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The history of Quakerism in Sichuan (or "West China") [note 1] began in 1887 when missionaries began to arrive from the United Kingdom. Missionaries founded schools and established meeting groups. Nonetheless, missionary activity in China generated controversy among many native Chinese and faced armed opposition during both the Boxer Rebellion and the later Chinese Communist Revolution. Although the former did not affect Sichuan so much as some other parts of China, the province was one of the hotbeds of anti-missionary riots throughout its ecclesiastical history. [1]
Numerous mission properties and native church leaders in Sichuan were respectively destroyed and killed by communists in the mid-1930s. [2] Missionaries were expelled and activity ceased after the communist take over of China in 1949. Under government oppression, ties were cut with foreign Quaker groups, and Quakerism in Sichuan was merged into the Three-Self Patriotic Church.
In 1882, an article titled "Shall the Gospel be preached to this generation of the Chinese?" by Dr. George King was published in London. Several members of the Society of Friends reading it, were impressed with the fact that the Society had no representatives engaged in missionary effort in China. Three years later (1885), two Irish Friends, Robert John Davidson and his wife Mary Jane Davidson, [3] were appointed by the Friends' Foreign Mission Association (FFMA, belonging to the Britain Yearly Meeting) as missionaries to work in China. [4] They left England in September, 1886, [5] and reached Sichuan the following year. [6] At a local medical assistant Mr. Sie's suggestion, the Davidsons paid their first visit to Tungchwan in the end of 1887. [7]
In 1889, after a series of problems regarding their long-term settlement with the local authorities of Tongchuan (Tungchwan), they were told that they had "no right to be there". R. J. Davidson had no choice but to turn to Chongqing, the only place which seemed open to him. There a small house was rented until the following spring, when the large premises in the White Dragon Fountain Street became the first home of the Mission. [9] [10] Opening services were held in March 1890, and a dispensary was opened soon after. Frederic S. Deane joined the Mission and established a boys' school at the Great Ridge Street in 1892. That winter four more missionaries were added to the band. Leonard Wigham joined Deane at the young men's house, while Alice M. Beck and Margaret Southall went to another mission house; and Caroline N. Southall had already started a girls' school on those premises. [11] In 1893, Mira L. Cumber and Isaac Mason joined the mission. A meeting house was opened in March 1894. [12]
In May 1894, R. J. Davidson and Mason travelled to Yangtaochi in Tongchuan. They rented part of an inn for dispensing medicine. In the autumn of 1894, Mason returned alone to Yangtaochi. He spent several weeks there, living at an inn, dispensing medicine and preaching daily. He had gathered a few people during this period, and with them he held many meetings in dirty little rooms at the inns where he stayed. These visits subsequently extended to the cities of Taihezhen (Taihochen) and Shehongxian (Sehunghsien), which had been developed into an important branch of the Tongchuan work later known as the Mission's Northern District. [13]
In 1895, a serious outbreak of anti-foreign agitation spread throughout the province. Open-air preaching had been considered dangerous for long periods at a time, and dispensary patients decreased by half the number. The missionaries lived for weeks together in constant fear of an outbreak. In 1897, the FFMA purchased an estate on the hills south of Chongqing and turned it into a school for missionaries' children, which was opened in March, 1898. [14]
In 1899, A. Warburton Davidson went to reside at Shehongxian. He was pursued and severely beaten by a crowd after selling books in a temple yard at one of the neighbouring markets named Yu Lung Chen. In consequence of his injuries he was taken to Chongqing for rest. That same year Mason and his party were appointed to live at Tongchuan, they took up residence early in 1900. They opened a dispensary and held meetings for worship in a very dilapidated chapel made out of unused small rooms. In 1902, Mira L. Cumber and Dr. Lucy E. Harris joined the Tongchuan mission, the latter being FFMA's first qualified medical missionary in China. [15] The Tongchuan Boys' School was opened before the missionaries taking up residence in that prefecture. The Girls' School was commenced in 1902 by Cumber. It had only eight students the first year, but there were thirty the following year, and by 1905 the number had doubled. [16]
During this period, two new mission centres were opened in Chengdu, the capital, and Suining (Sui-ling Hsien), a county situated between Tongchuan and Chongqing. The former was opened by Robert J. and Mary J. Davidson, the work was joined by Dr. Henry T. and Elizabeth J. Hodgkin in 1905. Isaac and Esther L. Mason moved to Suining, work at Tongchuan had been taken up by Edward B. and Margaret Vardon. [17]
