Baptist Christianity in Sichuan

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Background
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Baptist Christianity in Sichuan refers to the history and implantation of Baptist Christianity in the Chinese province of Sichuan (formerly romanized as Szchuan, Szechuan, or Szechwan; also referred to as "West China").

History

Map of Szchuan showing American Baptist Mission stations: Chengtu, Yachowfu, Kiatingfu, Ningyuanfu, and Suifu.

Baptist Christianity was introduced into Sichuan by the American Baptist Missionary Union (ABMU, belonging to the American Baptist Churches USA). The first missionaries to reach the province were Rev. William M. Upcraft and Rev. George Warner, who sailed in 1889. The journey required many weeks before their arrival in Suifu (also, Suichaufu) the following year,[1][2] where they established the mission's first station.[3] Medical work was started by Rev. C. H. Finch in 1891,[4] in the same year Rev. Robert Wellwood and his wife joined the mission.[1]

At the end of 1892, the ABMU was represented by nine missionaries, with medical work, two preaching places, women's classes, a boys' school, a Sunday school and eleven converts. In 1893, twelve new workers joined the mission, and subsequently the opening of a new station in Kiatingfu in 1894.[5] At that time, the number of missionaries connected with the West China Mission was twenty-two. A small church had been gathered at Suifu. The remote character of the province and its need of Christian missionary labors lent a romantic and unusual interest to the work of the West China Mission, especially since that was the nearest approach of American Baptists to reaching the people of an unevangelized country, Tibet.[4]

American Baptist Church at Yachowfu, 1920.

That same year (1894), Upcraft and H. J. Openshaw traveled to Yachowfu and tried to rent some permanent quarters. This stirred up opposition and vile placards were posted abusing the foreigners. However, the tide was turned in favor of the missionaries after successfully treating the servant of an official bitten by a snake, they were allowed to stay.[6]

In 1895, a serious outbreak of anti-foreign agitation began in the capital Chengtu, and thence spread throughout the province. The missionaries had no choice but to temporarily leave their posts. Work was resumed after their return in the spring of 1896. By the middle of the year 1900, the Church had 68 converts with some 200 names on the enquirers' roll. The year 1900 was marked by the anti-Christian uprising known as Boxer Rebellion. Although this unrest did not affect Sichuan so much as some other parts of China, missionaries were obliged by consular orders to retire to the coast. During their absence, the local converts defended their faith and carried on all the regular services. Two new stations were opened at Ningyuanfu and Chengtu in 1905 and 1909 respectively; while Rev. Joseph Taylor and his wife were transferred from Yachowfu to Chengtu.[7]

Van Dernan Hall, or the Baptist College at West China Union University, Chengtu, 1920.

In 1910, the ABMU changed its name to American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS),[8] and became one of the four founding societies of the West China Union University, together with American Methodist Episcopal Mission (Methodist Episcopal Church), Canadian Methodist Mission (Methodist Church of Canada), and Friends' Foreign Mission Association (British Quakers).[9]

During the 1911 Revolution which overthrew the Qing dynasty, Openshaw took care of the wounded, with his wife as auxiliary. The local Christians later told of Mrs. Openshaw's bravery during the siege of Yachowfu, how she would play the organ and sing while bullets whizzed about the house.[10]

David Crockett Graham during a meeting of the Executive Committee of the West China Border Research Society in Chengtu, 1935.

In 1919, the ABFMS celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its West China Mission.[11] In 1920, Rev. A. G. Adams assumed responsibility for the work of the evangelistic field, which had been for several years under the direction of Rev. David Crockett Graham,[12] a polymath Baptist minister who was ordained at the First Baptist Church of Fairport, New York, in 1911, and spent nearly forty years in Sichuan Province, arriving shortly after his ordination.[13][14][15] He was also one of the key figures in the discovery of the archaeological site now known as Sanxingdui, when a collection of jade pieces contributed to the Museum of Art, Archaeology and Ethnology at the West China Union University by an English Anglican missionary, Vyvyan Donnithorne, in 1931, drew his attention, subsequently leading to an archaeological excavation in 1934.[16]

By 1913, the American Baptists had 793 church members;[17] and by the end of 1921, 1,263 members.[18]

In 1938, Alfred James Broomhall, an English Baptist missionary, entered China through the China Inland Mission. In 1946, he entered the territory of the Independent Nosu in Southern Sichuan, with a team to establish a sustained Christian witness among them. He was only able to live among the Nosu people from 1947 to 1951, and spent his last few months under house arrest before being expelled from China by the newly established communist government; but his team was able to plant seeds that were going to bear fruit in coming decades.[19]

Current situation

See also: Protestantism in Sichuan § Current situation

After the communist takeover of China in 1949, Protestant Churches in China were also forced to sever their ties with respective overseas Churches, which has thus led to the merging of all the denominations into communist-sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Church.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b ABFMS 1920, p. 18.
  2. ^ Lü, Shih-chiang (1976). "晚淸時期基督敎在四川省的傳敎活動及川人的反應（1860–1911）" [The Evangelization of Sichuan Province in the Late Qing Period and the Responses of the Sichuanese People (1860–1911)]. History Journal of the National Taiwan Normal University (in Traditional Chinese). Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University Department of History: 269. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  3. ^ Merriam 1894, p. 21.
  4. ^ a b Merriam 1894, p. 22.
  5. ^ ABFMS 1920, pp. 18–19.
  6. ^ ABFMS 1920, pp. 19–20.
  7. ^ ABFMS 1920, pp. 20–21.
  8. ^ Tiedemann, R. G. (1 July 2016). Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century. Milton Park: Routledge. p. 112. ISBN 9781315497310.
  9. ^ "West China Union University". library.vicu.utoronto.ca. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  10. ^ ABFMS 1920, p. 22.
  11. ^ ABFMS 1920, p. 23.
  12. ^ ABFMS 1920, p. 32.
  13. ^ Flower, John (2002). "D.C. Graham's Portrait of Belief in Sichuan". sichuanvillage.org. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  14. ^ "David Crockett Graham - Diary no. 10, July 1930 - December 1930". transcription.si.edu. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  15. ^ "David Crockett Graham Papers, 1923-1936". siarchives.si.edu. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  16. ^ Xu, Jay (2011). "Lithic Artifacts from Yueliangwan: Research Notes on an Early Discovery at the Sanxingdui Site". In Silbergeld, Jerome; Ching, Dora C. Y.; Smith, Judith G.; Merck, Alfreda (eds.). Bridges to Heaven: Essays on East Asian Art in Honor of Professor Wen C. Fong, Volume I. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-15298-1.
  17. ^ Salquist, Anna M. (1914). "Statistical Report: West China Baptist Mission, Year 1913" (PDF). Report of the West China Baptist Conference: Tenth Annual Conference: 13. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  18. ^ Stauffer 1922, p. 228.
  19. ^ Roberts, Neel (2020). "A. J. Broomhall: A Missiological Practitioner". Mission Round Table. 15 (1): 26–33. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  20. ^ Ferris, Helen (1956). The Christian Church in Communist China, to 1952. Montgomery, AL: Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center. p. 8. OCLC 5542137.

Bibliography

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