A sublime mosque in the city centre, a soaring temple on Parktown ridge and a hugely popular evangelical church in Soweto - these are just some of Johannesburg's more interesting places of worship examined in this, the fourth in a series of articles.

JOHANNESBURG is made up of a rich tapestry of communities, and its multi-cultural population is reflected in the wide variety of places of worship found around the city.

Almost every religion is represented and practised in some of the country's most beautiful structures. Moslems flock to the Kerk Street Mosque for their Friday prayers; another splendid building looks out over northern Joburg from the Parktown ridge - the Church of Latter Day Saints.

While some churches have no walls or roofs, simply taking place in the veld, others have grown from tiny beginnings to huge gatherings, such as the Grace Bible Church in Soweto. In just over 20 years, its congregation has grown from 35 to 11 000.

Some stand out because of their architecture, their history, their associations, or just their splendour. This, the fourth in a series of articles on Johannesburg's places of worship, looks at some of these.

Mosque, Kerk Street, mid-1990s
The Kerk Street Mosque is the city's Friday Mosque – the first mosque in the city. However, it is the third mosque on the site. The first one, a wood and iron building, was erected in 1906.

The solid square of the Kerk Street Mosque, built on the site of the original downtown mosque

The second was an attractive square, two-storey building with a three-tiered minaret on each corner, opened in 1918. It had two balustrade balconies and arched windows on the ground floor. It served the community until the late 1980s, when it became too small.

The Muslim community approached the then National Monuments Council with a request to demolish the building and build a larger mosque. But the council was against the demolition and even recommended that it be declared a national monument, according to Johann Bruwer's 2004 Heritage Survey.

In reply the Juma Masgied Society, the mosque trustees, said, "In Islam the purpose of buildings are their need and not historic, monumental or aesthetic splendour."

The council gave in and in 1989 the building was demolished. In its place, though, the downtown Muslim community has got a splendid place of worship. A pure white building with a single tall, elegant minaret and a large, white dome, its square shape is an imposing presence reflected off the glass building alongside it.

The entrance areas are decorated with the exquisite, intricate tile work of North African origin. Inside the main prayer area soars up into the dome, the plain white walls with beautifully carved inlays - completed by North African plasterers - take the breath away. Brass chandeliers hang from the tall ceiling, carved arches soar into the vastness, and light pours in from tall windows.

The whiteness is broken by the fine lattice wooden balustrades of the balconies, overlooking a rich red, patterned carpet that covers the floor. Yet the overflow prayer area in the basement has a completely different feel, dominated by the striking red brick columns that branch outwards at the ceiling, filling the space like large, powerful trees.

This mosque has a unique feature: all mosques must face Mecca, and from Johannesburg that is 11° east of the strict northerly pole. This mosque, built along the strict northerly line of the street, has been angled internally to exactly 11°. This means that the thickness of the walls changes – it can be seen in the width of the upstairs windowsills, which vary from very wide to normal width.

On the western side of the building, facing Sauer Street, the iron balcony sticks out of the building at a strange angle, also accommodating the 11° requirement. The mosque accommodates some 1 700 people, and on Fridays it is full to capacity.

Church of Latter Day Saints, Parktown, 1985
There is only one Mormon temple in southern Africa, and it stands tall and beautiful on the crest of the Parktown ridge, its six tall white spires reaching into the sky. At night, when they are lit, they are like six sparklers, a landmark that can be seen into the far distance.

From the tallest spire - 33m high - is the gold-leafed angel Moroni, draped in a cloak and blowing a long bugle.

The facade of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) in Parktown consists of dressed Parktown granite and oatmeal-colour face brick, beautifully laid by craftsmen from Portugal, using a diamond-cutting machine. The edges of the building are finished with tiered layers of face brick, immaculately fitted together, giving it an elegance and distinctiveness. With the grey slate roof, the temple makes for a very attractive structure in a street with many original old Parktown mansions.

