Oswald Peter Patrick Swartz (born 1953) is the twelfth and current Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman

Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman

The Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman is the Bishop of the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, which encompasses the area around Kimberley and Kuruman and overlaps the Northern Cape Province and North West Province of South Africa. The current bishop is the Rt...

.

Swartz was born in Kimberley, Northern Cape

Kimberley, Northern Cape

Kimberley is a city in South Africa, and the capital of the Northern Cape. It is located near the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The town has considerable historical significance due its diamond mining past and siege during the Second Boer War...

 and educated at St Paul's Theological College in Grahamstown

Grahamstown

Grahamstown is a city in the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa and is the seat of the Makana municipality. The population of greater Grahamstown, as of 2003, was 124,758. The population of the surrounding areas, including the actual city was 41,799 of which 77.4% were black,...

. He was ordained in 1980.

Early ministry

Swartz began his ordained ministry as a curate

Curate

A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...

 at St Matthias' Church in Welkom

Welkom

Welkom is a city in the Free State province of South Africa, located 160 kilometres northeast of Bloemfontein, the provincial capital. Welkom received municipal status in 1961 and was declared a city in 1968 on the 14th of February...

(1980-81) and, following his ordination to the priesthood, was appointed as the rector of St Philip’s Bloemfontein

Anglican Diocese of the Free State

The Anglican Diocese of the Free State is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa.-History:The first service North of the Orange River to be taken by an Anglican clergyman was conducted in 1850 by Robert Gray, the first Bishop of Cape Town. In 1863, Edward Twells was consecrated the...

 (1981–1987), serving for some of this time as chaplain to the Company of St Augustine (Diocesan Director of Ordinands).

Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman

In 1987 Swartz moved back to the diocese where he was born and where his father, the Revd Canon J.W.M. Swartz, had served as priest. His first posting in the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman was as the rector of St John’s Mafikeng, from 1987, where he soon was appointed as Archdeacon

Archdeacon

An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...

 of Mafikeng

Mafikeng

Mahikeng – formerly legally, but still commonly known as Mafikeng – is the capital city of the North-West Province of South Africa. It is best known internationally for the Siege of Mafeking, the most famous engagement of the Second Boer War.Located on South Africa's border with Botswana, it is ...

 (1989–1992). He then spent three terms as Bishop’s Executive Officer (which position was latterly combined with that of diocesan secretary) under Bishop Njongonkulu Ndungane

Njongonkulu Ndungane

Njongonkulu Winston Hugh Ndungane FKC was the Archbishop of Cape Town and Primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa ....

, in 1992-4, 1994-6 and (under Bishop Itumeleng Baldwin Moseki

Itumeleng Baldwin Moseki

Itumeleng Baldwin Moseki was the eleventh Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman from 1995 until his retirement in 2006. He was also a campaigner for the poor.-References:...

) in 1996-2000. Concurrently he served as the rector of St Augustine's Kimberley with St Alban's, then St Martin's, Douglas and then of St Barnabas, Kimberley, serving as the Acting Archdeacon of Kimberley.

In 1994-6 Swartz was Sub-Dean at St Cyprian's Cathedral

St Cyprian's Cathedral, Kimberley

The Cathedral Church of St Cyprian the Martyr, Kimberley, is the seat of the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman, Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It became a Cathedral when the Synod of Bishops gave a mandate for the formation of the new Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman in...

 in Kimberley.

London

Swartz went to Britain in 2001 as Regional Desk Officer for the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, London (until 2005), responsible for the link with the Ecclesiastical Provinces of West Africa, Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. He also served as Honorary Chaplain at Southwark Cathedral.

Dean of Pretoria and ordination as a bishop

In 2006 Swartz returned to South Africa as the Dean

Dean (religion)

A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...

 of Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

 before being elected and ordained to the episcopate in 2007.

Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman

Swartz was consecrated at St Cyprian's Cathedral on 1 May 2007 and enthroned there as the 12th Bishop of Kimberley and Kuruman on 16 June 2007.

Swartz is married and has three children.