THE BISHOP OF CHRISTCHURCH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 30, 26 July 1890, Page 1

THE BISHOP OF CHRISTCHURCH.

N this page we publish the portrait of Bishop J u^us > w ' lo has recently been elected by the Synod of the Episcopalian Church of New Zealand to fill the vacancy caused by the re- ' tirement of Bishop Harper from the see of Christchurch. Previously to this public attention had been arrested from time to time by anecdotes coming from Australia showing a certain originality of thought and action in the then Archdeacon of Ballarat, so that on his name being mentioned in connection with the vacant bishopric it did not sound altogether strange. But when in last September the Synod elected him to succeed the venerable and respected Primate of New Zealand, by an almost unanimous vote, public interest awakened, and everybody began to inquire what manner of man the incoming bishop was. It is now six years since Bishop Julius made his appearance in the Australasian colonies in the character, of Vicar of Christchurch pro-cathedral and Archdeacon of Ballarat. He was chosen to these offices from the church of Holy Trinity, Islington, in London, where he had been pursuing his ministrations among a rather poor district for some half a dozen years, and attracting notice by the liberality of his views and the energy of his actions. Before being instituted to this London benefice in 1878 Bishop Julius had for three years held the vicarage of Shapwick, Somerset; and seeing that he was only ordained as a priest at Norwich in 1872, it will be apparent that his probationary stage in the capacity of curate was not of very long duration. As the date of his graduation at Worcester College, Oxford, is in 1869, only twenty-one years have elapsed since Churchill Julius launched out upon the career in which he is so likely to prove so distinguished. He is therefore a man at present in the very flower and vigour of his life, a matter of no small moment in a young community like New Zealand, where the great desideratum is the presence of active minds from more mature communities who will leave their impress for good upon a society in the making. Owing to some technical informality in the manner of convoking the Synod that elected him, there was a temporary hitch in the progress of affairs which delayed the advent of Bishop Julius for some seven months. At the beginning of May, however, he reached New Zealand, accompanied by Mrs Julius, and was consecrated at the Cathedral with ceremonies of a more imposing character than any of an ecclesiastical nature which have hitherto been seen in New Zealand. The clergy of all the Protestant denominations and prominent laymen of all creeds united to pay him the honour of a public welcome, and wherever he has gone in the more rural districts of the Canterbury Plains such universality of reception has been the characteristic of his progresses. As far as can be gathered from the addresses of Bishop Julius he seems to be strongly imbued with the spirit of Christian Socialism, which is reviving among the most liberal - minded of the Episcopalian clergy in the great English towns, and which reveals itself in the abandonment of that attitude of hauteur towards other denominations which has so seriously impaired the usefulness of the Anglican church. In short, the new bishop is touched with the democratic sympathies of the age. He believes in the gospel of love as taught by the Founder of Christianity, and in the power of brotherliness, and clearly recognises the fact that if souls are to be won they must

be won by the exercise of cordiality and kindness, and not by the parade of sacerdotalism and gentility. From the following account of a lecture given by Bishop Julius for the benefit of St. Mary’s Home, Addington, some impression of his individuality may be gathered :— Bishop Julius commenced bysayingthat he hardly thought when he left Victoria that he should so soon be plunged into the trials and troubles of lecturing. He had whilst in Victoria given.about 420 lectures, which was about 419 too many. He then made an earnest and eloquent appeal on behalf of St. Mary’s Home, which he recommended to the earnest and practical sympathy of the community as a whole. Coming back to the lecture he said that whilst he would never take part in a bazaar, a lecture was a sort of half-way house, but he hoped that the time would come, and that speedily, when the heart of the diocese would be moved, and the funds necessary to carry on the work of such an in-

stitution as St. Mary’s supplied direct without the need of lectures, ete. As to the lecture itself, he found when in Victoria that the people were fond of yarns, and being a good hand at spinning a yarn he had told them his experiences of country life in England, which had now been collected together. The lecturer, in a series of rapid and graphic sketches, described the travelling from London to the country parish in Somersetshire, about which he intended to talk. The various characters to be met with the village, the Cheddar country and the exterior of the village church were then described with much power and great humour. He then went on to describe the oaken benches in the church, which were five hundred years old, pointing out that these had not been made by contract, for which the lowest tender had been invited. The wonderful love of the artistic even in the lower ranks of life, which existed in the old times mainly cherished and fostered by the art guilds then

flourishing, was next described, a wonderfully quaint and humorous description given of an antique gridiron, ornamented with carving, and with a little devil with a curly tail at top, forming a hook to hang it up. Then came a spirited defence of the monasteries of old, which the lecturer pointed out were the abodes of good and holy men, the home of love and mercy, and the centres of learning. That they eventually fell from their high estate was only the common lot of all human institutions. The lecturer then gave, with much fidelity and artistic skill, rapid word paintings of the vicar and the parish clerks. One of these latter was described as giving as a response in the ‘ Te Deum ’ the extraordinary substitution of the words ‘The Chuffin and Scuffin’ for ‘the Cherubim and Seiaphim.’

The village school came next under review, and here the Bishop, as indeed he did throughout the'evening, interspersed his most entertaining and laughter - provoking anecdotes with graver thoughts bearing upon subjects of importance to all. He said that, as an old school teacher he would never wish to see a return to the denominational system, because he did not believe that under that system pure and simple they would ever educate a nation. But he had the most decided aversion to the modern principle of obliterating religious education from their schools. They were too prone to confound religious education with religious instruction. The former drew out the dormant religious aspirations of the children, whilst the latter was teaching of the particular dogma or creed, and whilst he would not fight for religious instruction, he would do so with all his heart and with all his soul for religious education. As a public school boy he knew the deep influences which the chapel had upon youths, and he would guarantee that after one hour’s conference with every minister of religion in the city they would be able to agree upon the question of the opening of the schools with prayer and with Bible reading. The lecturer then proceeded with a wonderful fund of humour and descriptive power to sketch some of the most remarkable characters of the village itself, commenting on the intense dislike of the British cottager to fresh air in his house. The Bishop concluded a most interesting and highly entertaining talk, lasting about an hour and a half, by an eloquent and earnest appeal to all to so live and so work as to help others to bear their burdens, and to make the world a little pleasanter and a little more enjoyable to those around them.