Page:Notable South Australians.djvu/261

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OR, COLONISTS—PAST AND PRESENT.
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He was appointed president of the local church centenary gatherings in 1880, and it was through the influence he exerted that their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales were induced to be present at the opening ceremony of the bazaar in St. George's Hall in 1881. Amongst the general church work in which he has been engaged were several missions undertaken with or for the Bishop of Lichfield at Weymouth, Hull, and Edinburgh. He was also one of six clergymen chosen to conduct a "retreat" for the clergy of the diocese. Had he been desirous of improving his own. worldly means by accepting a better living, many opportunities were afforded during his six years* residence in Bradford. Amongst those who recognised his abilities were the Arch* bishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, and Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord Lieutenant of the county, who offered him the post of private chaplain and the living of ' Wentworth. He uniformly refused all offers, having, as he then stated, no ambition to leave Horton for any other parish in England. When, however, the Bishopric of Adelaide was offered him^ he considered he would be wanting in duty and courage if he shrank from the grave responsibilities and heavy labour which the acceptance of this See would entail. The honour of the preferment came entirely unsought and unexpected. The Synod of Adelaide, thinking that the vacant bishopric in which Bishop Short had exercised his episcopal functions from 1847 could be better filled up from England than from any colonial appointment, nominated five bishops there, to whom they deputed the task of choosing a successor. These five were the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, Truro, and Bedford, and their choice unanimously fell upon Dr. Kennion. He was consecrated on Nov. 30, 1882, at Westminster Abbey, by the Bishop of London; and married on December 5 in the same year Henrietta Fergusson, third daughter of Sir Chas. Fergusson, Bart., Kilkerran, Ayrshire, and sister of the Right Hon. Sir