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ROBERT GRAY (1809-1872)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 392 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROBERT See also:GRAY (1809-1872)  , first See also:bishop of Cape See also:Town and See also:metropolitan of See also:South See also:Africa, was See also:born at Bishop Wearmouth, See also:Durham, and was the son of See also:Robert See also:Gray, bishop of See also:Bristol . He was educated at See also:Eton and See also:Oxford, and took orders in 1833 . After holding the livings of See also:Whitworth, Durham, 1834-1845, and See also:Stockton-on-See also:Tees 1845-1847, he was consecrated bishop of Cape Town in 1847; the bishopric having been endowed through the liberality of See also:Miss (afterwards Baroness) See also:Burdett-See also:Coutts . Until 1853 he was a See also:suffragan of See also:Canterbury, but in that See also:year he formally resigned his see and was reappointed by letters patent metropolitan of South Africa in view of the contemplated See also:establishment of the suffragan dioceses of See also:Graham's Town and See also:Natal . In that capacity his coercive See also:jurisdiction was twice called in question, and in each See also:case the judicial See also:committee of the privy See also:council decided against him . The best-known case is that of Bishop See also:Colenso, whom Gray deposed and excommunicated in 1863, The spiritual validity of the See also:sentence was upheld by the See also:convocation of Canterbury and the See also:Pan-See also:Anglican See also:synod of 1867, but legally Colenso remained bishop of Natal . The privy council decisions declared, in effect, that the Anglican See also:body in South Africa was on the footing of a voluntary religious society . Gray, accepting this position, obtained its recognition by the See also:mother See also:church as the Church of the See also:Province of South Africa, in full communion with the Church of See also:England . The first provincial synod was held in 1870 . During his episcopate Bishop Gray effected a much-needed organization of the South See also:African church, to which he added five new bishoprics, all carved out of the See also:original See also:diocese of Cape Town . It was also chiefly owing to his suggestions that the See also:universities' See also:mission to Central Africa was founded .

End of Article: ROBERT GRAY (1809-1872)
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