The 1858–1859 Gbebe Journal of CMS Missionary James Thomas

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 159-192
Author(s):  
Femi J. Kolapo
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Economic Role ◽  
Economic Basis ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
Sociopolitical Structures ◽  
The Town ◽  
The Church

James Thomas, whose journal is transcribed and appended to this introduction, was a ‘native agent’ of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) at Gbebe and Lokoja at the confluence of the Niger-Benue rivers between 1858 and 1879. A liberated slave who had been converted to Christianity in Sierra Leone, he enlisted in the service of the CMS Niger Mission headed by Rev. Samuel A. Crowther. Thomas was kidnapped around 1832 from Ikudon in northeast Yoruba, near the Niger-Benue confluence. He lived in Sierra Leone for twenty-five years before returning as a missionary to his homeland.Gbebe was an important mid-nineteenth-century river port on the Lower Niger. It was located on the east bank of the Niger, a mile below its confluence with the Benue, and about 300 miles from the Atlantic. Aboh, Onitsha, Ossomari, Asaba, Idah, and Lokoja were other famous mid-nineteenth century Lower Niger towns. From an 1841 estimated base of about 1,500, its population rose to about 10,000 by 1859. Contemporary exploration and trading reports by W. B. Baikie, S. Crowther, T. Hutchinson, and J. Whitford indicate that the town occupied an important place in the commercial life of the region.However, little is known about the town's sociopolitical structures and processes, and still less is known about its relationship with its neighbors. Hence the internal sociopolitical and economic basis for the settlement's economic role in the region is largely unresearched. The reports of James Thomas, Simon Benson Priddy, and Charles Paul, CMS missionaries resident in the town for several years, contain evidence that would be useful for such an endeavor.

The Church Missionary Society and Architecture in the Mission Field: Evangelical Anglican Perspectives on Church Building Abroad, c. 1850-1900

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 197-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Turner
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Infrastructure Development ◽  
Gothic Revival ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Church Building ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
Architectural Development ◽  
The Church

The Gothic Revival occupies a central place in the architectural development of the Church of England in the nineteenth century, both at home and abroad. Within the expanding British colonial world, in particular, the neo-Gothic church became a centrally important expression of both faith and identity throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. From a symbolic and communicative perspective, the style represented not only a visual link to Britain, but also the fundamental expression of the Church of England as an institution and of the culture of Englishness. As such, it carried with it a wide range of cultural implications that suited the needs of settler communities wishing to re-established their identity abroad. Expansion during this period, however, was not only limited to the growth of settler communities but was also reflected in growing Anglican missions to the non-Christian peoples of annexed territories. The two primary organs of the Church of England in the field, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) and the Church Missionary Society (CMS), actively employed the revived medieval style throughout the Empire as missions were solidified through infrastructure development. As a popular style with direct connotations to the Christian faith, revived medieval design became increasingly popular with Anglican missionaries abroad in the period between the early 1840s and the end of the century. Not only did its origins in ecclesiastical buildings make it attractive, but it was also stylistically distinctive, and set apart as a sacred style from both secular and ‘heathen’ structures.

Mission, Empire, and the Ultimate Good: Colonel John Munro, Benjamin Bailey, and the Church Missionary Society “Mission of Help” to Travancore (1816–18)

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-241
Author(s):  
Gary McKee
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Transformation ◽  
Great Commission ◽  
Societal Transformation ◽  
Specific Instance ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Great Commandment ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
The Church

Abstract The Church Missionary Society “Mission of Help” to the Syrian Church of Travancore in the nineteenth century provides much instructive food for thought concerning debates that continue in mission up to the present day. In particular, the episode shows that the links between mission and empire cannot be reduced to seeing mission as a mere handmaiden to imperial concerns, although empire certainly provided a context to missionary endeavor throughout the imperial period. In this specific instance it was the forceful personality of Colonel John Munro who ensured that the Mission of Help became more intertwined with empire than might otherwise have been the case. Another effect of this imperial context for the Mission of Help was that the nature and scope of mission inevitably ended up being broadened to include aspects of societal transformation. It is shown that Benjamin Bailey was not primarily motivated by such concerns, yet was not unconcerned about them. Bailey’s thinking through of these tensions perhaps provide a way to think today about the links between the “Great Commission,” the “Great Commandment,” and cultural transformation.

