Bishop George Merrick LongPrint Page

St Christopher's Chapel also known as the Children`s Chapel is a memorial to Bishop George Merrick Long who was Bishop of Newcastle from 1928-1930. The wood in the Chapel is Queensland silky oak and was carved locally. The reredos depicts two scenes from the life of St Christopher and was painted by the English Artist, Daphne Allen.

In December 1927 Long was elected bishop of Newcastle and enthroned on 1 May 1928. He had a sensitive knowledge of economic and industrial issues and was popular with the mining unions on the Newcastle coalfields. He had retained his connexion with the Australian Military Forces where he was chaplain and honorary captain in World War 1 and in 1929 was appointed chaplain-general. In March 1930 he sailed for England to attend the Lambeth Conference in London, but suffered a cerebral haemorrhage after its opening session and died on 9 July in St Thomas's Hospital. His requiem was celebrated by Archbishop Cosmo Lang before 300 bishops, and his ashes were brought back to New South Wales and placed in All Saints Cathedral, Bathurst. St Christopher's chapel in Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, is his memorial, and a window of its Tyrrell chapel contains his portrait.

Newcastle, Sunday. The Dean of Newcastle (Very Rev. W. H. Johnson) this morning dedicated a children's chapel in the Newcastle Cathedral in memory of Dr. George Merrick Long, who died in England three years ago today while attending the Lambeth Conference as Bishop of Newcastle. The altar canopy and panelling of the chapel, all of Queensland silky oak, were designed by Mr. F. G. Castleden, and executed by Mr. W. Fraser. In the occasional sermon, Dean Johnson said that Bishop Long had laboured greatly for the Church of England and for the Australian nation. His life had illustrated the fact that when the human spirit came under the influence of Christ it craved the exaltation of noble service and self-sacrifice. The world today needed men and women of that spirit. To save civilisation from disaster, not only lives of individuals, but social life, industrial life, and economic life must be made to comply with the ethical principles of Jesus Christ. The spirit of Christ was moving in human life to-day, challenging men to a great crusade for personal and social righteousness. Those who would heed that challenge could not do better than follow the example of his own dear friend and beloved Bishop—the late George Merrick Long.
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 10 July 1933.

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