Anglican missionary presence on Haida islands began in 1876 with the arrival of William Henry Collison (1847-1922). For an account of contemporary Anglican missionary life in the Queen Charlotte Islands region by Collinson himself, see In the Wake of the War Canoe (1915).

This translation of parts of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, believed to be the only Anglican liturgical translation into Haida, was prepared by John Henry Keen (1852-1950). After training at the Church Missionary Society College in Islington, Keen was ordained for service at Moose Fort, Ontario, in the Diocese of Moosonee. He served here for seven years, returning to London for two curacies between 1882 and 1890. Keen returned to North America in 1890, when he took over the CMS missionary station at Masset, Graham Island, British Columbia. It was here that he began his Haida language study, remaining for eight years until a furlough in England "as [he and his wife] had experienced the isolation of island life very intensely". On returning to Canada, the Keens began a ministry at Metlakatla, British Columbia, where they remained from 1899 to 1913. An accomplished entomologist, ornithologist and linguist, Keen published a Grammar of the Haida Language and translations of portions of the Bible into Haida. Today there a number of ways to write Haida, all of which are considerably different than that used here.