The dean of St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town has been criticized for allowing his church to be desecrated by permitting a secular electronic dance party within its precincts. However, the Very Rev Terry Lester has defended holding the dance party saying the event had been held in the nave on Youth Day, 16 June 2025, between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm with party goers blocked from dancing in the chancel and sanctuary.
Dean Lester said hosting the party was part of the cathedral’s tradition of welcome. “This cathedral church has always sought to be a welcoming space for all and any across gender, race, religious conviction, non- judgmental and safe to gather space.”.
“A gathering here of dance and music, open to all, safe, in daylight hours in an iconic space which had trumpeted the cause of Peace and Justice…respectfully cordoned off from the chancel and sanctuary, in the Nave where God’s people gather weekly and have done so for decade after decade, to sing and celebrate – why should these not take place here in the same space and place where we have lamented our past and the tragedy of what humans do to humans.”
“It was a first, and we need to get young people into these spaces rather than drive them away into ones where risk and danger may lurk” the dean told Lester Kiewit in an interview on Good Morning Cape Town.
The Facebook advertisement for the event stated: “Rise, and rave finds itself taking on a whole new meaning of ‘church’. Guilded by Live Electronic Female DJ Act Kerstin de Beer (KDB), step into a haven of groove, without needing the social buffer of substances or alcohol. There will be, however, coffee as well as delicious food on site to fuel your morning and keep your dance moves on fleek.”
Critics from outside the Anglican Church in Southern Africa were not impressed. Father Mike Williams of the Anglican Catholic Church questioned the propriety the gathering. “The stone on the wall dedicates the building to God, how many of the folk had God in their minds when romping around on sacred ground,” he told the Cape Argus.
Bishop Elroy Meyer of the Ethiopian Catholic Church expressed particular concern about the proximity of secular festivities to sacred elements . “It is holy ground, a few days ago they had an ordination there, what about the holy communion, that is sacred in the Tabernacle, it is totally unacceptable, that these things must happen in God’s church.”
Comments on the cathedral’s social media pages about the event mirrored the divide, with some applauding the dean’s decision to offer a wholesome alternative to young people to gather and socialize, while others denounced the gathering as inappropriate for consecrated ground.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s office referred questions on the event to the cathedral.