John Horden was the first Anglican Bishop of Moosonee

Anglican Diocese of Moosonee

The Anglican Diocese of Moosonee is a diocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario of the Anglican Church of Canada. Now headquartered in Timmins, Ontario it was originally headquartered in Moose Factory. Its first bishop was the Right Rev. John Horden....

. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Episcopal Church (USA)

Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church in the United States of America)

The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early Church which honors important people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term "saint" is similar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Those in the Anglo-Catholic tradition may...

 and in the Calendar of Saints

Calendar of saints (Anglican Church of Canada)

Prior to the revision of the Anglican Church of Canada's Book of Common Prayer in 1962, the national church followed the liturgical calendar of the 1918 Canadian Book of Common Prayer...

 of the Anglican Church of Canada

Anglican Church of Canada

The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...

.

Early life

Horder was born in Exeter

Exeter

Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, and received his early schooling at St. John's School there. He was apprenticed

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...

 to a blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

 while still a child, spending his spare time improving his education. By attending night school and studying during odd moments, he was in time able to become a teacher and schoolmaster. He took advantage of the opportunities to study given him there and eventually learned to read Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

.

He was also an active member of his local Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 congregation and regularly attended the vicar's Bible class, which offered information on the mission opportunities available in addition to a Biblical education. With two other students, he expressed his interest in the mission field and they met to pray and study. After some time they all volunteered for the Church Missionary Society

Church Mission Society

The Church Mission Society, also known as the Church Missionary Society, is a group of evangelistic societies working with the Anglican Communion and Protestant Christians around the world...

 and two were accepted. Horden was rejected and told that he was still thought too young to be a church leader in "heathen" areas. He was, however, encouraged to continue his schooling and was told that he would hear from the Society when they needed someone.

Arrival in Canada

On May 10, 1851, Hordern received a letter from them, informing him that the Bishop of Rupert's Land

Rupert's Land

Rupert's Land, or Prince Rupert's Land, was a territory in British North America, consisting of the Hudson Bay drainage basin that was nominally owned by the Hudson's Bay Company for 200 years from 1670 to 1870, although numerous aboriginal groups lived in the same territory and disputed the...

 had made a request for a schoolmaster at Moose Factory, Ontario

Moose Factory, Ontario

Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in Ontario and the second Hudson's Bay Company post to be set up in North...

 and that he had been appointed to fill the position. They also told him to prepare to leave within a month and indicated that they desired that he marry and take his wife out to assist him in his missionary work. Although he was less than enthused about the appointment, he immediately prepared for his new position. He contacted the woman of his choice, a young woman who herself had missionary inclinations, and she agreed to marry him. On June 8, 1851, they set sail for Canada.

Horden spent much of his time on the trip by continuing his studies of the Greek Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

 and beginning the study of the Cree language

Cree language

Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...

. He benefited from the prior experience of several of the crew of the ship with the language and had developed a small vocabulary by the end of the voyage.

The ship arrived at Moose River

Moose River (Ontario)

The Moose River is a Canadian river in the Hudson Plains ecozone of northern Ontario which flows 100 km northeast from the junction of the Mattagami and Missinaibi Rivers into James Bay. Its drainage basin is 108,500 km² and it has a mean discharge rate of 1370 m³/s. Its full length...

 on August 26 and the passengers were delivered to Moose Factory. Horden immediately engaged a young native

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

 in conversation, making several mistakes initially. He found that prior missionaries had already created a translation of the Lord's Prayer

Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...

 and a few biblical texts, and he used the existing transliteration system to help him in his own studies.

He continued to go among the natives, writing down new words as he heard them and, after eight month's effort, becoming able to preach to the natives without an interpreter. He was ordained

Ordination

In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...

 a priest during this period. He went on to create his own version of the Lord's Prayer, later going on to translating the Apostle's Creed, the Ten Commandments

Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...

