Extract from the Diocesan College Magazine, December 1953

“The other gift is this very beautiful pulpit. The design in the panels of it is the same as that on the altar – the abbreviated Chi RO, which represents the name of Christ, and the stylized palms which are the symbols of Christian victory. We owe this most generous gift to Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Yearsley, who have given the pulpit in memory of their son, John Langworthy Yearsley. John Yearsley was at Bishops from 1939-44. The pulpit is a particularly appropriate memorial to John Yearsley because of his interest in and his enthusiasm for teaching. Whilst at Bishops he taught in the African night school, and after leaving school did pioneer work in the Peninsula night school movement. He gave up a promising business career in order to qualify himself as a schoolmaster. Whilst still a student at the University of Cape Town he was-involved in a motor-bicycle accident from which he never recovered.”

Extract from the Editorial, DC Magazine, April 1966

There may be some who, while admiring our new pulpit, have been somewhat puzzled by the designs with which it is decorated. They are all Christian symbols of considerable antiquity.

Immediately below the reading-desk appears a monogram consisting of the first two letters of the name CHRIST in Greek. It reminds us of St. Paul’s words: “We preach – not ourselves but Christ Jesus”.

Below this is the central mosaic, showing the descending Dove – the symbol of the Holy Spirit – above the Cross of Christ.

The other four panels show the heads of a lion, an ox, a man and an eagle each surrounded by six wings. The reference is to the Book of Revelation, chapter 4, verse 7. Since the time of St. Irenaeus in the 2nd century, these four “living creatures” have been identified with the four Gospel writers.

Which symbol represented which evangelist was disputed for centuries ‘but from the time of St. Jerome the following explanation was generally accepted: “The man applies to St. Matthew, because his Gospel deals particularly with the human nature of Our Lord; the lion to St. Mark, because he is termed the historian of the ‘Resurrection of which doctrine the lion is the emblem, from the legend that it was born dead and after some days licked into life by its parents; the calf to St. Luke, because being the emblem of sacrifice is the sign of a priest and St. Luke especially dwells on the priestly character of Our Lord; the eagle to St. John, because as the eagle soars highest among birds and looks undimmed at the sun so St. John soars upward beyond all other writers in setting forth the divine nature of Our Lord”

Extract from the Principal’s Annual Report (1965), carried in the DC Magazine,  April 1966

On the first Sunday of next term His Grace the Archbishop will dedicate the new pulpit, at present being installed as a memorial to Mr. A. B. McDonald.