Bishop Simkin To Retire

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29071, 7 December 1959, Page 12

Bishop Simkin To Retire

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 6.

The Bishop of Auckland (the Rt. Rev. W. J. Simkin) has announced to a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Auckland his intention to retire on March 31 next. He succeeded the late Archbishop Averill as Bishop of Auckland in April, 1940

The Primate of New Zealand (the Rt. Rev. R. H. Owen) will retire in February. Bishop Simkin is senior bishop of the

Church of the Province of New Zealand and the next senior bishop is the Bishop of Waiapu (the Rt Rev. N. A. Lesser)

Bishop Simkin was the fifth successor of Bishop Selwyn in local jurisdiction, and has long been recognised as an outstanding churchman and administrator. He is regarded as an authority on the provincial constitution and canons, and on New Zealand church history. In 1929 he carried out a general revision of the Auckland Diocesan Statutes under the authority of the Synod. Later he successfully promoted provincial and diocesan legislation affecting the cathedral site in Parnell and the project for erecting a permanent cathedral upon it

He has published works including a history of the foundation of the Diocese of Waipu and of St. John’s College: a complete list of the Statutes of the General Synod to 1925, and of changes in the constitution and canons.

Last year, for the second time, Bishop Simkin attended the Lambeth Conference.