Johannesburg's diverse communities are reflected in the wide variety of places of worship found throughout the city. Find out more about the history, architecture and social role of these places of sanctuary in this, the first of a series of articles.

THE city has many places of worship, a reflection of the multi-cultural nature of Johannesburg.

Almost every religion is represented and practised in some of the country's most beautiful structures.

Some churches, like Regina Mundi in Soweto, played a significant role in the struggle to overcome apartheid, and have taken on iconic status. Tourists come from all over the world to visit this famous church.

Some former churches have been reborn as mosques or temples, and serve a whole new community within the suburbs.

And some churches have no walls and roofs, and simply take place in the veld, where the sounds of enthusiastic worshippers echo across the parks and streams where they gather.

New mosques have sprung up in former whites-only suburbs, an indication of apartheid's barriers dissolving and people settling in places that feel comfortable and friendly.

Some places of worship stand out because of their architecture, their history, their associations, or just their splendour.

St Mary's the Less, Jeppestown, 1889
This Anglican church is the oldest place of worship in the city, having been built just three years after gold was discovered in Johannesburg in 1886.

When the early settlers moved west and east of the town centre, Jeppestown, along with Doornfontein and Belgravia, a one or two kilometres east of the town centre, became the posh suburbs where the Randlords built their mansions.

St Mary's the Less stands out among the light industrial buildings in Jeppestown

And with the growth of the suburbs, the need for a church arose, and St Mary's the Less was built.

It is a modest red iron-roofed structure with a wooden-beamed ceiling and wooden floors, and filled with rows of white-painted wooden benches. The walls of the apse are painted sky blue, with four beautiful arched stained-glass windows, contrasting the plain arched windows running down each side.

Its small pipe organ still stands to the right of the apse.

A worn stone step in Park Street is testimony to the church's age, now standing bravely among untidy light-industrial buildings and rundown residential blocks in a suburb that takes its name from Sir Julius Jeppe.

Jeppe was a wealthy landowner who established the neighbouring suburb of Belgravia.

The church's congregation has dwindled to around 45 – the church seats 120 – and they are the old faithfuls who come from far and wide to enjoy the slightly musty, quiet ambience of the church and its Sunday service.

Father Andrew Payne, who comes to Jeppestown to deliver the Sunday service, says the future of the church is unknown - he is working on methods of recruiting more members.

The church was designed by Arthur and Walter Reid, and additions were made in 1897, 1904 and 1908. It's believed that when St Mary's Cathedral was built in the inner city in 1929, St Mary's bowed to its superior status, and became St Mary's the Less.

There is another St Mary's church in Johannesburg: St Mary's on the Limpopo, which stands quietly on the corner of Empire and Clarendon streets on the edge of Parktown. It was previously the Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin but in 1982, in recognition of the fact that the Braamfontein Spruit runs under the church on its way to the Limpopo River, its name was changed.