Founder of the Fellowship,
the Rev William Orange
William Orange could be described as the father of the Anglican evangelical movement in Christchurch. He was among the founders of the Evangelical Churchmen's Fellowship in 1946 (now Latimer Fellowship).
The aim of the Fellowship was to encourage evangelical thought amongst Anglicans throughout New Zealand. Still the Fellowships' aim today.
The Fellowship
You're a thoughtful evangelical, interested in Anglican issues here in New Zealand and abroad?
Excellent!
We're an Anglican fellowship which encourages and supports evangelical thought and comment among New Zealand Anglicans. Join us. Read our comment on current Anglican issues.
Welcome to Latimer!
You can receive fellowship, resources and training opportunities from the Latimer Fellowship and we'd like to be in contact with you. Take our free newsletter. Each issue has resources and ideas you'll find encouraging and helpful. And it will let you keep in touch with other evangelicals around the country.
New Zealand has an evangelical heritage we're proud of, and the earliest missionaries here brought a bicultural gospel vision which we want to foster today. These things are at the core of the Latimer Fellowship.
Be informed the easy way
We regularly publish "Latimer Online".
This is a free email newsletter full of resources and comment that will help you engage in current Anglican issues. A must-read.
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You can get a free copy of this booklet
Get your complimentary copy of this thoughtful, 53 page booklet, "Christ's Gospel to the Nations" by the Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen.
It's a widely endorsed Latimer Trust publication with an absorbing discussion of the essential nature of evangelical theology and the place of evangelicals in the Anglican Communion past and future. An excellent read.
When you join our Fellowship you receive a complimentary copy.
Who we are
Our Fellowship began in 1946 as the Evangelical Churchmen's Fellowship.
Later, we adopted the name of the renowned preaching bishop and martyr of the English reformation, Hugh Latimer (1485-1555).
We are proudly and authentically Anglican. Join us now.
Objectives
The Objects for which the Fellowship is established are:
(a) To uphold, maintain and propagate Christian doctrines as set forth in the Holy Scriptures and embodied in A New Zealand Prayer Book, the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion.
(b) To maintain the position of the Holy Scriptures in the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (commonly hereinafter called “the Anglican Church” ) as the supreme and entirely trustworthy authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
(c) To proclaim the necessity of personal and corporate faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
(d) To encourage and promote private and public study of the Holy Scriptures.
(e) To provide an evangelical Christian contribution to the discussion of contemporary ecclesiastical, moral and social issues.
(f) To establish maintain and provide theological resources for research study and information.
(g) To sponsor encourage and support the regular provision of Christian information and study materials through electronic and print processes
(h) To support wherever practicable the work and witness of Anglican parishes.
(i) To provide scholarships foundations and grants and otherwise provide assistance and support for the encouragement of Biblical and theological research and education.
(j) To encourage and sponsor conferences meetings and visiting speakers throughout New Zealand.
The Articles of Religion
These are a classic statement of Life and Faith, "agreed upon by the Archbishops, Bishops, and the whole clergy of the Provinces of Canterbury and York, London, 1562". They are accepted by the Latimer Fellowship. Download the Thirty Nine Articles, or read them on the Latimer website.
Our office
We operate from a set of offices which we share with CMS in the center of Christchurch.
You are welcome to drop in.
Founder's story
Though the influence of William Orange's ministry was felt throughout New Zealand and further afield, especially in the mission fields of the New Zealand Church Missionary Society, his ministry was carried out almost entirely in Christchurch.
He was a modest, diffident man of small physical stature with a keen sense of humour. His gifted, anointed Bible expositions in All Saints' Church, Sumner from 1930 to 1945, week by week attracted large numbers of young men from all over the city. They found their way there by cycle and tram. Many of them entered full time ministry or became missionaries.
He was a sought after speaker at student gatherings. His style of ministry, based almost entirely on direct Bible exposition became a model for the "Orange-pips", who were influential in restoring biblical preaching to a central place in many churches.
