God's Gentlemen

Download or read book God's Gentlemen written by David Hilliard and published by University of Queensland Press(Australia). This book was released on 2013-05 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Hilliard's God's Gentlemen, originally published in 1978, remains the only detached and detailed historical analysis of the work of the Melanesian Mission. Starting with its New Zealand beginnings and its Norfolk Island years (1867-1920), the work follows the Mission's shift of headquarters to the Solomon Islands and on until the beginning of the Second World War. The Mission, which grew out of the personal vision of the first Church of England Bishop of New Zealand, George Selwyn, formally defined its field of work as 'the Islands of Melanesia' although its activities were confined almo.