Melanesian Mission
- Bishop of New Zealand.[2]
History
Bishop Selwyn's see was focused on New Zealand. In December 1847 he began a series of voyages to the Pacific Islands, which were included in his diocese by a clerical error in his letters patent. His see should have been defined as lying between 34th and 50th degrees of south latitude.[3]The clerk drafted the boundaries as lying between 34th degrees of north latitude and 50th degrees of south latitude, which include islands to the north of New Zealand.[3] At the time of his appointment, Selwyn was aware of this clerical error, but he chose not to point out the error.[3]His letters and journals of these journeys through Melanesia present the reader with a vivid picture of his versatility, courage, and energy. In 1849 he formed the Melanesian Mission to work in the Western Pacific.[4][5][6]
The Undine, a small 21-ton
Bishop of Melanesia.In 1867, the Mission established St Barnabas College on Norfolk Island, as a church and training centre for missionaries.[6] The Melanesian Mission established an administrative centre on Mota island in the Banks Islands (now part of Vanuatu) and the Mota language became the lingua franca of the mission.[6]
Members of the mission
See also: Archbishop of MelanesiaThe missionaries included:
- Bishop John Coleridge Patteson;
- Percy Temple Williams[10] (born 19 March 1866; died 12 October 1933) who was active in the mission from 1895 - 1899 in the Melanesian Mission in Queensland, Australian;[11] in the Guadalcanal diocese of Melanesia.[12][13]
Current activities
Today it continues to provide financial and staffing support for the Anglican Church of Melanesia, an independent province of the Anglican Communion.[18] Its headquarters are in Feniton, Devon.[19]
References
- ^ Official website
- ^ Limbrick, Warren E. (1990). "Selwyn, George Augustus". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
- ^ a b c Boreham, Frank W. (1911). George Augustus Selwyn: Pioneer Bishop of New Zealand. p. 44.
- ^ Project Canterbury
- ^ Correspondence and photographs of the Melanesian Mission dating from 1872 are held by SOAS Archives.
- ^ ISBN 9781925022032.
- ^ Historical resources on Anglicanism in Oceania
- ^ "The History of the Melanesian Mission" Armstrong,E.S. London Isbister & Co, 1900
- ISBN 0702210668
- ^ Wikimedia commons
- ^ Blain's Biographical Directory
- ^ "Blain Biographical Directory of Anglican clergy in the South Pacific" (PDF). 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
- ^ God's Gentlemen: A History of the Melanesian Mission 1849-1942 Hilliard, D: Australia, University of Queensland Press, 1978
- ^ London Gazette
- ^ RUDGARD, Ven. Richard Cuthbert’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014 ; online edn, April 2014 accessed 7 Oct 2017
- ^ Ecclesiastical News. The Times (London, England), Wednesday, Apr 30, 1958; pg. 12; Issue 54138 1971
- ^ Church news The Times (London, England), Thursday, Mar 04, 1971; pg. 16; Issue 58113
- ^ Melanesian Messenger Online
- ^ bizd