First Presbyterian Church, Samray

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The church in 2014 Samray Church, Bangkok 1 2.jpg
The church in 2014

The First Presbyterian Church, Samray is the oldest Protestant church in the Thai capital Bangkok. Originally founded in 1849, the church was built in its current location on the western bank of the Chao Phraya River in 1857. The present building dates to 1910.

Thailand Constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia

Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and formerly known as Siam, is a country at the center of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula composed of 76 provinces. At 513,120 km2 (198,120 sq mi) and over 68 million people, Thailand is the world's 50th largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the most recent coup in 2014 established a de facto military dictatorship.

Bangkok Special administrative area in Thailand

Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand, and has a population of over eight million, or 12.6 percent of the country's population. Over fourteen million people lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok the nation's primate city, significantly dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in terms of importance.

Chao Phraya River main river in Thailand

The Chao Phraya is the major river in Thailand, with its low alluvial plain forming the centre of the country. It flows through Bangkok and then into the Gulf of Thailand.

Contents

History

The first American Presbyterian missionaries, William P. Buell and his wife, arrived in Bangkok in 1840, but left in 1844 after Mrs Buell became paralysed from illness. The next group of missionaries, Stephen Mattoon and his wife and Samuel Reynolds House, arrived in 1847. They settled near the area of Kudi Chin, where earlier Protestant missionaries, including Dan Beach Bradley, were already living. They were joined in 1849 by Stephen Bush and his wife. The same year, the missionaries met to establish a congregation, naming it the First Presbyterian Church, Bangkok. Without a dedicated church building, they continued to worship in their homes. In 1852, they built a school, which is considered the first formal school in the country and is now Bangkok Christian College. [1]

Presbyterian Mission Agency

Presbyterian Mission Agency is the world mission arm of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the ministry and mission agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Founded as the Western Foreign Missionary Society by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1837, it was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty and to India in nineteenth century. Also known as the Foreign Missions Board in China, its name was changed by the Old School body during the Old School–New School Controversy to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.

Stephen Mattoon American missionary

Stephen Mattoon was an American Presbyterian missionary who worked in Siam from 1847 to 1864. His works include the translation of the New Testament into the Thai language.

Kudi Chin

Kudi Chin or Kadi Chin (กะดีจีน), also spelled "Kudee Jeen", is a historic neighbourhood in Bangkok. It is in Thon Buri District, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, south of Bangkok Yai Canal. The neighbourhood, dating to the Ayutthaya period, includes communities of several faiths living in close proximity. Today, it is best known for the Catholic community around Santa Cruz Church, but the wider neighbourhood also includes the areas around Wat Kanlayanamit, Kudi Khao Mosque, and the Chinese Kuan An Keng Shrine. Conservation and revitalization efforts beginning in 2008 have made the neighbourhood a cultural tourism destination.

In 1857, the missionaries relocated to a plot of land in the Samre (or Samray, Thai : สำเหร่) area further down the river (now Samre Subdistrict of Thonburi District). Mattoon had previously acquired the land, then a faraway wilderness, on behalf of David O. King, an American merchant based in Shanghai. King's business subsequently went bankrupt, leaving Mattoon with the land. [1] A church building was built from 1860 to 1862, with donations from foreign merchants, sailors and missionaries, as well as funds from the American government (construction was delayed by the American Civil War). [2]

Thai language language spoken in Thailand

Thai, Central Thai or Ayutthaya or Siamese, is the sole official and national language of Thailand and the first language of the Central Thai people and vast majority of Thai of Chinese origin. It is a member of the Tai group of the Kra–Dai language family. Over half of Thai vocabulary is derived from or borrowed from Pali, Sanskrit, Mon and Old Khmer. It is a tonal and analytic language.

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

The original church building was consecrated on 25 May 1862. By the turn of the century, the congregation had outgrown the building, and the church was rebuilt to the original style in 1910. The bell tower was built in 1912. The church has since been in continued use, with periodical restorations. [2]

Architecture

The church is a single-storey structure, built of masonry with load-bearing walls. It has a rectangular floor plan, three column-spans wide and six spans long. The façade, which faces the river to the east, features flower-patterned stucco work on the gable, which is above a portico recessed behind three arches. The simple gable roof is supported by a wooden structure. The building received the ASA Architectural Conservation Award in 2004. [2]

The Architectural Conservation Award is given by the Association of Siamese Architects in recognition of architectural conservation efforts by both the public and private sectors in Thailand. The awards, first given in 1982 and held annually since 2004, are presented to multiple winners in three categories, namely: buildings, people/organizations, and vernacular communities.

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References

  1. 1 2 "กว่าจะเป็น..สำเหร่ในวันนี้ (History)". The First Presbyterian Church, Samray (1849) (in Thai). Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 ชนาภา ดิษฐปัญญา (8 September 2016). "The 1st Presbyterian Church, Samre". asaconservationaward.com (in Thai and English). Association of Siamese Architects. Retrieved 8 January 2019.

Coordinates: 13°42′19″N100°29′39″E / 13.70528°N 100.49417°E / 13.70528; 100.49417

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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