Florida was the name given to a small group of about 50 islands in Central Melanesia by Spanish explorers who first visited it in the late sixteenth century. Today the major island of this group, formerly called simply Florida Island, is known more accurately as Nggela Sule. About 12,000 people here, most of them Anglicans, speak a major local language called Nggela or Gela or Florida.

Two translations are given here: the first dates from 1882 and contains the more important services in the Book of Common Prayer, while the second is a 1971 translation of the Communion service from the current Prayer Book for Melanesia.

The translator of the ealier (1882) book is incorrectly identified by both David Griffiths, in his Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, and also by Muss-Arnolt as Edward Gorton Penny (1824-1891), an English priest who served parishes in New Zealand. The translator was in fact Alfred Penny (1845-1935), a priest of the Melanesian Mission from 1875 to 1886. The latter Penny’s Ten Years in Melanesia (1888) gives a first-hand account of his missionary and educational work on Florida island; his translation of the Gospels and Acts into Florida is available online through GoogleBooks. Penny spent the last 50 years of his long life as a parish priest in western England and as canon of Lichfield Cathedral. This translation was published in 1882 and is listed as 39:3 in David Griffiths’ Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer 1549-1999.

Subsequent Anglican liturgical translations into Florida/Gela have been published in 1906, 1939, 1943, 1949, 1964, and 1971 (see below right for the 1971 text).

1882 text

NA LEI KOKOELIULIVUTI.

PRAYERS IN THE FLORIDA LANGUAGE.

LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE;
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET; 48, PICCADILLY;
AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON.
[1882]

Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer 1-16
The Litany 17-22
Prayers and Thanksgivings 23-28
Collects, Epistles and Gospels 29-54
Selected Psalms 55-104

[Psalms 2, 8, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 39, 47, 50, 51, 53, 77, 87, 90, 96, 97, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 110, 113, 114, 115, 118, 121, 122, 130, 135, 136, 139, 143, 145, 146, 148.]

Holy Communion 105-125
Baptism 126-135
Catechism 136-141