Anglican Diocese of Dunedin

The Diocese of Dunedin is one of seven dioceses of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The Diocese covers the same area as the provinces of Otago and Southland in the South Island of New Zealand. Area 65,990 km², population 272,541 (2001). Anglicans are traditionally the third largest religious group in Otago and Southland after Presbyterians and Roman Catholics.

Description of Arms: Gules between a cross saltire argent, four starts argent on the fess point a Bible.

The diocese was established in 1869. The seat of the Bishop of Dunedin is St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin.

History

The first person named as Bishop of Dunedin was Henry Lascelles Jenner. At the request of Bishop George Augustus Selwyn Primate of New Zealand in 1866 Archbishop Charles Thomas Longley of Canterbury selected Jenner for Dunedin. Jenner was consecrated in 1866 by royal licence as 'Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in our colony of New Zealand'. Jenner was consecrated together with Suter (candidate as 2nd Bishop of Nelson) by Archbishop Longley, the Bishop of London Bishop Tait (later Archbishop Tait, of Canterbury) and the bishops of Bristol and Gloucester. In 1867 Jenner embarked on a fundraising tour in England for his new diocese. Jenner was an ethusiastic Anglo-Catholic. When news of Jenner's 'ritualist' activities reached Dunedin anti-ritualist and anti-catholic sentiment was whipped up in the city and diocese. New Zealand's 4th General Synod (1868) asked Jenner to give up his claim to the see of Dunedin. In 1869 the first session of the Dunedin diocesan synod rejected Jenner's claim to the see. Jenner resigned the see of Dunedin in 1871, the same year S. T. Nevill was consecrated and enthroned as the first Bishop of Dunedin.

In 1990 the diocese made world history by electing Dr. Penny Jamieson as bishop. Bishop Penny was the first woman diocesan bishop in the Anglican Communion and only the second woman bishop, the first being Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris.

The incumbent Bishop of Dunedin is George Connor. Before becoming bishop of Dunedin he was Bishop in the Bay of Plenty, he was translated in 2004. The Diocese gained some publicity in 2006 when Bishop George (with the support of the Diocesan Standing Committee) ordained an openly gay man to the diaconate. A moratorium on ordinations in the diocese has been declared until the church provincially (Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia) is of a common mind on the full inclusion of homosexual persons at every level of ministry in the church.

Bishops of Dunedin

Consecrated but not enthroned Henry Lascelles Jenner (1866)

* 1st Samuel Tarratt Nevill (1871-1919)
* 2nd Isaac Richards (1920-1934)
* 3rd William Alfred Robertson Fitchett (1934-1952)
* 4th Dr. Allen Howard Johnston (1953- 1969, later Bishop of Waikato, Primate and Archbishop of New Zealand 1972-1980)
* 5th Walter Wade Robinson (1969-1975)
* 6th Peter Mann (1976-1989)
* 7th Dr. Penelope Anne Bansall Jamieson (1989-2004)
* 8th George Howard Douglas Connor (2004-present)

ocial service organisations

* The South Centre, Invercargill.
* Anglican Family Care Centre, Dunedin.

chool

* St. Hilda's Collegiate School, Dunedin.

University hall of residence

* Selwyn College founded in 1893 is the oldest College for students at the University of Otago.

Homes for the aged

* St. Barnabus Home, Dunedin
* Parata Home, Gore
* Takitimu Home, Invercargill
* North Otago Anglican Homes for the Aged, Oamaru

Orphanage

In the past the diocese operated St. Mary's Orphanage, Dunedin.

Religious orders

* The Community of Sisters of the Church was active in the diocese from the end of the 19th century until the 1930s. They were invited by Bishop Nevill to found a school for girls. They founded St. Hilda's Collegiate School.
* Brother Keith a solitary religious with vows to the bishop was active in the diocese in the 1990s.

Companion Dioceses

* Edinburgh
* Eastern Zambia

Jenner controversy

The episode of Bishop Jenner's appointment to the See of Dunedin is part of the history of the Anglican Communion. It concerns the relationship of the Archbishop of Canterbury to that Communion and the development of synodical government within it. The Queen's Mandate for his consecration referred simply to a Bishop from the colony of New Zealand (it also authorised the consecration of Bishop Suter for Nelson) the request of Bishop Selwyn was for a Bishop to be Bishop of Dunedin. Both the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Selwyn personally addressed Bishop Jenner as Bishop of Dunedin.

While the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand is proud of its history and heritage there is a lingering sense of embarrassment and shame over what came to be known as "The Jenner Controversy" even though the affair took place over a century ago. In the interval, Church historians have mulled over the events which led Bishop Jenner finally and very reluctantly to forego his claims to the See of Dunedin and their conclusions are generally that something less than justice was accorded to the Bishop by the Diocese and the General Synod. Jenner participated in the first Lambeth Conference in 1867 as the Bishop of Dunedin.

External links

* [http://www.dn.anglican.org.nz/ Diocese of Dunedin]
* [http://www.anglican.org.nz/ Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia]
* [http://www.anglicancommunion.org/ Anglican Communion]
* [http://www.stpauls.net.nz/ St Paul's Cathedral]