TheMelanesian Mission is anAnglican missionary agency supporting the work of local Anglican churches inMelanesia.[1] It was founded in 1849 byGeorge Selwyn, the firstBishop of New Zealand.[2]
Bishop Selwyn's see was focused onNew Zealand. In December 1847 he began a series of voyages to the Pacific Islands, which were included in hisdiocese by a clerical error in hisletters patent. Hissee should have been defined as lying between 34th and 50th degrees of south latitude.[3]The clerk drafted the boundaries as lying between 34th degrees ofnorth latitude and 50th degrees of south latitude, which include islands to the north of New Zealand.[3] At the time of his appointment, Selwyn was aware of this clerical error, but he chose not to point it out.[3]
His letters and journals of these journeys throughMelanesia present the reader with a vivid picture of his versatility, courage, and energy. In 1849 he formed the Melanesian Mission to work in the Western Pacific.[4][5][6]
TheUndine, a small 21-tonschooner, serviced the mission from 1849 to 1857. In 1854, Selwyn commissioned the construction of a 100-ton schooner, theSouthern Cross[7][8][9] to service the mission and enlistedJohn Coleridge Patteson to lead the mission. His voyages and the administrative work resulted in 1861 in the consecration of Patteson as the firstBishop of Melanesia.
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In 1867, the Mission established St Barnabas College onNorfolk Island, as a church and training centre for missionaries.[6] The Melanesian Mission established an administrative centre onMota island in theBanks Islands (now part ofVanuatu) and theMota language became thelingua franca of the mission.[6]
The missionaries included:
Today it continues to provide financial and staffing support for theAnglican Church of Melanesia, an independent province of theAnglican Communion.[18] Its headquarters are inFeniton,Devon.[19]
