David Hand (bishop)

The Most Reverend
David Hand
Primate of Papua New Guinea, Bishop of Port Moresby
Church Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
See Port Moresby
In office 1977–1983
Orders
Ordination 1943
Consecration 1950
Personal details
Born 11 May 1918
Clermont, Queensland, Australia
Died 6 April 2006
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Previous post Bishop of Papua New Guinea

Geoffrey David Hand KBE GCL (11 May 1918 – 6 April 2006) was an Australian-born Papua New Guinean Anglican bishop. He was the first Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea.

Childhood and education

Hand was born in 1918 in Clermont, Queensland, Australia, where his English father, the Reverend William Thomas Hand, was the rector of Clermont.[1] He had two older brothers, Peter and Eustace, both of whom also became priests.[1] When he was four, the family returned to England with his father taking up a country parish in Tatterford, Norfolk. Hand grew up there and was educated at Gresham's School, Holt (where he was an organ scholar) from 1932 to 1937) and then at Oriel College, Oxford University, from 1938 to 1941, when he received a degree in history before training for ordination at Ripon Theological College, Cuddesdon (1941–1942).[1] He never married, remaining a celibate Anglo-Catholic missionary in the tradition of the Oxford Movement, like Trevor Huddleston.[1][2]

Career

Ordained a deacon in 1942, Hand became a curate at Heckmondwike in Yorkshire in the north of England and was ordained a priest in 1943. He stayed at Heckmondwike until 1946, when he decided to move to Papua New Guinea, inspired by the life and death of the Reverend Vivian Redlich, a missionary killed there during World War II.

Hand arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1946[2] and spent sixty of his eighty-seven years there.[1] When he became a bishop in 1950, he was the youngest bishop in the Anglican Communion, aged 32.[2]

Hand was usually seen as an eccentric, whose usual outfit consisted of a loose shirt, shorts, "sensible shoes" and a wooden cross.[1] He told an Australian journalist in 1972 that "The secret of life in the tropics is Johnson's Baby Powder, lots of it."[1] He could dress more grandly for solemn occasions. During a visit to Papua New Guinea, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh took him for a Roman Catholic bishop. Hand said that he was "Church of England", but Philip asked: "Are you sure?"[1]

Hand was one of the few bishops of the modern world who had walked through equatorial jungle and climbed mountains to find people who had never before had contact with the outside world. In pursuit of publicity to gain support for his diocese, he employed a press officer, Susan Young, who smoked cheroots and flew a plane.[1]

Independence

When Papua New Guinea became independent in September 1975 (British and German New Guinea both having been administered by Australia from 1905 and 1914 respectively), Hand was the first European to apply for citizenship.[1] In 1977 he became the first Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea. He received several honours, including a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth, the highest rank (Grand Companion) in Papua New Guinea's Order of the Logohu and the title of Chief of the Orokaiva people.[2]

Hand ended his time as archbishop in 1983 at the retirement age of 65[2] and was succeeded by George Ambo.[3] He then spent two years as the parish priest of his childhood village of Tatterford in Norfolk, where he was still remembered. However, he missed Papua New Guinea and returned, settling in Port Moresby[2] where he wrote his memoirs (and a newspaper column) and headed the local censorship board. When he died in Port Moresby in 2006, he was buried at the Cathedral of the Resurrection, Popondetta. His funeral was delayed, as his coffin was found to be too big for his grave.[1]

Ministry positions

Honours

Autobiography

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 God's colourful and inspirational soldier Obituary at the Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April 2006 (accessed 21 October 2007)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Obituary at Papua New Guinea Association (accessed 21 October 2007)
  3. ↑ "Ambo a man of two worlds", Post Courier, 11 July 2008

External links

Anglican Communion titles
Preceded by
new title		 Primate of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
1977–1983 		Succeeded by
George Ambo
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