Charles Fox			 September 6
Scholar, Missionary
Charles Elliot Fox was one of the most outstanding members of the Melanesian Mission. A missionary, historian and anthropologist, he served the Anglican Church in Melanesia for over seventy years of his very long life.
He was born in Stalbridge, Dorset, England in 1878 and came to New Zealand with his parents in 1884 when his father became vicar of Gisborne. Charles attended high school in Napier. While there he played cricket against a team from Norfolk Island, brought to New Zealand by Bishop Cecil Wilson of Melanesia. Fox conceived the idea of joining the Melanesian Mission, and did so in 1902. In the meantime he had completed a degree in geology in Auckland.
Fox had never enjoyed robust health, so initially he was sent not to Melanesia but to St Barnabas’ College, Norfolk Island. He was ordained by Bishop Wilson in 1903, and in 1911 finally gained permission to go to the Solomon Islands. He was sent to set up a boys’ school at Pamua on San Cristobal. From then on he lived in the Solomon Islands, apart from brief intervals, till his return to New Zealand in 1973.
He served in various parts of the Solomon Islands and in various capacities: as district missionary, headmaster, labourer, and for eleven years (1932-1943) as the only European member of the Melanesian Brotherhood. At an earlier date he had already demonstrated his sense of identity with the Melanesian people by exchanging names and situation with a young chief of the Arosi tribe on San Cristobal. During the Second World War he was a coast-watcher, successfully evading capture by the Japanese through his intimate knowledge of the terrain and the loyalty of the Melanesian people.
He was an expert in Melanesian languages, publishing several dictionaries. He published a pioneer study of the people and culture of San Cristobal, The Threshold of the Pacific, for which he was awarded a D.Litt. in 1922. He also translated the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. He wrote a history of the Melanesian Mission, Lord of the Southern Isles, and a charming account of his own work, Kakamora. He was awarded the MBE in 1952 and the CBE in 1974. In 1932 he was asked to become the seventh bishop of Melanesia, but that invitation he declined.
By the time he left the Solomon Islands in 1973, he had become a legend in his own lifetime. So closely had he identified with the work of the mission, that he regarded himself as a Melanesian. Even in his final years in New Zealand, he maintained a voluminous correspondence with the people he had worked with for so long. For them he was a man of immense mana, both for his acceptance of Melanesian culture and customs as an entirely adequate vehicle for the gospel, and because he sought no power for himself and was entirely free of paternalism.
Fox died on 28 October 1977. At his own request his funeral service was held in Honiara, and he was buried at Tabalia, the home of the Melanesian Brotherhood.
For further reading:
C.E. Fox, Kakamora, London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1962.
Obituaries in The Journal of Pacific History, 13(1978), page 74-75; and Pacific Islands Monthly, February, 1978, page 33.
For Liturgical Use
Charles Elliot Fox was born in 1878 and joined the Melanesian Mission in 1902. He served with the mission in various capacities for over seventy years. A man of scholarship, courage, generosity of spirit, and humility, his influence on the education and spiritual life of Melanesia was unequalled. His work among the villages during World War II was legendary. He wrote on Melanesian culture and history, and did much translation work. His sense of identity with the Melanesian people was marked by his spending eleven years as a member of the Melanesian Brotherhood. He died in 1977.
Sentence
If I take the wings of the dawn, and alight at the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, O Lord, your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me fast.	Psalm 139:8,9
Collects
Loving God, 
for whom the isles wait,
we thank you for your servant Charles Elliot Fox,
whose brilliance and spirit 
enlivened your church in Melanesia;
help us, like him, to be steadfast in hope,
patient in suffering,
and enquiring in mind,
true disciples of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
God of the vast Pacific and of its many islands,
blessed are you in Charles the scholar missionary;
may the church he fostered,
voyage after voyage, year upon year,
go on from strength to strength.
Psalms	33:1-12	89:8-18
Readings
Isaiah 24:13-16a		The islands praise the Lord
1 Peter 4:7-11		Serve others
Matthew 13:47-52		Treasures new and old
Post Communion Sentence
As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. 		2 Timothy 4:5