THIS year is one of many celebrations for Reg and Helen Morgan as Reg marks 40 years in ordained ministry, celebrates his 70th birthday and the couple mark 40 years of marriage.
Reg grew up in the UK and after school attended theological college in Nottingham where, in 1975, he met Helen who was doing a theological course there.
That year he was made deacon and on May 15 1976 they were married in Port Shepstone, went back to work in the UK and Reg was ordained as a priest in September.
Helen’s mother spent Christmas with them and challenged them to think about coming to South Africa, saying “you’ll be part of history in the making” and, considering what was happening in the country at the time, she was right.
They came at the end of 1978, bringing six-month-old Andy with them, and started work in Kloof, where Jenny was born in 1980.
At the end of 1987, the family moved to Greytown where they settled for 13 years. There Reg was made archdeacon of Estcourt and he and Helen started a pre-primary school, Little Elephant, which later incorporated a primary school. Their children attended school in Greytown and there Reg joined Rotary and expanded his bee-keeping hobby with his children.
In 2000, their lives took a complete about-turn when they went to St Saviour’s, an inner-city parish in total contrast to the rural one they had come from. But they adapted and before long Reg became a canon and later archdeacon.
Five years later, their “love affair with Queenstown” started when the Morgans came to St Michael’s and still continues. Reg came here as archdeacon and was part of the team that developed the new diocese of Ukahlamba when it was decided that the Grahamstown diocese was too big and had to be divided into two.
In 2010, the beautiful church was dedicated as a cathedral and the same day the bishop of Ukahlamba was installed.
Reg was acting dean of the cathedral until his retirement in 2012.
Since his retirement, Reg and Helen have been involved in ministering to Presbyterian and Methodist congregations and the Winterberg community at Wheatlands, while continuing to assist at the cathedral.
The couple has been involved in many other spheres of work as well, in particular 25 years in “marriage encounter weekends” in which they facilitate the improvement of good marriages and encourage couples to work even harder at their marriages and improve their communication.
To mark all these happy events, Reg and Helen got all their family together for a few days at Haga Haga recently and will host a thanksgiving celebration service at the cathedral on September 17 at 10am.
