Church Missionary Society in China

Church Missionary Society
Abbreviation CMS
Formation 12 April 1799
Founder Clapham Sect
Type Evangelical Anglicanism
Ecumenism
Protestant missionary
British Commonwealth

The Church Missionary Society in China was a branch organisation established by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), which was founded in Britain in 1799 under the name the Society for Missions to Africa and the East;[1] as a mission society working with the Anglican Communion, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians around the world. In 1812, the organization was renamed the Church Missionary Society.[2] The missions were financed by the CMS with the local organisation of a mission usually being under the oversight of the Bishop of the Anglican diocese in which the CMS mission operated.

Establishing the mission to China

Robert Morrison, of the London Missionary Society established a mission in Guangzhou (Canton) in 1808, however the work of Christian missionaries was restricted by the Chinese authorities. After the First Opium War (1839–1842), Hong Kong came under the control of Great Britain and ports on the mainland, including Canton and Shanghai, become open to Europeans. in 1844 the CMS sent the Reverend George Smith (later Bishop of Victoria, H.K.) and the Revd Thomas McClatchie to establish the South China Mission at Shanghai.[3]

Expansion of the mission in China

The Revd. and Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. A-hok

The South China Mission was extended to Zhejiang (Cheh-kiang) province at Ningbo (1848), Fujian (Fuh-Kien) province at Fuzhou (Fuh-Chow) (May 1850), Hong Kong (1862), Guangdong (Kwan-tung) province (1878) and later to Sichuan (Si-chuen) province in south west China (1890).[3]

The CMS establish hospitals with William Welton beginning work in Fuh-Chow in 1850; followed by Dr B Van Someren Taylor who trained medical catechists. The CMS operated a large number of dispensary hospitals, whose patents included opium addicts at Ningbo, from 1866, and leprosy patients, such as at Beihai (Pakhoi), from 1890, and Hangzhou (Hangchow), from 1892. Dispensary hospitals were established at the major mission stations, such as Kunming (1913) in Yunnan province.[2] Schools were established at the major mission stations, however the Chinese authorities opposed the missionaries establishing schools at every mission station. The Revd Robert Stewart arrived in 1876 and established a school and college at Fuzhou (Fuh-Chow).[2]

In 1873 the Reverend W. Russell was consecrated as bishop of North China and in 1880 the Reverend George Moule was consecrated bishop of Mid-China (Shanghai and Zhejiang (Cheh-kiang) provinces).[2] As the activities of the Church Missionary Society expanded across China the administration was divided into separate missions: South China (covering Hong Kong, Guangdong (Kwan-tung) and Fujian (Fuh-Kien) provinces); in Mid-China from 1885; and West China (Sichuan (Si-chuen) province) from 1897. Fujian (Fuh-Kien) province was made a separate mission in 1900. In 1911, North China (Guangxi (Kwangsi) and Hunan provinces) also became a separate mission.[2]

CMS in Shanghai

George Smith, Bishop of Victoria (Hong Kong) from 1849 to 1865

The Revd George Smith (later Bishop of Victoria, H.K.) and the Revd Thomas McClatchie were sent by the CMS to establish a mission at Shanghai in 1844.[2][3]

The Revd John Burdon worked for the Shanghai mission. In March 1874 he was consecrated bishop of the South China diocese of the Anglican Church.[4]

CMS in Hong Kong

The CMS missionaries assisted in establishing St. Paul's College, Hong Kong in 1849. St Stephen's College was established by the CMS in 1902 and CMS missionaries assisted in establishing St. Stephen's Girls' College in 1906.[2]

In 1849 George Smith was made bishop of the new diocese of Victoria (Hong Kong) and warden of St. Paul's College.

St Stephen's Anglican Church was one of three churches founded in Hong Kong by the CMS. It was led by Tsing-Shan Fok (霍靜山), 1851–1918, one of the earliest Chinese clergy in Hong Kong, starting in 1904.[5]

CMS in Zhejiang (Cheh-kiang) province

The Revd William Russell and the Revd Robert Henry Cobbold began working in Zhejiang (Cheh-kiang) province at Ningbo (Ningpo) in 1847. The Revd George Moule arrived at Ningpo in 1848; after which he established a mission at Hangzhou (Hangchow). Additional missions were established in the province. Moule established Trinity College in Ningpo, which was an elementary school and also trained teachers, catechists and pastors. Other schools were established in the province, with the schools surviving into the 1930s.[2] The Revd Arthur Moule joined his brother at the mission. He was appointed Archdeacon in the diocese of Mid-China.[6]

The hospital at Hangchow was established by James Galt in 1871, with the work of the hospital being expanded by David Duncan Main from 1882.[7] Hospitals were also established at Ningpo and Taizhou (Taichow). A medical school was established by Main at Hangchow in 1908. The Hangchow hospital was commandeered by the Japanese in 1937.[2]

CMS in Guangzhou (Canton)

Guangzhou (Canton) became a mission station in 1898. Holy Trinity College opened in 1908 as a boys' school, and was until 1914, also a training college for missionaries. The CMS also established St Hilda's School for Girls, which opened in 1916. These schools operated until the Japanese invasion of Canton in 1938.[2]

CMS in Guangxi (Kwangsi) province and Hunan province

CMS began working in Guilin (Kweilin) in Guangxi province (Kwangsi) from 1899 and in Yongzhou (Yangchow) in Hunan province from 1903. The first bishop of Kwangsi-Hunan, William Banister, was consecrated in 1909. In 1910 the CMS started a mission in Hengyang (Hengchow). A hospital was established in Kweilin in 1910. Following the invasion of China by the Japanese in 1937 many of the missionaries left.[2]

CMS activities in the 20th Century

The Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui, or Anglican-Episcopal Province of China, was established on 26 April 1912 by the merger of the various mission activities of the Church of England, the Episcopal Church of the United States, Anglican Church of Canada and other Anglican provinces into one autonomous jurisdiction.[8] There was a gradual transfer of responsibility from the CMS to the Anglican church which occurred in the 1920s and 1930s; although it was not until 1937, with the invasion of China by the Japanese, that substantial authority was given to the Chinese clergy.[2]

Some CMS missionaries returned after the end of World War 2. CMS missionaries remained active in Fujian, Guangxi and in Hunan and other places until the communist revolution in China after which they all left China.[2]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Mounstephen, Philip (2015). "Teapots and DNA: The Foundations of CMS". Intermission. 22.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Keen, Rosemary. "Church Missionary Society Archive". Adam Matthew Publications. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Church Missionary Atlas (China)". Adam Matthew Digital. 1896. pp. 179–196. Retrieved 19 October 2015. (Subscription required (help)).
  4. ↑ ‘BURDON, Rt Rev. John Shaw’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 17 Sept 2013
  5. ↑ Rebecca Chan Chung, Deborah Chung and Cecilia Ng Wong, "Piloted to Serve", 2012.
  6. ↑ Lodwick, Kathleen L. Crusaders Against Opium: Protestant Missionaries in China 1874–1917 (University Press of Kentucky) Online version at Google Books ISBN 0-8131-1924-3
  7. ↑ "Obituaries" (PDF). British Medical Journal. September 8, 1934. Retrieved November 25, 2015 – via www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
  8. ↑ Armentrout, Donald (2000). An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church. New York: Church Publishing Inc. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-89869-211-2.
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