DIGEST

Heritage
As it was in the beginning…(xvi)
By Vernon Clegg
In 1894, the Belfast News Letter reported
that at the monthly meeting of the Diocesan
Council in Belfast, which he chaired
on March 7 1894, Bishop Welland revived
the idea of a Cathedral, previously
abandoned in the early 1860s. He was
asked to bring it up at the next meeting.
Press reports don’t mention that he did.
However, on March 20, before that meeting
was due, the Bishop informally presented
to the Select Vestry his proposal
to convert St Anne’s Parish Church into
a pro-Cathedral. Two days later, after a
specially convened meeting, the Vestry
wrote to him rejecting the idea. Their
reasoning was that it would mean handing
over to the Bishop the endowment
specially designed and subscribed for the
maintenance of the Parish Church. Also,
the Parish Church would lose its right to
appoint nominators when selecting future
vicars. Unusually, the meeting wasn’t
chaired by the vicar or his curate (neither
being present) and the chair was taken
by one of the churchwardens.
He wrote again to the Vestry asking for
the matter not to be raised at the Easter
Vestry only days away but that, if it was
raised, he had three points to make: “(1)
that the question of the vicarage is not
essential to the plan; the Vicar might
be retained with his full income and
privilege. (2) that the parish would not
be deprived of the benefit of this parish
church, and (3) that, in my opinion, the
Parish Church would be advanced in
dignity and usefulness”.
At the following Vestry meeting the
chairman, the curate the Rev John H
Mervyn, refused to confirm the minutes
of that meeting saying that it hadn’t been
properly convened. Proper or not, the
Bishop’s reply to the Vestry made it valid.
It left plenty of space between the lines:
“My Dear Sir, I beg to acknowledge the
receipt of the Resolution of St Anne’s
Select Vestry which you have kindly sent
me and which I did not see except in the
public press till today. I am, yours very
sincerely, etc”. While the Bishop would
have been disappointed with the rejection
he was also displeased by the disclosure
to the press of the Vestry’s reaction.
Thomas James Welland (above) was
born in Dublin on March 31 1830, the
son of an architect, was educated at
Trinity College, Dublin and ordained in
1854. He began his ministry as curate
at Carlow, then was vicar of Painstown
in the same diocese, and next, assistant
chaplain of the Mariners’ Church
in Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire).
He was clerical secretary of the Jews’
Society, Ireland, from 1862 to 1866 and
then assistant chaplain at Christ Church,
Dublin until 1870. He was the incumbent
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Cathedral Digest