Our History

The earliest records show that St Thomas Church started meeting in the 1930’s as a church plant from Holy Trinity Church Gardens, into the racially mixed suburb of District Six. The church met at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) hall. At that time, the congregation consisted of people from different cultural backgrounds, all living in the same communities and attending and serving at the new church. An early account says that there were four services on a Sunday: Firstly an outdoors service on one of the main roads of the community, secondly the morning service in the hall, thirdly the adult Sunday school classes, and then fourthly an evening evangelistic service.

In the late 1960s the Group Areas Act of the Apartheid Government came into effect. This forced people who were “not white” to leave their homes in District 6. People were forcibly relocated to an area called the Cape Flats, a distance out of the city, including this area called Heideveld. The church continued to meet in homes, called ‘cottage meetings’ in the Heideveld area. The meeting together of different cultures was no more – as dictated by the then political regime in South Africa. In 1969 the building in which we currently meet was built. A significant contributor to this building and ministry was Murray Hofmeyer. God has been pleased to continue to bless the work of St Thomas Church in Heideveld by providing the church with leaders who have faithfully served over the years, pastoring the people of Heideveld with prayer and preaching the gospel. God has also continued to provide financial support for the church from within the congregation and from gospel partners.

In 2010 St Thomas partnered with the Arise Family Ministry to build a Family Centre on the property. Arise exists to strengthen families, and does so by family counselling, strengthening, reconciliation, and training in our community. As well as enabling adoption around the country. In 2016 St Thomas Church began St Thomas Pre-Primary School on the premises. The aim was to give pre-school children a head-start in education and life, by providing a quality pre-school experience at reasonable cost, in Heideveld.