Their influence is still felt in the lives and ministries of a large number of Christians in all denominations.
The latter years of William Orange's ministry were passed at the Christchurch Cathedral, where his preaching drew a considerable following. When he died, his Library was bequeathed to the Latimer Fellowship.
Memories of William Orange
The late Martin Sullivan wrote this obituary for Canon Orange when he was Archdeacon of London
Everybody knew him as Willie and loved him for his worth and goodness. For eleven years, whilst I was Dean of Christchurch he was my constant companion, guide and friend.
More than a generation separated us in age and yet I was never conscious of this - so youthful and forward-looking he was. Every bit of planning in the witness and worship of the Cathedral which I attempted, I first talked over with him and always he saw further than I did, and encouraged me at every step.
He was a man who constantly brought out of his treasure things new and old. There are few clergymen throughout the Anglican Communion who read more widely or deeply than he did, as his amazing private library showed. His own views were clear and well defined and yet he paid attention to every other point of view, and when he disagreed, he did so with admiration and with respect. His memory was phenomenal and in the vast recesses of his mind he stored up endless quotations and stories.
Hundreds of choristers will rise up and call him blessed. He watched over them and cared for them like a father, remembering individually their birthdays, preparing them for confirmation, gathering them around him in the library room, providing them, on cold afternoons, with books to read and cups of hot milk to keep them warm. He was ever their champion and always their devoted advocate if they ran into trouble.
As vicar of Sumner he probably did his greatest work, teaching and preaching with power to change men's lives. From that circle has emerged a vast company of priests of the Church whose hearts God first touched through Willie Orange's ministry. They came for miles to sit at his feet to learn about the things of God.
He came to Christchurch Cathedral at the invitation of Archbishop West-Watson primarily to help out in an emergency and he stayed on to adorn that lovely building by his humble and faithful ministry. He enriched its preaching immeasurably, particularly with his apt illustrations, in the art of which he was master. Many of us have stored them up on our own memories and return to them again and again for refreshment, courage, peace and light. I quote one such which I can still quote verbatim, as an indication of how, so often, he helped us. He was expounding a passage in the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 3, verses 1-7, telling of the visit of Peter and John to the Temple and their healing of a lame man.
Suddenly he pushed his notes to one side and this is what he said; "Thirty years ago, when I was assistant curate in the parish of Sydenham, and in deacon's orders, I went out one afternoon to do some parochial visiting. I began at 2 p.m. and called on several homes. I knocked on doors and was not answered, and had some shut in my face, and met a few people, and found generally that nobody seemed to want what I had to offer. I finished about 5 p.m. and went back to the church, tired and unhappy and dispirited and disappointed.
"As I stood in the vestry of the church, I heard a noise at the west door. In those days, the vestry was divided from the nave by a thin three-ply partition, in the corner of which the choir boys had bored a hole after the manner of their kind.
"I applied my eye to the hole in the wall and saw two elderly men, both regular parishioners, come into the church and walk up the aisle. They sat down in the front seat and then knelt to pray. The elder prayed out aloud. He prayed for the vicar by name, for his ministry and his work; for the sick and lonely in the parish, for the careless and fallen; and then he prayed for me, that, as I was beginning in my ministry, I should not too early feel dispirited or despondent.
"Then he ceased and together the two old men, one supporting the other, got up and went down the nave.
"Suddenly they stopped and the elder spoke again and said, 'Well, Peter and John have been up to the Temple again to pray, but there was no lame man to heal.'
"'Oh, yes there was,' said the preacher. "A young one, with his eye to the hole in the wall!'"
I believe he saw himself always as that young man, and perhaps here was the secret of his uncanny gift of coming so close to ordinary people like ourselves, who now humbly and gratefully thank God for introducing us to William Alfred Orange, priest, pastor, prophet and friend.