THE ENTHRONEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12281, 27 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ENTHRONEMENT.

ALLEGIANCE OF CLERGY AND LAITY.

For the enthronement service in the evening the cathedral was again crowded in every part, and the ceremony proved a most interesting one. As the clergy and choir came into the church the hymn, " Hail tho Day That Sees Him Rise," was sung. At the end of the long procession came the fivo bishops, the primatial cross being carried before the Bishop of Dunedin, and Bishop Neligan's pastoral staff was borne by his Maori chaplain. Mr. Cochrane (registrar) read the documents certifying to the new Bishop's consecration, and then Archdeacon Calder handed Bishop Neligan to his throne, saying:—"I, William Calder, Archdeacon of Auckland, in the diocese of Auckland, do induct, instal, and enthrone you, Moore Richard Neligan, Doctor of Divinity, into the Bishopric of Auckland, and into tho right, title, horeditiment, and into the real, actual and corporal possession of the same, together with all and singular, the spiritualities and temporalities thereof. And the Lord preserve your coming in and going out from this time forth and evermore."

After the induction the prayer for the Bishop, which has been used in the diocese for the last six months, was given. Archdeacon Calder and the Revs. W. Beatty and W. H. Wilson then read the following declaration " We, the clerical members of the Standing Committee of the Synod of the Diocese of Auckland, duly and eanonically elected thereto, do promise allegiance to you, Moore Richard, duly nominated, elected, and consecrated Lord Bishop of the Diocese of Auckland, according to the constitution and canons of the Church of the province of New Zealand." A similar declaration by the lav members of the Standing Committee was read by Messrs. W. J. Speight, Lubeoki, and C. J. Tunks

The " To Deuni" was then sung, the bishops and clergy facing the altar, the visiting bishops being within the altar rails, while the Bishop of Auckland occupied his throne in the choir. The ordinary form of evening praver for Ascension Day was then proceeded with by Canon Mac Murray, Bishops Julius and Novill reading the lessons. His Lordship prefaced his address with the words, "My people." He said it had been announced that the new Bishop would address his people for the first time that night. Yes for the first time in the pro-Cathedral church of this diocese it was his high privilege and solemn responsibility to call them ''my people." Yes, they were his people, he having been commissioned to rule over them in this diooese, not only as they and ho fervently believed, by man's commission,

but also by the commission of the Great Head of the Church Himself. That night was no time for a sermon. It was the time when the Bishop and his people might come together in the central church of the diocese— beautiful and lovely pro-Cathedral of Auckland—after a day rich in solemnitiesaye, so rich in its solemnities that those who had taken part in it would do well never, throughout their lives, to forget what they had done and why they had done it. This, he had said, was no occasion for a sermon. _ Surely such would not be in accordance with the rare beauty of that carefully-rendered musio, that dignified ritual, that solemn, though simple, ceremonial, the intense reverence and fervent devotion of that morning's service, which still lingered in their hearts and minds, together with the strong, brave, manly words of him who, from that pulpit, had lifted their hearts straight up into the presence of the Eternal King and driven home a lesson which no one present could surely ever forget. Behind all this ceremonial, behind ail the work of the Church, and behind all the outward symbolism, there was a consciousness of something higher— the presence of Jesus Christ.

What a splendid position they, the churolimen and. churchwonien of Auckland and the church people of the province of New Zealand, possessed ! The documents read that morning were not merely an empty formality, for they were to a certain extent a proclamation of the charter of their liberties as churchmen and an assertion oi their autonomy. First, the Bishop was nominated by the Diooesan Synod; then th© Synod ceased to act, and the nomination had to be conferred by every diocese in the province of New Zealand. He himself had to sign before a witness' a declaration of assent to the constitution of the Church of this province before the acting-Primate of the province could make the final arrangements for that morning's service. All these necessary steps having been taken and the acting-Primate and the bishops of the province having performed tho acts of consecration once more the diocese was complete. That night the members of the Standing Committee of the diocese, who had stoou there and solemnly in God's House given their oath of allegiance to the newly-con-secrated and enthroned Bishop, had only done as diocesan representatives that wnich he had done in taking the oath of allegiance and obedience to tho Primate and his sue cessors in the province of New Zealand. He referred to the labours of Samuel Marsden, who, he said, had first brought the Gospel of peace to this country, but it was, he said, the "illustrious George Augustus Selwyn who had consolidated this work. The same genius and zeal that had consolidated this missionary work that had inspired the work in Melanesia and the islands of the Pacific. They should see to it that the missions, both to the Maoris and to Melanesia, did not suffer, either through the lack of their best sons or the lack of their self-sacrificing offerings. If they did so suffer it would be a cause for shame and disgrace. No such discredit or disgrace, however, need be theirs if they fulfilled their responsibilities to their Lord and Master. . Continuing, Bishop Neligan said that whilst the Maori and Melanesian Missions were important there was one thing of inestimably more importance, for upon this one thing hung all the restits success or its failure, the disgrace or the honour of the British Empire, that strong virile AngloSaxon race to whom God had given our Imperial greatness. They must realise their dependence upon God, their relation to the ascended Christ, and their responsibilities, as a part of the Anglo-Saxon race, to their religion and to those traditions which God, v> no called them into that position, had given to them to hand down to their children who came after them, to be kept and preserved throughout the ,ages yet to come. That was the keynote. Let tnai splendid fact onoe enter the souls of men and women, and they could never be indifferent to honour, truth, purity, probity, and integrity. That fact would colour men's commercial dealings, their political dealings, and give them such a grip of the dignity, grandeur, and splendour of humanity that nothing would ever tempt them to descend to the shame and' degradation of impurity, of dishonesty, untruthfulness, or sharp practices. They would then be unable to contemplate, except with actual horror and destestation, that want of manliness and conception of honour that was the outcome of selfishnes and ignorance of the Catholic faith. Their religion was a religion of facts and the assurance that this proclamation of facts must finally triumph throughout the world was found in the essential fact of the great event that they commemorated that day— the ascension of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The Benediction was most impressively pronounced by the new Bishop. As at the morning service, the musio was excellently rendered, and the arrangements were all that could be desired.