George Augustus Selwyn was born on April 5th, 1809, at Hampstead, London. He was educated at Eton, and in 1831 graduated from St. John’s College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow.

Ordained in 1833, Selwyn served as a curate at Windsor until his selection as the first Bishop of New Zealand in 1841. On the voyage to his new field, he mastered the Maori language and was able to preach in it upon his arrival. In the tragic ten-year war between the English and the Maoris, Selwyn was able to minister to both sides and to keep the affection and admiration of both the Maori and colonists. He began missionary work in the Pacific islands in 1847.

In addition to learning the Maori language and customs, Selwyn became an accomplished navigator, cartographer, and sailor in order to spread the gospel through the Pacific Islands. Reportedly, a sailor once noted, “To see the bishop handle a boat was almost enough to make a man a Christian.”

Selwyn’s first general synod in 1859 laid down a constitution, influenced by that of the Episcopal Church, which became important for all English colonial churches.

After the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, Selwyn was reluctantly persuaded to accept the See of Lichfield in England. He died on April 11th, 1878, and his grave in the cathedral close has become a place of pilgrimage for the Maoris to whom he first brought the light of the gospel.

Bishop Selwyn twice visited the Episcopal Church in the United States, and was the preacher at the 1874 General Convention.