There is a stone church on a hill in Cape Town that shines like a beacon flame in our city's history. It as built in 1867 in District Six and has served the Anglicans of that community since then to the present day.

You may ask how that can be when, between 1969 and 1984, some forty thousand District Six residents were evicted by the Group Areas Act, and relocated in houses scattered all over the Cape Flats, their homes demolished.

Faced with the prospect of their church being de-consecrated, the St Mark's congregation firmly rejected the Government's offer to rebuild the church, stone for stone - an exact replica - in Athlone, and returned the two million rand compensation cheque. At the same time they decided that, regardless of distance, "they would, as far as possible, continue as before." And so they did. Which is why, each Sunday, thirty years on, cars travel to attend the 9 0' Clock service from as far afield as Kuils River and Bellville, Mitchell's Plain and Athlone, even Strandfontein - to honour their undertaking, and that of their parents.

In St Mark's District Six the spirit of the Community lives on, and is now known throughout the world. Like the District Six Museum in Caledon Street, it will become a pilgrimage for all who truly love Cape Town.