CHURCH OF ENGLAND CURIO

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 58, 2 December 1926, Page 13

CHURCH OF ENGLAND CURIO

BISHOP SELWYN’S PRAYER BOOK. Dominion Special. Dunedin, December 1. An Interesting relic of the early days of the Church of England in New Zealand is preserved in the Bishop s vestry in Dunedin Cathedral in the shape of a large desk prayer book. The book is bound in the usual boards, but has been recovered in brown velvet by a later hand. The title is that' of the date before the disestablishment of the Irish Church. 1848. "The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Chureh according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland, together with the Psalter of Psalms of David, printed at the University Press for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 1848.” The Psalms are the metrica version bv Tate and Brady. They read very quaintly to modern minds The link between the past and present consists in the presentation of the volume to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of New Zealand for the use of the officiating clergyman at Otago on ■ September 16. 1851. The "Bishop of New Zealand" was George Augustus Selwyn, first and only Bishop of New Zealand.