Consecration Deed for Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett, first Bishop of Aotearoa
Papers recently received from a diocesan archive, where they had been placed for safekeeping in the 1940s, reveal the Consecration Deed for Bishop Frederick Augustus Bennett, first Bishop of Aotearoa, as well as the various declarations he had to sign as suffragan bishop to the Bishop of Waiapu. The bishops of all the New Zealand Dioceses were also signatories to the Deed.
In the same folder was a Trust deed for a gold pectoral cross. A search of newspapers for that year shows the Waiapu clergy had already arranged a gift of a pectoral cross “of gold, with a greenstone centre and with Maori ornamentation in gold. This is to be the gift of the clergy of the Waiapu Diocese, and will be a personal gift. A pectoral cross for the use of the Bishop of Aotearoa and his successors has also been presented by Mrs Crossley, wife of the late Bishop Crossley, formerly Bishop of Auckland.” (Press, 5 November 1928)
