Bill Bendyshe Burnett (1917–1994) was a South African Anglican bishop and archbishop. He was archbishop of Cape Town from 1974 to 1981. Personal life Burnett was born in Koffiefontein on 31 May 1917. He was the son of Richard Evelyn Burnett, a British-born bank manager, and his wife, Louisa Martha Dobinson. Burnett grew up speaking Afrikaans and English, at a time when racial discrimination was growing toward Apartheid. Burnett called racial segregation morally indefensible. Burnett married Sheila Fulton Trollip at the end of World War II in 1945 when he was 28 years old. Together, they raised a family of two sons, Andrew and Stephen, and a daughter, Mary. Burnett died in Grahamstown, South Africa, on 23 August 1994. Church career Burnett was made deacon in 1946 and ordained priest in 1947. He served as chaplain at Michaelhouse from 1950 to 1954. He was vicar of Ladysmith 1954- 57. In 1957 he was consecrated as Bishop of Bloemfontein and served there until 1967; he was General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches 1967–69; Assistant Bishop of Johannesburg 1967–69; Bishop of Grahamstown 1969–74; Archbishop of Cape Town and Metropolitan for Southern Africa 1974–81. He became Anglican Bishop of Bloemfontein in 1957, and later served as the first general secretary of the South African Council of Churches when it was formed in 1967 from the old Christian Council of South Africa. In 1969 he became Bishop of Grahamstown, and was Archbishop of Cape Town from 1974 – 1981. During his time as Bishop of Grahamstown he became involved in the charismatic renewal movement in the Anglican Church. Apartheid The English speaking churches in South Africa were the focus of a strong opposition to Apartheid during the 1960s and 1970s, though they did not move from protest to resistance as a whole. In the 1960s, there was a movement to create groups within the Christian church which would stand up for the rights of those oppressed. Groups which would be focal points of Christian resistance. There was opposition within the Christian community in South Africa, wherein the Dutch Reformed Churches attacked this new approach as though it were a new denomination. The Dutch Reformed Church had traditionally been closely connected to the government in power, the National Party. Burnett, at that time the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches, said at a synod meeting in Grahamstown that because