John Horden
| John Horden | |
|---|---|
John Horden as bishop
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| Bishop | |
| Born | January 20, 1828 Exeter, England |
| Died | January 12, 1893 Moose Factory, Ontario |
| Venerated in | Episcopal Church (United States) |
| Feast |
12 January (Anglican Church of Canada) |
12 January (Anglican Church of Canada)
John Horden (January 20, 1828 – January 12, 1893) was the first Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, Canada, who for more than forty years led services in Cree, Inuit and other languages of his parishioners.
Horden was born in Exeter, England, the eldest son of William Horden (a printer) and Sarah Seward, and received his early schooling at St. John's School, paid for by charitable donations. He was apprenticed to a blacksmith 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 and Greek.
Horden was an active member of his local Church of England congregation (Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Exeter) 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 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.
On May 10, 1851, Horden received a letter from them, informing him that the Bishop of Rupert's Land, had made a request for a schoolmaster at Moose Factory, territory of the Hudson's Bay Company, 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. He immediately prepared for his new position. He contacted his fiancée of one year, Elizabeth Baker Oke (1826-1908), a teacher who trained at The Home and Colonial School Society (Gray’s Inn Road, London), and someone who also had missionary aspirations, and they quickly married (May 28, 1851). Horden was to assume the role of catechist, to superintend the schools and to be a scripture reader at the Sunday services. Elizabeth was charged with supervising the girl’s schools and teaching the Indian women. In London, Horden met with Reverend George Barnley, a Wesleyan Methodist missionary at Moose Factory until 1847, who introduced him to some basic Cree language and its symbolic writing.
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