was a helluva nice person – what you saw was what you got.
“She was generous and extremely hard working.”
Of Charton’s feistiness, Whisson said: “At some point in her career she realised she was less likely to get kicked if she stood up than if she lay down.
“She gave the impression that she had no fear. she prayed about it, decided it was the right thing and went ahead.”
Whisson said despite Charton’s position as the first Anglican woman priest, she was not a suffragette taking on the church hierarchy, preferring to abide by internal processes, taking the view that she would be ordained “in God’s time”.
A note from her family said she passed away peacefully after a short illness “and a life filled to the brim with love and compassion for all mankind”.
Charton is survived by her daughter, Mary-Anne and two sons, Richard and Peter.
The funeral service will take place at 10.30am next Saturday at St James church, Graaff-Reinet.
Tributes pour in for pioneer cleric
These were some of the tributes accorded to former Rhodes University academic, lifelong activist and Anglican priest the Rev Canon Nancy Charton, who died in Graaff-Reinet at the age of 95 this week.
Despite formally retiring from the church decades ago, Charton continued to minister in Graaff-Reinet.
Charton was the first woman priest in the Anglican church in Southern Africa after being ordained by Bishop David Russell in Grahamstown Cathedral in 1992.
She worked in the Grahamstown Advice Office at the height of the anti-apartheid struggle, campaigning against forced removals in the former Ciskei and conducting solitary demonstrations on High Street as a member of the Black Sash.
The Rev Gerald Buisman of St James the Great Anglican church in Graaff-Reinet, said Charton was “a wonderful colleague” and “a genuine person with very strong convictions and a sense of fairness and justice”.
She was also very warm and personable and “didn’t take herself too seriously”, with her strong political views moderated by common sense.
Former Rhodes professor Michael Whisson also paid lofty tribute to Charton.
Charton had joined the politics department at Rhodes – with a focus on African politics – in 1967, after her husband died.
Whisson said he and Charton were very close friends and “worked together in all sorts of ways” since 1978, including at the cathedral and during the weekly chapel services at Fort England hospital to which she had recruited him.
“She was a helluva nice person – what you saw was what you got.
“She was generous and extremely hard working.”
Of Charton’s feistiness, Whisson said: “At some point in her career she realised she was less likely to get kicked if she stood up than if she lay down.
“She gave the impression that she had no fear. she prayed about it, decided it was the right thing and went ahead.”
Whisson said despite Charton’s position as the first Anglican woman priest, she was not a suffragette taking on the church hierarchy, preferring to abide by internal processes, taking the view that she would be ordained “in God’s time”.
A note from her family said she passed away peacefully after a short illness “and a life filled to the brim with love and compassion for all mankind”.
Charton is survived by her daughter, Mary-Anne and two sons, Richard and Peter.
The funeral service will take place at 10.30am next Saturday at St James church, Graaff-Reinet.
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