[2] After the war Oram responded to an appeal by the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to serve abroad, and thus began his ministry in South Africa.

Cyprian Thorpe, in an obituary, relates that while Oram was no linguist, he nevertheless learned enough Afrikaans, Setswana and isiXhosa to conduct services in those languages in the rural areas and townships where they were spoken.

He was a church organist from the age of 15 and even produced Gilbert and Sullivan operettas amongst his Afrikaans-speaking congregations in the remote towns of the Northern Cape.

This was exactly a month prior to the Sharpeville massacre, one of the turning points in the history of apartheid oppression under which Oram's South African ministry was exercised.

The St Cyprian's Cathedral Choir at this period performed such works as Messiah (Handel), Elijah (Mendelssohn) and Bach's Christmas Oratorio.