 The Rt Rev Jack L Iker, SSC, Bishop The Rev Mark A Stockstill, SSC, Vicar Office 325.356.2997 Vicarage 325.356.2198 Cell 325.330.2411 mstockstill@fwepiscopal.org |
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Selwyn was born in
London in 1809, educated at Eton and Cambridge and ordained in 1833. In
1841, he was made first Bishop of New Zealand. He diligently studied the
Maori tongue on his long sea voyage, and was able to preach in it on his
arrival. He laid the foundations of the Church, not only in New Zealand, but
throughout the islands of Melanesia. (This was the result of a clerical
error. The northern boundary of his diocese was supposed to be the parallel
of latitude 34 degrees south of the equator. The official document read
"north" instead of "south," and Selwyn cheerfully accepted responsibility
for the vast Pacific regions of the Melanesian and Polynesian islands as
well as New Zealand. In 1957 the Islands became a separate Province of the
Anglican Communion.) In the ten-year war between the Maoris and the European
colonists, Selwyn managed to keep the confidence of both sides, and
ultimately at the first general synod of the Church in New Zealand in 1859
to secure the adoption of a Constitution that established the principle of
full participation by Maori Christians at all levels of Church government.