The Church Missionary Society and the Governors of Lagos, 1862–72

2001 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN H. DARCH
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Church

This article examines conflict between spiritual and temporal power in nineteenth-century West Africa – the uneasy relationship between the Church Missionary Society in Yorubaland and the official British presence in the nearby port of Lagos. Having encouraged Britain to intervene in Lagos in order to extirpate the slave trade, the mission soon found itself disagreeing with the policies of the colonial government concerning both the expansion of the Lagos colony and relations with the largely Christian Egba tribe. The dispute developed into a concerted attack on the colonial governors both from missionaries in the field and from the CMS headquarters in London.

The Assyrians of Iran: Reunification of a “Millat,” 1906–1914

1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eden Naby
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War I ◽  
World War ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Eastern Christianity ◽  
Church Of The East ◽  
The Town ◽  
Middle Easterners ◽  
The Church ◽  
Mountain Villages

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Assyrians—Syriac-speaking Middle Easterners belonging throughout the medieval period to either of the two branches of Eastern Christianity (Jacobite and Nestorian)—remained a little-known community scattered throughout Ottoman and Persian territory. The Assyrian community examined here was concentrated in Iranian Azerbaijan, mainly around the town of Urumiyah (Rizaiyah). Together with tribal Assyrians, who remained in their ancestral mountain villages on either side of the Perso-Ottoman border, Urumiyan Assyrians formed the nucleus of the Nestorian community until World War I. They were united by the same language, modern Eastern Syriac (henceforth referred to as Assyrian), and owed ecclesiastical allegiance to the Church of the East under the hereditary Patriarch, the Mar Shamūn.

Contradictions between the Sacred and the Secular Life: The Church Missionary Society in Ukaguru, Tanzania, East Africa, 1876–1914

1981 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas O. Beidelman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Initial Contact ◽  
East Central ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
A Minor ◽  
The Church ◽  
Made In

This essay discusses some beliefs and activities of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), a missionary body of Evangelicals in the Church of England, as its members attempted to found and expand missionary work in Ukaguru, an area inhabited by the Kaguru people about one hundred and fifty miles inland in east-central Tanzania. In the nineteenth century, Ukaguru lay on the most frequented caravan route used to reach the great interlacustrine kingdoms of Uganda. Initial contact with the Kaguru was made in 1876 by CMS members en route to Buganda. Although CMS work in East Africa was concentrated in Uganda and coastal and highland Kenya, a minor station in Ukaguru was established in 1878, in part as a rest-stop for those proceeding inland but also to save souls.

Henry Venn's Instructions to Missionaries

1977 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilbert R. Shenk
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
The Church

In the relatively brief history of Protestant missiology, no name is more respected than that of Henry Venn. As one of his successors in the leadership of the Church Missionary Society, Max Warren, observed, “On almost any reckoning, Venn was the outstanding European missionary leader, thinker and administrator of the nineteenth century.” Author Shenk goes to the primary record of Venn's missiological thought — the Letters of Instructions to missionary appointees — and provides us with a balanced summary of his reflections on some major themes. Viewed realistically in his Victorian context, Venn was clearly a man on the cutting edge. An Anglican of firm evangelical principles, his writings mirror an irenic mind and an ecumenical spirit as he sought to develop the praxis of the Church Missionary Society.

