102Nd Annual Report of the Board of World Missions Reformed Church in America
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Hope College Hope College Digital Commons Annual Reports Board of World Missions 1934 102nd Annual Report of the Board of World Missions Reformed Church in America Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/world_annual_report Part of the Archival Science Commons Recommended Citation Reformed Church in America, "102nd Annual Report of the Board of World Missions" (1934). Annual Reports. 81. https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/world_annual_report/81 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Board of World Missions at Hope College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Annual Reports by an authorized administrator of Hope College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. One Hundred and Second Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America T h e Seventy-seventh Year of Separate Action Organized, 1832 Independent, 1857 Incorporated, 1860 <5 MISSIONS Amoy, China, 1842 Arcot, India, 1853 Japan, 1859 Arabia, 1889 United Mission in Mesopotamia, 1924 THE ARCHIVES BOARDS!. EE LIBRARY YfESTERN THEOtOGICAL SEMINARY l|l Presented to the General Synod at Grand Rapids, Mich., June, 1934 %3mr3M BHT W - m M OBOJCIKT ANNUAL REPORT 1934 T h e B oard of Foreign Missions respectfully presents- to General S y nod its One Hundred and Second Annual Report and the Seventy-Seventh of its separate and independent action. T h e P e r s o n n e l o f t h e B o a r d The terms of the following members of the Board expired with the * 1933 Session of General Synod. Owing to the omission of General Synod last year their names have been continued in the membership of the Board subject to the action of General Synod. Rev. Henry E. Cobb Rev. Harry W. Noble Rev. J. A. Jones Rev. H. J. Veldman Rev. Bernie Mulder Mr. W. E. Foster Mr. Jay Weemhoff ( T w o vacancies) The terms of the following members of the Board expire with the 1934 Session of General Synod: Rev. J. Frederick Berg Rev. J. M. Martin Rev. Edward Dawson Rev. J. G. Meengs Rev. W m . Bancroft Hill Rev. E. F. R o m i g Rev. M. J. MacLeod Mr. S. B. Chapin Mr. H. A. Kinports T h e P r o p o s e d S c h e m e o f C h u r c h U n i o n i n S o u t h In d i a I. T h e B o a r d of Foreign Missions received in July, 1932, through official transmission f r o m the Secretaries of the Arcot Mission and the Arcot Assembly of India, the following Resolution adopted in identic form by both bodies, the former representing the missionaries and the latter their Indian associates. , Resolved to refer the proposed Scheme of Church Union as revised, together with the actions of the last two meetings of the General Assembly and the Madras Church Council on the Scheme, to the Board for an expression of opinion on the part of the Board and of the General Synod of the Reformed Church for our future guidance as representatives of our Mission and Assembly on ecclesiastical bodies in India in any future negotiations. T h e m e m b e r s and officers of the B o a r d have been naturally a w a r e of the conferences and negotiations that had been proceeding for a n u m b e r of years between the non-Episcopal and the Episcopal churches in South India w h ere Christianity has reached its mos t nume r o u s and advanced development in that country. W h i l e deeply interested and watchful of these negotiations between autonomous Indian churches, with one of which the Mission of the R.C.A. has close associations, the B o ard has adhered faith fully to the limitations of its prerogatives as an administrative and in no sense an ecclesiastical body. It has received, therefore, and noted all information that c a m e to it fr o m various sources, but, true to its policy, it has refrained fr o m any interposition or interference in a purely ecclesiastical matter. , However, the formal request for an opinion having n o w reached the "Board from the administrative bodies in India to which it is related and through which the missionaries of the R e f o r m e d C hurch and their Indian colleagues are related to the South India United Church, one of the negotiating Churches in this proposed wider union of Churches, the Board itself, and through appropriate committees, has been giving the plan of union careful study with a view to reaching an opinion, as requested. In the usual course such an opinion would be included in the annual report of the B o ard to General S y n o d and, by action on this report, the opinion of this highest ecclesiastical body of the R e f o r m e d Church would be secured, thus realizing the desire of the Arcot Mission and Assembly. T h e B o ard w a s proceeding in this manner, with a view to including in its report to General S y n o d in 1933 a statement in regard to the Proposed S c h e m e of Church U nion in South India. T h e omission of the session of General S y nod in 1933 necessarily postponed the final steps until this year. II. In taking u p the study of the development of the Christian Church in the countries of Asia where the missions of the R e f o r m e d C hurch have been laboring, w e naturally turn to the Minutes of General S y n o d for the record of the past attitude of our Church toward the establishment and expansion of the churches in those lands which have g r o w n out of the seed s o w n by the missionaries of our Church. W e find that so long a g o as 1864, after ten years of correspondence with the A m o y Mission, General S ynod adopted a Resolution deferring the formation of a Classis of the Reformed Church in A m o y , and that in the sa m e year there w a s organized an autono m o u s Classis in A m o y , including English Presbyterian along with R e f o r m e d Church elements, which in later years became the South Fukien S y nod and w a s joined by churches organized by the English Congregationalists. In 1927 this South Fukien S y n o d became a part of the C hurch of Christ in China, including other and hitherto m o r e diverse elements. In 1874 General S y n o d adopted a Resolution m a k i n g applicable to Japan the action of 1864 with reference to the postponement of the f o rma tion of a Classis in A m o y , and in the sa m e year (1874) there followed the organization of the Church of Christ in Japan, made up of Presbyterian and Refo r m e d elements. „ In 1854 the Classis of Arcot w a s organized by the missionaries of the Reformed Church in South India, which Classis was transferred in 1901, with the approval necessarily of the R.C.A. Synod, to the S y n o d of South India, Presbyterian in order. In 1875, when considering a plan of co operation with the Presbyterian C h urch in all India, the attitude of General S y n o d w a s m a d e clear in the following excerpt from the Minute in support of the slan ' Ihis argument is made « • • chiefly with a view of contributing> to the* •'■ji! establishment in each mission country of a national Church that shall grow from,,,) f its own roots. ’ ‘ - In 1901 the Classis of Arcot w a s transferred to the S y n o d of South. India, largely Presbyterian in order, on the ground that it w a s the logical out c o m e of the m o v e m e n t started over thirty years previously and since General S y n o d in 1867, 1875, 1886 and 1901 had taken action favoring this move-, ment. T h e Minute of 1901 includes the following impressive statement of: General S y n o d ’s attitude: The native Church of India calls for an indigenous Church which shall root deeply in its native soil. The people of India should not be allowed to labor under the impression that it is an exotic. W h e n reporting to General S y n o d in 1903 the completion of the transfer of- the Classis of Arcot to the S y n o d of South India, the Standing Committee of General S y n o d on Foreign Missions reported to that-body as follows: The communication on the transfer of the Classis (Arcot) informs us of the fact of the transfer and calls for no action on our part beyond an expression ' of joy at the privilege of contributing a Classis .with 10,000 Christian souls to the formation of a native Church which is the hope of a Christian India.