22 Facts About Paul Verryn

Paul Verryn was born on 26 February 1952 and is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa.

Paul Verryn began studying theology while in the army and in 1976 completed a Bachelor of Divinity at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape.

Paul Verryn chaired Interchurch Aid and the Standards Generating Body for Christian Theology and Ministry, and was involved in the work of the National Cancer Association in the Eastern Cape.

Paul Verryn was appointed as MCSA Supervisor of Studies in 1982, and retained that position until 1997.

Paul Verryn later said that he was "radicalised" during his time in the Eastern Cape, and became involved in anti-apartheid activism: he frequently visited neighbouring townships, sheltered activists from the security police, worked with activist Molly Blackburn, and launched the Port Elizabeth branch of the Detainees Parent Support Committee.

DPSC primarily assisted the families of activists detained without trial under the Terrorism Act, and Paul Verryn was its Port Elizabeth chair between 1982 and 1983.

Subsequent studies of Paul Verryn's ministry have associated him with liberation theology.

Paul Verryn has cited among his influences other progressive South African clergymen with a concern for social justice, such as Beyers Naude, Peter Storey and Mvume Dandala.

In 1984, Paul Verryn returned to his home region, the Transvaal, to serve the Roodepoort circuit.

Storey later said that Paul Verryn "won the hearts of the Soweto community through his identification with their struggle".

Paul Verryn had provided accommodation as a place of safety at the Orlando Mission house for the four.

Paul Verryn was then prominent as one of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's critics.

In 1997, Paul Verryn was consecrated as Bishop of the MCSA's Central District, which traverses three South African provinces and accounts for almost half of MCSA's total membership.

The Johannesburg Central Methodist Church, under the leadership of Bishop Paul Verryn, had established a tradition of ministering to the poor and marginalised in the city centre.

Paul Verryn requested the Johannesburg city authorities to provide for the refugees, but at the same time refused to allow immigration authorities to enter the sanctuary of the church to identify illegal immigrants.

In December 2009, Paul Verryn resigned as Bishop and was replaced by Peter Witbooi, but retained his ministry at the Central Methodist Church.

However, on 19 January 2010, MCSA suspended Paul Verryn, following an internal disciplinary investigation and pending a formal disciplinary hearing.

The second charge related to media statements which Paul Verryn had allegedly made even after MCSA had instructed him not to.

Paul Verryn gave his last Sunday church service at the Central Methodist Church on 28 December 2014, and vacated the ministry at the end of the year.

Paul Verryn was replaced by Reverend Ndumiso Ngcobo, under whom MCSA hoped to return the church "to a state of worship rather than of refuge".

Paul Verryn became superintendent of a Methodist community centre in Soweto, called the Tsietsi Mashinini Community Centre, whose work he had been involved in since 1987.

Paul Verryn continued his activism through the community centre, where about 100 migrant families lived as of 2022, and through Peace Action, a non-governmental organisation which he founded in 2010 to monitor and document violence against foreign nationals in South Africa.