The Westminster Abbey Sanctuary Pavement

Traditio ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven H. Wander
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Present State ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Overall Design ◽  
Eastern Side ◽  
Central Disk ◽  
Edward The Confessor ◽  
The Church ◽  
Northeast Corner

In 1245 King Henry III undertook the reconstruction of Westminster Abbey. In addition to transforming the Romanesque basilica of Edward the Confessor and erecting an octagonal chapter house, he provided for a mosaic pavement in the sanctuary. The pavement is centrally located within the church (Fig. 1). It lies in the first bay east of the crossing, occupying nearly the entire length and rather less of the bay's width. Directly before it, now separated by a pair of steps, is the high altar. A detail of the northeast corner reveals its present state of preservation (Fig. 2). In spite of frequent restoration numerous mosaic tesserae are either missing or damaged; and the solitary letter E in the border is one of the last survivors from the extensive verse inscription that once accompanied the pavement. To appreciate the pavement's former splendor, one must turn to older depictions, in particular an early nineteenth-century aquatint by J. White (Fig. 3). Although mosaic patterns are occasionally simplified and the remaining bronze letters of the inscription omitted, the engraving provides a reasonable impression of the overall design. A large central disk is surrounded by four intertwining circles. These are in turn inscribed in a square whose sides devolve into another set of four circles. A second square, with its sides rather than its corners now facing the cardinal points, encloses the configuration. The guilloche which appears along three sides of the square originally enframed the entire composition. The missing portion of the eastern side was destroyed in 1706 when the altar designed for the Royal Chapel in the Palace at Whitehall was installed in the Abbey choir and only later restored around 1866 by George Gilbert Scott. Although the pavement is today the mere shadow of its former self, no one can doubt that originally it was an extraordinary creation. Its richness of design and prominence of position alone suggest that it held an important place in the king's plans for the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey. It is therefore surprising to find that the sanctuary pavement and its inscription have not yet been subjected to a thorough analytical examination.

Sacrosanctity or Duty? The Reception of Beethoven’s Fidelio in the Context of the Cultural-Political Situation in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century in Pressburg

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 81-97
Author(s):  
Jana Laslavíková
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Church Music ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Choral Societies ◽  
The Town ◽  
The Church ◽  
German Theater

Staging Beethoven’s Fidelio in the second half of the nineteenth century in Pressburg drew on a long- standing Beethoven tradition prevalent in the town. Also, it stood at the center of protests against the growing influence of Hungarian theater in the newly constructed theater building since Fidelio was performed always at a time when the renewal of an agreement with a German-speaking director was being decided on (1889, 1892, 1895). The opera was staged with the participation of the choral societies and musical associations of the town. Its performances were held close to the annual festive masses of the most well-known association of Pressburg, the Church Music Association of St. Martin’s Cathedral (Germ. Kirchenmusikverein bei der Dom-, Kollegiats- und Stadtpfarrkirche zu St. Martin, Hung. Szent Márton Pozsonyi Egyházi Zeneegylet), where Beethoven’s Missa solemnis was performed. This enhanced the efforts of the supporters of the German theater to call Beethoven’s œuvre a carrier of “true art” and humanism and use it as a symbol of cultural identity in the discussions led about preserving the German season in the Municipal Theater (Germ. Stadttheater, Hung. Városi Színház).

The Idea of a ‘Missionary Bishop’ in the Spread of the Anglican Communion in the Nineteenth Century

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Yates
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
The United States ◽  
Episcopal Church ◽  
Church Missionary Society ◽  
The Church ◽  
Foundation Stone

ABSTRACTIn the 1830s, among those associated with the Tractarian revival in England and also among certain figures in the (then) Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States (PECUSA), the idea of the ‘missionary bishop’ was propagated, which presented the bishop as a pioneer evangelist as the apostles were understood to be in New Testament times and saw the planting of the Church as necessarily including a bishop from the beginning for the ‘full integrity’ of the Church to be present. This view of the bishop as the ‘foundation stone’ was not held by the Evangelicals of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), who saw the bishop by contrast as the ‘crown’ or coping stone of the young churches. Two main protagonists were the High Churchman, Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, and the honorary secretary and missionary strategist, Henry Venn. The party, led by C.F. Mackenzie as Bishop and mounted by the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) in 1861 to the tribes near Lake Nyassa, was the outworking of this Tractarian ideal.

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