The Diocesan choirmaster from the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Mthatha, Zukisa Tyumre, confirmed that the choir had hosted their annual outreach at St Cuthbert’s in Tsolo parish recently.
Tyumre said that this is one of the parishes which used to be used as a convent, weaving school and retreat centre together.
“We have noticed that when church members want to go to isolate themselves in order to host their special prayers, they go to other places instead of using this retreat centre because it is not in a good condition.
“As the choir, we chose to use it instead of paying money to other facilities,” said Tyumre.
“There are 17 rooms there, so we bought 17 beds and other things that are needed there,” said Tyumre.
They are appealing to other guilds to join them.
The chaplain of the Diocesan Choir, Simnikiwe Mqunyana, said they were very happy about this initiative, especially since it has been done by the choir.
He said most of the time people think that choirs focus only on music.
“This retreat centre is very important and, as the choir, we have already started using it. The high rate of spending money paying other places when some of the organisations within the church want to go on retreat will decrease because we have our own centre.
“There is still a lot that needs to be done in this centre,” said Mqunyana.
He added that, besides assisting in the church, they had also assisted other people who are not from this church.