The Szechwan Yearly Meeting founded in 1904 with 56 local converts, [18] was constituted of five Monthly Meetings: Chongqing, Tongchuan, Chengdu, Suining and Tongliang (Tungliang). [4] By the end of 1921, the English Friends had 429 church members; [19] and by 1937, 460 members. [4] Although they made few converts, their work had a considerable impact. The Chongqing Friends School thrived, and the International Friends Institute opened in 1909, became a place where people could meet freely in a peaceful setting. [18] Isaac Mason made the first Chinese translations of Quaker writings. [8] The FFMA was also one of the four mission societies responsible for the creation of West China Union University in 1910, together with American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (American Baptist Churches USA), American Methodist Episcopal Mission (Methodist Episcopal Church), and Canadian Methodist Mission (Methodist Church of Canada). [20] The university's buildings were designed by the English Quaker architect Frederick Rowntree. [21] H. T. Silcock, an FFMA missionary, began to work at the Union University in 1911, and was later appointed as vice president. [22]
In 1930, Clifford Morgan Stubbs, a New Zealand Quaker missionary and Professor of Chemistry at the West China Union University, [23] was stabbed to death by communists. [24]
The Friends' Ambulance Unit sent a team of 40 volunteers to provide medical assistance in China in mid 1941 during the Second World War, known as the China Convoy, which operated across the Provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and beyond, until their responsibility for the relief work there was passed to the American Friends Service Committee in 1946. Over the five years about 200 Westerners and 60 Chinese had taken part, eight died and others had their health permanently damaged. Most of the Westerners were British nationals, with substantial numbers of Americans, Canadians and New Zealanders, and a handful of other nationalities. The Chinese members were mainly Christian students from the West China Union University. [25]
The Tongchuan (Tungchwan) Monthly Meeting (later known as Santai Monthly Meeting) established by Isaac Mason in 1900, was the largest mission branch of Friends' Foreign Mission Association's Northern District, governing four towns under the administration of Tongchuan Prefecture (Lingxing , Jingfu, Anju , Qiulin ), and member churches of nine counties in other administrative regions (including Yanting, Yulongzhen , Shehongxian and its seat Taihochen). Most of these member churches were closed in the 1940s. According to the statistics provided by Tongchuan Government in 1944, there were 278 local converts consisting of 195 men and 83 women. By the time of the Communists' takeover of Sichuan in late 1949, only the three congregations in Tongchuan city centre, Lingxing and Jingfu were still active. [26]
After the communist takeover of China in 1949, Protestant churches in the country were forced to sever their ties with respective overseas churches, which has thus led to the merging of all the denominations into the communist-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Church. [27] The Jingfu meeting house was closed in the early 1950s after the expulsion of foreign missionaries. In 1953, more than 310 people from Lingxing, Liuying , Le'an and Xinde were converted by a Chinese missionary Lu Ruiyu (陸瑞玉) based at Lingxing. However, all church activities had ceased by 1956. It was not until 1980 that Protestantism was revived in Lingxing and Suhe , where there were relatively large numbers of Protestants. By the end of 1986, there were more than 1,200 officially registered Protestants in Santai County (formerly, Tongchuan). In 1987, more than 1,000 people gathered for Christmas service in Lingxing. [26]
OMF International is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865.
Santai County is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Mianyang, in the northeast of Sichuan Province of China.
Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui, known in English as the Holy Catholic Church in China or Anglican-Episcopal Province of China, was the Anglican Church in China from 1912 until about 1958, when it ceased operations.
The West China Union University, also called West China University or Huaxi University, was a private university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It was the product of the collective efforts of four Protestant, denominational, missionary boards — American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, American Methodist Episcopal Mission, Friends' Foreign Mission Association and Canadian Methodist Mission — and eventually became a division of the West China Educational Union, which was created in 1906. The Church Missionary Society became a partner in the university in 1918.
Christianity is a minority religion in the Chinese province of Sichuan. The Eastern Lipo, Kadu people and A-Hmao are ethnic groups present in the province.
Henry Theodore Hodgkin was a medical doctor and a British Quaker missionary who, in the course of his 55-year life, co-founded the West China Union University in Chengdu, co-founded and led the first Christian pacifist movement, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, and founded the Pendle Hill Quaker meeting and training center, in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
Audrey Gladys Donnithorne was a British-Chinese political economist and missionary, prominent in her efforts to rebuild the Catholic Church in China after the Cultural Revolution.
