Mombasa Cathedral and the CMS Compound: The years of the East Africa Protectorate

Modern Christianity in Mombasa (Kenya) dates from 1844. The diocese of Eastern Equatorial Africa, which included Mombasa, was constituted in 1884 under the aegis of the Protestant-inclined Church Missionary Society (CMS). During the zenith of British imperial power it was ‘de rigueur’ to have a Church of England cathedral in the capital of almost every major British overseas possession. So it was that in 1905 Mombasa’s cathedral first opened its doors. The author examines (and cites from) the relevant archives in order to understand how the cathedral project began, how it was executed, and, incidentally, to pay tribute to the architect, John Sinclair. (Source: ASC Documentation)