BISHOP NELIGAN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 70 (Supplement)

BISHOP NELIGAN

(From Our Special Correspondent). LONDON, November 21. Reading this morning the trusty Reuter’s announcement that the Rev Moore Richard Neligan, vicar of St. Stephen’s, Westbourne Park, had been appointed Bishop of Auckland, I hastened to the crescent, where, the centre of a somfrwhat drab region, the high spire of St. Stephen’s rises tall and elegant. 1 was not fortunate enough to run the new Bishop to earth, so I cannot give yon a pen picture of him until next w r eek, hut after a little hunting I found a co-worker at home, from whom I gleaned some idea of what manner of man Auckland’s new Bishop is. Mr Neligan, who is about forty, is the son of the Rev Maurice Neligan, a well-known Irish evangelical clergyman, till recently canon of Christ Church Cathedral, and incumbent of Christ Church, Leeson Park, Dublin. He was educated at Reading School and at Trinity College, Dublin, from which he graduated in 1884. After, a brief experience as a schoolmaster at Ipswich, he was ordained deacon and priest in 1886 and 1887 by the Archbishop , of York (Dr Thomson), his first curacy being that of St. Paul’s, Sculeoates, Hull. After being for a short tfine curate of Dereham (a quiet Norfolk village, where George Borrow, the author, and Woolaston, the chemist, were horn and Cowper, the poet, was buried), he became in 1890 curate of Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, under its present vicar, Prebendary Ridgeway. Four years later he was appointed to the vicarage of St. Stephen, Westbourne Park, where his work has been highly successful. “The Times” says: “The lines on which it has been carried on augur well for the new Bishop’s usefulness in New Zealand. He is a moderate churchman, anxious to promote bright services without extravagant ritual. He lias been a keen educationist, and the church schools of his parish have been brought to a high state of efficiency. Few men have been more successful in, attracting and retaining the loyal co-operation of the laity, and he can boast that the many thousands of pounds contributed at St. Stephen’s during his incumbency have been entirely administered and accounted for by bis lay colleagues ana not by himself. His acceptance ot episcopal office in the colonies is m ac cordance with the zeal which he as displayed in fostering the missionary spirit at Home. Together with the Rev. J. H. J. Ellison, vica.r of Windsor, he is largely responsible for The development of that spirit m recent years among the younger clergy connected with the S.P.G., and he is the chairman of the federation of the younger clergy missionary association. He is a typical Irishman, with all the Irish humour and bonhomie, and a great gift of keeping those with whom he is brought into contact in a good humour. Although he is a small man. he has a sonorous bass VO -i C 1 0 carries well and is a forcible and eloquent preacher, delivering vigorous and practical sermons with a strong element of the emotional in them,. and “ good strong definite Church teaching. He always draws a crowded congregation, and the long line of sidesmen at every service testifies to* the interest which he induces "his laity to take in the work of the church. Mr Neligan makes a point of always keeping in touch with the laity, and at the annual laymen’s meeting he takes counsel with them about the welfare of the parish, and, hears and discusses the reports of the secretaries and treasurers of the various parochial institutions. Perhaps his forte is his educational work, and his great achievement, the maintenance of the voluntary schools which were built at a cost of £II,OOO raised in the parish, and which received the highest grant which it is possible to get from the Government for efficiency. My informant described him as “ a born teacher,” and said that his strong point is his work . amongst children, who are every day brought to the parish church and catechised by the vicar himself, and to whom he delivers very bright addresses. He never appears to better advantage than when ho is holding instruction classes for Communion and Confirmation candididates. As an organiser, too, he has great ability. ~ He is chairman of the junior clergy federation of the S.P.G., and played an active part in the formartion of the Church of England’s Men’s Society, which has absorbed most of the associations of the kind, and in which the Bishops of London and Stepney are keenly interested. Mr Neligan is assisted at St. Stephen’s by two curates. His wife is the daughter of Mr Edmond Macrory, K.C.. and has taken great interest in the missionary work of the parish, holding herself a Bible class for women. They have three children, two girls and a boy. The date of Mr Neligan’s departure is not yet decided upon, but it will probably not be before February,