, some prayers from services, a few hymns, and some passages of scripture, all of which he copied and circulated among the natives. He used the opportunity he had at the mission school to teach the adults and children how to read and write, and the fundamentals of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

. His previous work as a schoolmaster, along with valuable assistance from his wife, worked to make the school a great success and pronounced influence in the local community.

Horden also worked to address the spiritual needs of the staff of the Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 at Moose Factory. They were very grateful, and built the church, schoolhouse, and residence he and his family would use.

Cree Bible

Soon Horden had prepared a prayer book

Prayer book

A 'prayer book' is a book outlining the 'liturgy' of religious services.In this sense, it may carry the following specific names in various religions:*Breviary or Missal, in Roman Catholicism*Agenda , in Lutheranism...

, a hymnal

Hymnal

Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymns, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity...

, and translations of the Gospel

Gospel

A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...

s in the Cree language, and sent them to England with an order for a thousand copies. The printer had no proofreader

Proofreading

Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or computer monitor to detect and correct production-errors of text or art. Proofreaders are expected to be consistently accurate by default because they occupy the last stage of typographic production before publication.-Traditional method:A proof is...

 capable of reading the print, and decided the person who created the manuscript would probably be best qualified to check it. On that basis, they returned the manuscript to him, with a printing press

Printing press

A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...

 specially prepared. However, they forgot to include the instructions on how to operate it.

Horden spent his free time studying the mechanism and operation of the machine for several days, leading his neighbors to wonder what was bothering him. Then one day he came running to the camp waving a sheet of paper over his head, shouting, "Come, see this thing!" They followed him and saw the first sheet Horden had printed. Horden proudly told them that he would now be able to give them books. For the next several years, he and his students printed and bound books which were distributed throughout the region, substantially increasing the awareness of and interest in Christianity in the area.

Then in 1865, Horden and his family, which now included five children that he and his wife had had in Canada, sailed back to England so that his children could be educated, and Thomas Vincent was placed in charge of the mission. Upon Horden's return to England, he found he was very well known throughout the British Isles, and became a popular and sought-after speaker.

In 1867, Horden returned with his wife to James' Bay. Bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 Robert Machray

Robert Machray

Robert Machray was a Church of England clergyman and missionary and the first Primate of the Church of England in Canada.-Life:...

 visited the area and was very impressed by Horden's achievements. He licensed four of Horden's lay reader

Lay Reader

A lay reader is a layperson authorized by a bishop of the Anglican Church to read some parts of a service of worship. They are members of the congregation called to preach or lead services, but not called to full-time ministry.Anglican lay readers are licensed by the bishop to a particular parish...

s to conduct services and read the Scriptures among their fellows, the first time a bishop licensed lay readers in any of the stations of the Church Missionary Society.

Consecration

In the autumn of 1872, Horden received a message to return to England to be consecrated as a bishop, and on December 15, 1872, he and two others were ordained in a ceremony involving eight other bishops, including Bishop Anderson, who had first ordained Horden 20 years earlier.

He continued to serve as bishop of his huge territory, making pastoral visits to as many parts of his huge diocese as possible, despite his having a serious problem with rheumatism

Rheumatism

Rheumatism or rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the joints and connective tissue. The study of, and therapeutic interventions in, such disorders is called rheumatology.-Terminology:...

. In his later years, he also worked diligently to finish his translation of the Bible into the Cree language.

On November 21, 1892, the pain was more acute than ever, and despite the care and assistance of his family, his health continued to wane. He died on January 12, 1893.

See also

• St. Thomas' Anglican Church (Moose Factory, Ontario)
  St. Thomas' Anglican Church (Moose Factory, Ontario)
  St. Thomas' Anglican Church is an historic Carpenter Gothic style Anglican church edifice built by the Hudson's Bay Company in Moose Factory, Ontario, Canada.-History:Construction began in 1864 but was not completed until 1885. St...
  
  

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Bibliographic directory of works translated by and about Horden from Project Canterbury
  Project Canterbury
  Project Canterbury is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999, and is hosted by the non-profit Society of Archbishop Justus...
  
  

• Virtual American Biographies page on John Horden