3-070-703 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Consecration of the Bishop Patteson Memorial Church (St. Barnabas), Norfolk Island, 1881. Engravings from sketches by the Rev. Philip Walsh. '1. Exterior of the Church, with congregation assembling. 2. Reading the Request of the Trustees for Consecration. 3. The Bishop of Melanesia (the Right Rev. John Richardson Selwyn). 4, 5, and 6. Native Students of Melanesian Church Mission...The lamented death, in 1871, of John Coleridge Patteson, [first] Bishop of the Missionary Diocese of Melanesia, is a striking incident of the history of religious and philanthropic enterprise. He was cruelly slain, probably under a mistaken impression of the object of his visit, by the savage natives of Santa Cruz...[The church]...will serve both as a memorial of Bishop Patteson and as a collegiate chapel. It is externally not a very imposing edifice...The interior, however, is described as having a considerable degree of elegance and dignity...The steps to the chancel are of black Devonshire marble, and it is paved with marble of two colours in an ornamental pattern...The consecration service, which was in the Mota language, was then proceeded with by Bishop Selwyn taking the principal part; after which, came the morning prayer and the communion service'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.