Almighty God, who didst call thy faithful servants John Coleridge Patteson and his companions to be witnesses and martyrs in the islands of Melanesia, and by their labors and sufferings didst raise up a people for thine own possession: Pour forth thy Holy Spirit upon thy Church in every land, that by the service and sacrifice of many, thy holy Name may be glorified and thy kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
My wife grew up in Papua New Guinea, where her parents were Wycliffe Bible Translators, so we have a special interest in this tropical part of the world. When +Patteson was made the first bishop of “Melanesia,” the South Pacific islands were still filled with primitive pagans far beyond the influence of European civilization. When the missionary bishop and his companions were killed in 1871, he became (I think) the first Anglican bishop to die for his faith in trying to evangelize a pagan area (+Hannington came over a decade later in Uganda). I may be wrong, but if my memory is correct, +Patteson has the unique distinction of being the only Anglican bishop who was not only martyred, but actually eaten by those who killed him (cannibalism was common in that area back then). I’m sorry if that upsetting point is deemed unsuitable for a public blog like this.
David Handy+