Edward Craig Stuart (1827 – 15 March 1911) was the second

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Bishop of Waiapu The Diocese of Waiapu is one of the 13 dioceses and ''hui amorangi'' (Māori bishoprics) of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The Diocese covers the area around the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, includin ...

, whose

episcopate A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

spanned a 16-year period during the second half of the 19th century. Stuart served as a missionary under the auspices of the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

(CMS) in London , which had appointed him to serve in India and later in New Zealand.

Early life

He was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, the son of Alexander Stuart and Mary McKnight. He was educated at

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

, and

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1850. With his great friend

Valpy French Thomas Valpy French (1 January 1825 – 14 May 1891) was an English Christian Missionary in India and Persia, who became the first Bishop of Lahore, in 1877, and also founded the St. John's College, Agra, in 1853.

Vocation

Stuart worked in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

as a

CMS CMS may refer to: Computing * Call management system * CMS-2, a programming language implemented for and used by the United States Navy * Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta * Collection management system for a museum coll ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

for 21 years, first at

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

and latterly (until his appointment to the

) at

Jalalpur Jalalpur is a town, tehsil and a municipal board in Ambedkar Nagar district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Geography Jalalpur is located at . It has an average elevation of . The city is directly connected to Azamgarh, Akbarpu ...

. Recruited from came from India in 1874, Stuart, previously the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society at Calcutta, went to New Zealand for his health, and remained there, proving to be a valuable helper and adviser. At this time William Williams was Bishop, but on March 25, 1876, he was stricken with a paralytic stroke on the fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in New Zealand, which forced him to hand in his resignation as Bishop of Waiapu, where he lived for two more years. The Diocese, having the power of election under the constitution of the Church, chose Stuart to be Williams' successor. Williams was subsequently consecrated as Bishop on December 9, 1877, just twelve days before his prior fellow missionary in India in 1850, T. Valpy French, was consecrated first Bishop of Lahore. At a meeting on March 24, 1885, Stuart proposed that a Gordon Memorial Mission be built in the Eastern Soudan in honor of Major-General

Charles George Gordon Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Charles George Gordon Companion of the Order of the Bath, CB (28 January 1833 – 26 January 1885), also known as Chinese Gordon, Gordon Pasha, Gordon of Khartoum and General Gordon , was a British ...

, killed by the Ansar at Khartoum in January. Stuart's proposal was met with cheers and overwhelming support by the hundreds of people present.

Later life

On 31 January 1894 he resigned and his last calling was as a CMS missionary in Julfa, Ispahan,

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, for 15 years from 1894. Cyclopedia of New Zealand, 1908, p. 345 Church Missionary Atlas, 1896, pp. 78-80 Stuart died on 15 March 1911,"Obituary Bishop E. C. Stuart", ''The Times'', Monday, 20 March 1911; p. 11; Issue 39537; col. C, having at some point become a

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (DD or DDiv; ) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity (academic discipline), divinity (i.e., Christian theology and Christian ministry, ministry or other theologies. The term is more common in the Englis ...

(DD).

Citations

Sources

* * * * * 1827 births Clergy from Edinburgh Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Anglican bishops of Waiapu 19th-century Anglican bishops in New Zealand 1911 deaths Scottish emigrants to New Zealand Scottish Anglican missionaries Anglican missionaries in Iran Anglican missionaries in India British missionaries in Iran {{Anglican-bishop-stub