Gospel Church (Chinese: 福音堂; pinyin: Fúyīn táng; Wade–Giles: Fu2-yin1 tʽang2) is a Protestant church in the county-level city of Jiangyou, Mianyang, Sichuan Province. Founded in 1894, it was formerly an Anglican church in the West Szechwan Diocese of the Church in China.
The history of Anglicanism in Sichuan began in 1887 when Anglican missionaries working with the China Inland Mission began to arrive from the United Kingdom. These were later joined by missionaries from the Church Missionary Society and Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society. Or according to Annals of Religion in Mianyang, in 1885, a small mission church was already founded in Mianyang by Alfred Arthur Phillips and Gertrude Emma Wells of the Church Missionary Society. Missionaries built churches, founded schools, and distributed Chinese translations of Anglican religious texts. These efforts were relatively successful and Anglicanism grew to become one of the two largest denominations of Protestant Christianity in the province, alongside Methodism.
Holy Cross Church is a Protestant church situated on Tianlong Road in Wanzhou District, Chongqing. It was founded in 1923 by the American Lutheran missionary Rev George Oliver Lillegard (1888–1965).
The Protestant mission began in the Chinese province of Sichuan in 1877, when premises were rented by the China Inland Mission in Chungking. However, it grew rather slowly, it was not until the late 1980s that Protestantism experienced rapid growth. The two largest denominations in the province before 1949 were Anglicanism and Methodism.
The presence of the Catholic Church in the Chinese province of Sichuan dates back to 1640, when two missionaries, Lodovico Buglio and Gabriel de Magalhães, through Jesuit China missions, entered the province and spent much of the 1640s doing evangelism.
The Canadian Methodist Mission (CMM), also known as Missionary Society of the Methodist Church in Canada, was a Canadian Methodist Christian missionary society mostly working in the province of Szechwan, which was also referred to as "West China."
The history of Methodism in Sichuan began in 1882 when missionaries began to arrive from the United States. Methodists founded or helped found several colleges, schools, and hospitals to aid in modernization and conversion efforts. Later, American Methodists were joined by missionaries from Canada. Methodism grew to become one of the two largest denominations of Protestant Christianity in the province by 1922, along with Anglicanism.
The history of Baptist Christianity in Sichuan began in 1890 when missionaries began arriving from the United States. Baptist missionaries in Sichuan were organized under the American Baptist Missionary Union, later renamed American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Missionary activity in China generated controversy among many native Chinese and faced armed opposition during both the Boxer Rebellion and the later Communist movement in China. Although the former did not affect Sichuan so much as some other parts of China, the province was one of the hotbeds of anti-missionary riots throughout its ecclesiastical history.
The West China Missionary News (WCMN) was a monthly news magazine published in Chengdu (Chengtu) from 1899 to 1943 by the West China Missions Advisory Board, and printed by Canadian Methodist Mission Press. It was aimed at Protestant missionaries working in Sichuan, and was the first and longest-running English-language newspaper in that province.
The history of Adventism in Sichuan began in 1914 when American and Chinese missionaries arrived in Chongqing. Adventist missionaries in Sichuan were organized under the Szechwan Mission, later split into the East Szechwan, West Szechwan, and Tibetan Missions. Missionary activity in China generated controversy among many native Chinese and faced opposition from popular riots and the later Communist movement in China. Numerous mission properties and native Church leaders in Sichuan were respectively destroyed and killed by communists in the mid-1930s. Missionary activity ceased after the communist take over of China in 1949. Under government oppression in the 1950s, Adventist congregations and other Protestant Churches across China severed their ties with overseas Churches, and their congregations subsequently merged into the Three-Self Patriotic Church. Since 1980, their services have been provided by the China Christian Council.
Joseph Beech, or Joe Beech as he was more commonly known, was an American Methodist missionary and educator, member of Psi Upsilon and Phi Beta Kappa, and founding president of the West China Union University. He was a recipient of the Order of Brilliant Jade.
Harry Thomas Silcock (1882–1969), also known as Henry Thomas Silcock, was an English missionary of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), who served as vice president of the West China Union University during its initial years.
Stephen Yang, also known as Stephen C. H. Yang, was a Sichuanese surgeon, medical educator, and Quaker peace activist.
Dr. Clifford Stubbs, the medical missionary who was stabbed to death by communists at Cheng-Fu [ sic ] (China), was a son of the Rev. S. Stubbs, of Sydney, former New Zealand Presbyterian minister. Dr. Stubbs, who had a brilliant scholastic career in New Zealand, went to China in 1913, and was appointed to the staff of the West China University at Cheng-Fu, where he remained ever since, except for furlough. He leaves a wife and three children.