The Bi=Centenary of the Canadian Church.

Waiapu Church Gazette, 1 October 1910, Page 17

The Bi=Centenary of the Canadian Church.

The actual event which the Canadian Church commemorated during the first week m September at Halifax, .Nova Scotia, occurred on October 10th, 1710. The General m command ordered a Day of Thanksgiving for the success of the English soldiers m reducing Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal), and the service held on that occasion by the Rev. John Harrison was the first recorded Church of England service m British North America. In 1720, the Rev. Richard Watts was sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at a salary of £10 a year. Apparently it was augmented by a payment for officiating as assistant garrison chaplain. Nothing remains of the little chapel of St. Anne m which services were held, and little of the Fort. Settlers crossed the Atlantic and founded the town of Halifax m 1749. Among them were two clergymen, and a schoolmaster attached to the party through the instrumentality of S.P.G. On Christinas Day m that year there were thirty communicants at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which, for lack of a more suitable place, was m the Governor's dining-room. The Church of St. Paul was built at the cost of the Govern*

ment and the parish constituted by an Act of the first General Assembly m 1759. By a deed of endowment dated January 4th, 1760, King George 11. designated the Church as " a royal foundation and of exempt jurisdiction." A Sunday school was founded m 17813, and claims to be the oldest Sunday school with a continuous history on the American continent. The first Bishop of Novia Scotia was the Rev. Charles Inglis, who was born m New York, and came to England for ordination by the Bishop of London. The necessity for the long and arduous journey probably led him to become an energetic advocate of having a Bishop m the English possessions on the other side of the Atlantic. Again, he had to return to England for consecration at Lambeth, on August 12th, 1787, and thus became the first British Colonial Bishop. Jurisdiction was assigned to him over the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Bermuda, and Newfoundland. He was instrumental m founding " a seminary of learning at Windsor m Nova Scotia," of which his nephew became the first principal, and his son John, afterwards third Bishop of Nova Scotia, the first scholar. From that beginning developed m course of time King's College, which will bestow honorary degrees m connexion with the bicentenary celebration. The diocese now extends over the province of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and contains one hundred clergy, but has no Cathedral. The chief event of the commemoration will be the opening of All Saints' Cathedral.