The Church of Latter Day Saints blends perfectly with the elegant Randlord homes

Church members have developed the garden, retaining some of the natural rock, and building a path up to the top of the ridge, with its magnificent view north.

Inside, the triple-volume space has wooden panelling, lavish carpets and wonderful light fittings, with a large central gold-plated octagonal font, placed on the back of 12 oxen. At the core of LDS doctrine is baptism, not only for the converted but to be performed on behalf of ancestors.

Around the central area of the temple are lecture and sealing rooms, where families seal themselves together for eternity, based on their belief that, when they die, they'll meet and live together again in heaven. The ambience of the interior is clinical, clean and pure.

The LDS community, nationally some 43 000 people, gathers in 102 chapels around the country, 35 of them in Joburg, while the temple is reserved for baptisms and marriages.

Worldwide membership of the church stands at 13 million, with about 250 000 joining the church every year.

There are two other LDS temples in Africa: in Accra, Ghana, and in Aba, Nigeria, while there are 122 temples across the globe. Young LDS members volunteer, at their own expense, to travel around spreading their doctrine – at the moment there are some 50 000 missionaries wandering the world.

Grace Bible Church, Pimville, 2002
Pastor Ezekiel Mathole says the evangelical Grace Bible Church's mission is to be "a church that dreams". And it seems to be working.

The vast auditorium of the Grace Bible Church seats over 4000

This is a church that began in Soweto in a hall in 1983 with 35 congregants; now, 24 years later, it boasts a membership of 11 000, with the two-hour 9am Sunday church service drawing 5 000 people. These worshippers are served by six full-time pastors, led by Pastor Mosa Sono, and 40 part-time pastors and elders.

Mathole puts this growth down to the package that the church offers. "We identify with township culture, language and symbols, for instance, the music and the way that people sing a song. We relate spirituality to their needs and deal with people's perceptions of the church."

This means too that the church involves people in a broad range of activities: support groups for Aids, substance abuse, divorce and bereavement, there are also programmes for computer skills and entrepreneurship, leadership, arts, prison services, women's and men's issues, and a youth and teenage ministry.

The building, by architects O'Neill & Associates, was completed in 2002 and consists of a huge auditorium, seating 4 200, with a large stage. The roof is supported by a number of thin pillars and is lined with metal struts. Several doors at the back open on to a large foyer, which can seat a further 800 people.

The building is a landmark in Pimville, Soweto – finished in industrial metal sheets and face brick, it is triangular in shape and has a tall brick spire at the apex.

The Grace Bible Church has a distinctive industrial look, finished with metal sheeting and face brick

Mathole says the church has plans to build further on the site. On the cards is a multi-purpose youth hall with a basement and a gym, a children's church and classrooms. And it has opened churches in Orange Farm, Dobsonville, Protea Glen, Jabavu and Brackenhurst.

It seems that the sky is the limit with Grace Bible Church, something not often present in Johannesburg's mainstream churches.

• Temple Israel, Hillbrow, 1936
• St Alban's Anglican Mission Church, Ferreirasdorp, 1928
• Johannesburg Melrose Shree Siva Subramaniar Temple, Abbotsford, 1996
• Coptic Orthodox Church, Parkview, 1999
• ZCC Church, Alexandra
• Dutch Reformed Church, Fairview, 1906
• Mosque, Kerk Street, mid-1990s
• Church of Latter Day Saints, Parktown 1985
• Grace Bible Church, Pimville, 2002
• Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon, Woodmead, 1991
• Greek Orthodox Church, Hillbrow, 1912
• Dutch Reformed Church, Cottesloe, 1935
• Christ the King Anglican Church, Sophiatown, 1935
• St Mary's Cathedral, inner city, 1929
• Swaminarayan Mandir, Lenasia, 2004
• St Mary's the Less, Jeppestown, 1889
• Regina Mundi Catholic Church, Soweto, 1964
• The Lions Shul, Doornfontein, 1906
• Mosques, Vrededorp, 1930s
• St Anthony's, Crown Mines, 1976
• St Peter's Priory, Rosettenville, 1903