{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} '''Geoffrey Francis Davies''' was the inaugural bishop of Umzimvubu.<ref>Crockfords on Line Accessed Saturday 5 April 2008 21:44</ref> Born in 1941 and educated at the Universities of Cape Town and Cambridge he studied for ordination at Ripon College Cuddesdon before beginning his ecclesiastical career with a curacy at St Mary The Boltons, West Brompton.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120721202304/http://www.acny.org.uk/venue.php?V=15475 Church details]</ref> The rest of his ministry was to be spent in Africa, firstly as Priest in Charge of Serowe, at the time the largest village in Botswana and latterly South Africa.
Here he rose steadily in the Church hierarchy, being successively rector of Kalk Bay, Director of Mission within the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, suffragan bishop of St John's and finally the diocesan bishop of Umzimvubu. After retiring from the diocese in 2003, he initiated the Southern African Faith Communities' Environment Institute, a multi-faith environment non-governmental organization inaugurated by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai, in July 2005. With the vision of "Faith communities committed to cherishing living Earth", SAFCEI promotes caring for people and the planet as a moral issue which should be firmly on the agenda of every faith community.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}
In 2016, he was awarded the Langton Award for Community Service by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for his farsighted commitment to environmental concerns".<ref>{{cite web|title=The Archbishop of Canterbury's Awards: Lambeth Palace|url=http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/data/files/resources/5697/CITATIONS-PDF.pdf|website=Archbishop of Canterbury|accessdate=14 July 2017|date=31 March 2016}}{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Notes== <references/>
{{s-start}} {{s-rel|sa}} {{s-new|diocese}} {{s-ttl|title=Bishop of Umzimvubu|years=1991–2003}} {{s-aft|after=Mlibo Mteteleli Ngewu}} {{s-end}}
{{Bishops of Umzimvubu}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Geoff}} Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Category:Anglican bishops of Umzimvubu Category:University of Cape Town alumni