Sobantu and West Boylston

We are very pleased to confirm that the Sobantu Circuit and the First Congregational Church of West Boylston will be ‘matched’ as participating churches to explore the sharing and connecting of our respective lives as churches.

             West Boylston is a congregation of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, with about 400 members, located in the town of West Boylston in the central part of the state of Massachusetts, which is in the northeastern part of the United States of America.

             The Sobantu Circuit [which is also referred to as the Sobantu/Imbali Circuit, or the Pietermaritzburg Circuit] is a congregation of the KwaZulu-Natal Region of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa, a circuit of upwards of 1,000 members gathering at thirteen worship points – a circuit of which the ‘mother church’ with about 150 members is located in the township of Sobantu, and the largest of the ‘branches,’ with somewhat more than 150 members, is located in the township of Imbali.  Both the Sobantu township and the Imbali township are adjuncts of the city of Pietermaritzburg, and most of the other branches are also in the general vicinity of that city, located in the midlands of the province of KwaZulu-Natal which is located on the east, Indian Ocean coast of the Republic of South Africa

This page includes a small photo gallery of the Sobantu and West Boylston churches.

Photo gallery:

Exterior of Sobantu Congregational Church, the 'mother church' of the circuit	Exterior of Imbali Congregational Church
Exterior of the West Boylston church	The interior of the West Boylston church
The interior of the Sobantu church	Worshipers at Sobantu
Worshipers at West Boylston	Rev. Small of West Boylston
Rev. Sibisi of the Sobantu Circuit

(November 14, 2006)