“The best times to be with God is when I drive and I can experience the openness. For me this is breathing space. I love being here. I love what I do. I love being among the people.” So says Caledon-based Venerable Petronella Edwards, (Anglican) Archdeacon of the Overberg.
Fondly known by all as “Reverend Patty”, she was born in Uitenhage, but her family moved to Mossel Bay when she was in Grade 8, and her father became the first traffic officer of colour there. After completing high school, Edwards moved to Cape Town in the early ’80s, where she tried her hand at nursing for a year. “I realised nursing was not for me, and enrolled at UWC, where I obtained my BA and HEd.”
Her teaching career began at Range Secondary School, Matroosfontein in 1984 and her 28 years as a teacher included schools in Elsies River, Belhar and Blaauwberg Strand.
Edwards lost both her sons in tragic accidents, in 2002 and 2008. “After the death of my second son I decided to resign from teaching. About four months later I began as a lay preacher at St George the Martyr in Kuils River. At the time the current bishop told me she thought I had a calling, but I didn’t realise what that was. I did a lot of soul searching and kept getting the words ‘teaching on another level’, which I didn’t quite comprehend at the time.”
After her resignation in 2008 she still helped out at schools until 2012. In 2014 Edwards enrolled at the College of Transfiguration, the Anglican seminary in Grahamstown. In December 2012 she became a deacon and was ordained priest in September 2015. From 2014 to 2017 she served in the parishes of Christ the Redeemer in Mitchells Plain and Christ the Reconciler in Tafelsig before coming to Holy Trinity church in Caledon in 2018.
“As a young teacher I always dreamed about working in the countryside. I never thought that my dream would manifest itself in this manner, but when the bishop asked me whether I would accept a position here in Caledon I gladly agreed. This is the largest parish in the diocese, made up of the mother church in Caledon and seven chapels in Myddleton, Greyton, Riviersonderend, Tesselaarsdal, Stanford, Papiesvlei and Gansbaai, and every chapel has its own unique dynamic.”
Asked how the Covid pandemic had affected her and her work, she said: “It was a very difficult time. I had co-morbidities and needed to stay away from people.
“It was difficult, in the sense that we couldn’t go to people when they were ill. Nor could we visit the elderly to give them communion. We could not go to hospitals, nor could we comfort the bereaved. Instead, we did a daily reflection in voice notes.
“I am a people’s person, and it was very difficult for me not to see people. I struggled to sleep as I was worried about the people, chapels, buildings, money. I would sit up and think ‘what’s going to happen?’
“All the television coverage of Covid worldwide was enough to make one paranoid. I would go and sit out in the sun on the rectory’s steps, just to see passing people and wave at them. It really was a most difficult time for me, but I think sticking to a routine and keeping myself busy got me through it.”
On whether she thought the pandemic made people more aware of their mortality: “Definitely. I think some of our people became fearful to be around others. We had to become aware of our mortality and that things could end any day.
“At the church we had to become very strict at all the services and funerals. We had to safeguard ourselves. Now that restrictions have been lifted there are more people coming to church spontaneously. As Anglicans we have communion every Sunday. We are people of the Common Cup, where people share the same cup, and many have missed this. I have noticed, though, some people are not yet comfortable with the idea of drinking from the communion cup.”
After Edwards lost her own children she says she now has so many children – all daughters, other mothers’ children. “One I see regularly. She brings calmness to me, but also makes me laugh, which I really need. The other one is my spiritual daughter, who lives in Rwanda.”
The good reverend, who is also chairperson of The Overberg Community Trust, is currently on sabbatical and spending six weeks in Rwanda with her spiritual daughter and family, and plans to get involved in a church project with an Anglican priest in Kigali.