A Pilgrim on God's High Road ΠCanon Wilford in New Zealand
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i A Pilgrim on God’s High Road – Canon Wilford in New Zealand 1904-1932 JOSEPHINE E. WELCH A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury 2006 ii Abstract This thesis examines the life of Canon John Russell Wilford, an Anglican clergyman working in the Diocese of Christchurch, in New Zealand from 1904 to 1933. This thesis concentrates on four of Canon Wilford’s projects during this time: church building at Waikari, the 1910 missions in Prebbleton, the redevelopment of College House and the building of St George’s Hospital. These projects were inspired by Canon Wilford’s faith in God and his interest in the Canterbury Pilgrims. Each project also demonstrated Wilford’s abilities as a fundraiser and an organiser. The development of faith was Wilford’s main concern in the Waikari and Prebbleton parishes. This thesis examines how he tried to do this with church building in Waikari and the General Mission in Prebbleton. It also examines the fundraising methods used by Wilford for the Waikari churches and how he became interested in the Canterbury Pilgrims there. The thesis looks at Wilford’s role in the organisation of missions to develop faith in the Prebbleton parish in 1910. It also considers Wilford’s Anglo-Catholicism and how this related to the missions as well as his interest in the Pilgrims. Wilford was Principal of College House for the majority of his time in New Zealand and this thesis covers his attempts to rebuild the College and how he felt inspired by God and the Pilgrims to do so. As his campaign to rebuild the College was not successful this thesis will examine why this was the case. Wilford also felt inspired by God and the Pilgrims to build a private Anglican hospital. This plan resulted in St George’s hospital. This thesis looks into fundraising methods used to finance the hospital and Wilford’s religious, charitable and technological aims for the hospital. iii Acknowledgements I firstly need to acknowledge Professor John Cookson for introducing me to this fascinating man, Canon Wilford. I also acknowledge the ideas, suggestions, encouragement, support, critiquing and proofreading he has offered me as my primary supervisor. I gratefully acknowledge his patience with me as yet another deadline passed by. I also wish to thank him for challenging me to think further about ideas as I feel this has greatly strengthened this thesis. I thank Professor Peter Hempenstall for looking after me while Professor Cookson was sojourning in Oxford and for helping me find out more about writing biographies. I also would particularly like to thank Jane Teal from the Diocese of Christchurch and the Christ’s College/College House Archives for helping me with resources in both archives, introducing me to relevant sources and enabling me to get access to restricted information. I particularly acknowledge Jane’s contribution of ideas and proofreading to the College House chapter and her continual suggestions of new places to look. I also wish to acknowledge Colin Averill and St George’s Hospital for allowing me to spend two enjoyable days in their archives with some very exciting sources. I wish to also thank Max Rooney for his continued interest in this thesis and his inspiring enthusiasm for Wilford, and Mr Kee for sending me the fascination ‘Watchman’ pamphlet outlining Wilford’s time in Jersey during World War II. I thank my friend Karen for the shared coffee and thesis stories. Lastly and certainly not least I wish to thank my family including my parents Geoff and Jenny for their continuing interest, support and proofreading and my husband, Alan. I wish to thank Alan for coping with so well with those moments of high stress and for his interest and support in what I am doing. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 Chapter One: ‘Souls to tend’ – Wilford in Waikari 8 Chapter Two: ‘Continous Prayer’ – Prebbleton and the 1910 39 General Mission Chapter Three: ‘Completing the work of the Pilgrims’ – 58 Wilford at College House Chapter Four: ‘Forces that I could not resist led me on’ – 94 The founding of St George’s Hospital Conclusion 126 Appendix I A table showing figures relating to the 137 Sunday School in Parish of Waikari from 1904 to 1907 A table showing the number of services 138 each month at the parish centres in the Parish of Waikari from May 1904 to August 1907 A table showing the number of 140 confirmations in the Parish of Prebbleton from 1908 to 1911 A table showing the number of theological 141 students and then the total number of students at College House during Wilford’s time from 1913 to 1932. A table showing the total number of students 142 at College House during Carrington’s time from 1902 to 1912 A table showing the total number of students 143 at College House during Parr’s time from 1933 to 1949 Bibliography 144 1 Introduction I originally became interested in Canon John Russell Wilford after finding brief references to him in both Colin Brown’s book on the history of Christ Church Cathedral1 and John Cookson’s chapter ‘Pilgrim’s Progress – Image, Identity and Myth in Christchurch’ in Southern Capital, Christchurch.2 Cookson, in particular, asked an interesting question about Wilford: ‘How important Wilford was as an architect of social memory would be interesting to know.’3 At that stage I was searching for a thesis topic and began to wonder whether Wilford would be a good figure to study because there did not appear to be much known about him in relation to Christchurch’s history. I first needed to find out more about him and what he was known for. I could not locate any other recent secondary literature that mentioned him but was able to find out that he had written about his experiences in New Zealand in two works entitled, Southern Cross and Evening Star and Faith Moves Mountains, written by Wilford in retirement in England. Fortunately I had access to both of these works as they were held in the University of Canterbury library. I was even able to purchase my own copy of Southern Cross and Evening Star at a second hand book sale. St George’s hospital also kindly sent me a photocopy of Faith Moves Mountains. As I read these two works about Wilford I was struck by the faith and the enthusiasm of the man, which I found to be inspiring. I was particularly interested in his commitment to education. I was amazed at how much he managed to do during his twenty-eight years in New Zealand, especially in the areas of education and 1 Colin Brown, Vision and Reality Christchurch’s Cathedral in the Square, (Christchurch: Christ Church Cathedral Chapter, 2000), pp. 91-3 2 John Cookson, ‘Pilgrims’ Progress- Image, Identity and Myth in Christchurch’, in John Cookson and Graeme Dunstall ed., Southern Capital Christchurch, (Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2000), p. 34 3 Cookson, p. 34 1 2 healthcare. I believe that he is a significant and interesting figure in the development of Christchurch as a city not only because of his role as founder of St George’s hospital but also because of the work he did as Principal of College House. I do believe that Wilford today is not as well known as he should be, although hopefully this thesis as well as the new wing named after him at St George’s will play some role in changing this. I used a variety of other primary sources in my research of Wilford apart from his own autobiographies. The Archives of the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch held valuable information about his parish ministry including vestry minutes, service records and the Diocesan newsletter, The New Zealand Church News. The Christ’s College Archive also held excellent records about Wilford’s time at College House including the minutes of the Christ’s College Board of Governors that was responsible for running College House. One of the most interesting sources I found in these archives was a series of letters between some of the members of the Board about Wilford and their views on his vision for College House. I was also able to visit St George’s Hospital to examine their archival material and found a number of documents that were important to my chapter on the hospital. These included some of the St George’s Hospital Executive minutes dating from the 1920s during the fundraising campaign. There were also some personal documents in the collection that were useful, especially two letters written by Wilford late in his life. In these letters he reflects on St George’s and shares some interesting insights into why he believed it to be a success. There were also two accounts written by an anonymous author about the St George’s campaign. One of these was of particular interest to me as it showed the positive impact Wilford had on some people around him. This 2 3 formed an interesting contrast to the letters of the Board members who were finding Wilford difficult at that point in time. The University of Canterbury Library, especially the Macmillan Brown Library, was also useful during my research. I found some excellent primary sources in the Macmillan Brown, including the New Zealand Misericordia, which was the newsletter for St George’s. I was also able to access there the Christchurch newspapers of Wilford’s day, The Press being the most useful, which provided good information into all aspects of Wilford’s life.