SELWYN’S ENORMOUS MANDATE

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 30 September 1933, Page 11

SELWYN’S ENORMOUS MANDATE

HPHE oft-niGnitioned story of a slip of a pen by a Crown official, which resulted in a " bishop’s di'oeeae being enlarged by 4fi degrees of latitude., was referred to by the Eight. Rev J. T Steward, formerly Bishop of Melanesia, preaching at a special service in connection with the dedication festival of All Souls’ Church at Hastings, England, on July 23 The preacher was referring fp the spread of the church overseas, which, he said, had conne a:s a result of the Oxford Movement and the current ■spirit of reform, and told hiow New Zealand was first ana do into a giant diocese . In those days bishops received their authority from letters, oir legal documents, signed by a- member of the Royal Family, and it wais intended to give Bishop S-elwyn jurisdiction over New Zealand and the islands up to 23 degrees south of the Equator But the official who wrote oiu the authority before it received the Royal signature put- 23 degrees north! And so the bishop’s diocese was enlarged by 46 degrees of latitude and came to" include the Sdloimoims, the Reef Islands, the New Hebrides, amd those which camie -to be known as ■Melanesia The white mem* of those districts had liCße or no respect for law and order; they wanted to be a law

Slip of Pen Which Enlarged Diocese

unto themselves and had nor care o,r consideration for the rights of the natives, whom they thought were there to be exploited, killed) or sold, whichever happened to be the moist profitable course to take In consequence the natives had as bad a naim-e for treachery and savagery as possible The "bishop, however, said Mr Steward, did not. treat his enormous mandate as a mistake, but ais a call from God, and after seven years globing over his diocese and founding bishoprics, he turned his- attention to the islands, where the greatest difficulty wa's that of language. Hundreds of languages were spoken there, but nio.ne of them were written. But the bishop realised that if Christianity, was to be , understood by the natives it must be presented to them in their own ourselves tine heirls of swell people,” said the preacher. /‘We call ourselves the heirs of the Oxford Mbv.emenlt. Here as you meet together toclav *to icoTnm*emiOTait<s the deditealticwi Oit this beautiful church, cast out your thoughts wider, to embrace the other meaning of ‘church,’ no*/*® in which we worship, but the body to Which wo belong, with Christ aB the head, the winning of afll mankind to the knowledge and love of God by the sacramental gifts of our Holy Church.