Lorenzo Moore, Papanui’s soldier parson

Press, 12 November 1977, Page 16

Lorenzo Moore, Papanui’s soldier parson

St Paul's parish, Papanui, celebrated its 125th anniversary last week-end. W. J. GARDNER takes the opportunity to recall one of the colourful figures in the early history of the parish ...

Among the Anglican clergy of early Canterbury there were some commanding figures. In the foremost rank of them was the Rev. Lorenzo Moore, although his varied and inconclusive career has caused his name to be almost forgotten in this province.

Moore was vicar of St Paul’s, Papanui, from 1862 to 1873, and his memory is revived by the celebration of the church’s one hundred and twentyfifth anniversary.

Soldier turned parson, Moore held strong but unpopular views which offset his great gifts as pastor. As is .obvious in his case, history is not kind to defeated combatants.

In 1826, the 18-year-old Moore enlisted as a comet with the East India Company. He served for 20 years in India rising to the rank of major. Moore’s regiment was made up of Indian recruits, and as interpreter he learned a great deal about their outlook and gained their confidence. As a convinced Evangelical, Moore attempted to promote Christianity among his sepoys. To his chagrin, he was reprimanded by his commanding officer and compelled to give up his efforts.

In describing these events in Dunedin in 1876, Moore noted that they took place at Meerut, the town in which the so-called

Indian Mutiny broke out, in 1857. He blamed the uprising on the “antiChristian policy pursued by a professedly Christian Government.”

On his return to England, Moore embarked on a second career as parson, being ordained priest in 1852. He resolved to emigrate to Auckland in 1859, but was checked at Melbourne by news of war in the North Island. He eventually arrived in Christchurch in 1862, at the age of 54. On his appointment to Papanui Moore bought land, part of which now forms the site of the Sanitarium Health Food Company. A man of private means, he built his

own parsonage there, and also bought a share in the Avoca sheep run, where his two sons served as cadets under his partner, Reginald Foster.

Moore was held in high regard in the district, both as vicar and public figure, and he seems to have been an unofficial “mayor” of Papanui. He was chairman .of both the Papanui and Harewood school committees, though later he was compelled to resign from the latter position because he was not a resident of Harewood. It is a little surprising that so austere a man made a point of riding on the first train to Papanui on April 29, 1872 — an uncharacteristic gesture that may be partly explained by the fact that he had sold the site of the Papanui railway station to the Provincial Government.

In a real sense, it was “his” station, right alongside his home. The cheers of the big crowd of Papanui residents were for Mo.ore as well as for the eagerly-awaited train.

Moore’s stiff theological views sometimes put him at odds with a more relaxed and prosperous colonial society. In origins, Canterbury Anglicanism was a High Church enterprise; in practice, its early clergy were predominantly Low Church. The ecclesiastical as well as the social “upper crust” failed to emigrate in the expected numbers. In Low Church Anglican Canterbury, none was “lower” than Moore. His twin evils in theology were “Ritualism and Rationalism,” and in church life he was uncompromisingly opposed to secular entertainment and moneyraising.

In 1871. he refused .official sanction to a concert in aid of funds for a vicarage; and in opening the function, John Ollivier, a leading figure in provincial politics, took the unusual step of publicly rebuking Moore for his narrow views. In an uncompromising letter to the “Lyttelton Times,” Moore replied; “I do not consider it my place to be the caterer for, or patron of, worldly amusements for my parishioners.” In similar vein, he publicly criticised Dr John Lillie, a leading Presbyterian minister, who also lived in Papanui. Lillie calmly replied: “I was once of the same narrowminded principles, but have long since outgrown them.” In 1872, Moore also denounced a visiting Italian opera company for its “demoralising representations.”

Moore was then 64, and felt himself no longer able to cope with “so large a country parish,” which then extended far beyond

its present bounds. He resigned, but within a few days a memorandum asking him to reconsider his decision was signed by 150 parishioners. It was a great tribute to the man, whatever they thought of

his theology. He actually resigned the next year, but continued to officiate until 1874. After a period as chaplain to the Melbourne jail, Moore took up the parish of Port Chalmers in 1876.

It was an unfortunate choice, as he was there serving under a High Church Bishop of Otago, S. T. Nevill. The steady rise of AngloCatholicism in Otago caused Moore to quarrel

with Nevill, and when Moore went to the extent of founding a “Free Church of England” in Dunedin in 1880, Nevill retaliated by striking Moore off the Clergy list. The unrepentant Moore

found a more congenial atmosphere in the Low Church diocese of Nelson, and was restored to the clergy list by Bishop A. B. Suter. Moore died in Nelson on August 12, 1894, at the age of 86. !