John Groeber

He is best known for designing and building St. Mary's church on the Serima Mission grounds, and for training a number of artists and builders.

At Serima, Groeber was able to build up a congregation with more than a thousand local converts, while also mobilizing them to provide support and labor to develop the mission station.

A large complex, including a boarding school and church, were built over two decades, using bricks fired in a massive kiln.

This church combined the use of a modern architectural plan (inspired in part by the Federal Charter Archive) with African carving and artwork in the interior spaces.

These artists, plucked from mandatory art classes, worked in the afternoons, and were trained in drawing, patterning, pit firing, and woodcarving.

[citation needed] Groeber created a distinctive artistic style that made use of prescribed anatomical proportions, frontality, and Shona patterning.