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Mission Strategy and Church in the Kikuyu Conference of 1913 Colin Reed

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Mission Strategy and Church in the Kikuyu Conference of 1913 Colin Reed Denominationalism or Protestantism? Mission Strategy and Church in the Kikuyu Conference of 1913 Colin Reed century ago, in 1913, a conference held in Kikuyu, attracted people from rural areas. Furthermore, European settle- A Kenya, sought to shape the future of Protestant missions ment on farms in the central highlands offered opportunities for there and thus the future of the growing church. The primary employment and drew people from their tribal “reserves.” The question was whether the young church in this African country, newly built railway made new mobility possible. Many people founded by the missionary agencies, should replicate the historic found themselves employed in an area with a denomination denominational churches of the West, or whether there should different from the one in which they had been nurtured. The be a united Protestant church with no organic connections to federation agreement of 1913 was designed to allow Christians outside bodies. Inadvertently, however, the conference opened to participate in church life wherever they lived. a debate within the Anglican Church about its own nature and In their reports of the Kikuyu Conference, the CMS rep- relationship with other churches. resentatives were anxious to point out that they had never The Kikuyu Conference of 1913 gave rise to discussion in intended “an immediate union either of missionary societies church newspapers from India to the United States, yet it has now or of native Churches,” knowing that such a plan would be fallen into relative obscurity.1 Stephen Neill’s History of Christian “open to criticisms of haste and precipitancy” and would cut Missions accords it a brief paragraph, ending with the statement them off from their denominations back home and from the that “the episode was of great value by reason of the education it missionary societies that had sent them.8 They had in mind gave to countless thoughtful people in the Church.”2 The recent that at some future time there would be a united (Protestant) History of Global Anglicanism gives a slightly fuller account.3 In indigenous church, for denominations were not yet entrenched contrast, Frank Weston, bishop of Zanzibar and one of the pro- in Kenya. “No self-governing native Church exists,” Willis tagonists in the debate, saw the Kikuyu Conference as the most stated in his report to CMS,9 a reference to the ideal of the important conference since the Reformation.4 establishment of a self-governing, self-supporting, and self- extending church, which had been a fundamental aim of the The Conference at Kikuyu society.10 But by 1913 in Uganda the Anglican Church already had a formal constitution in which missionaries and African On June 17, 1913, some sixty representatives of Protestant mis- clergy were equally members of the synod and its committees. sionary societies met at the Church of Scotland mission at Kikuyu, Although Willis stated that there was as yet no self-governing not far from Nairobi, Kenya. The population of Kenya was still native church in Kenya, there was a bishop, as well as “native” small—estimated at 4 million in 1913—and widely scattered.5 clergy—the first Africans had been ordained in 1885.11 The Missionaries, too, were few and scattered; John J. Willis, bishop African clergy, though, were not part of the conference that of Uganda, recorded, “There is plenty of room for treble the planned for a future united church. number of men to work and still keep far enough apart to avoid The conference’s immediate aim was “common member- friction.”6 In most areas, the church was still very young. ship,” which they described as allowing members of partici- William Peel, the Anglican bishop of Mombasa, was pating churches “all the privileges of membership as visitors” elected chairman of the conference, and Willis, secretary. Both (italics in original) when in the area of another denomination. were missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (CMS), Such visitors would not have voting rights. The conference an Evangelical Anglican society. The first days were taken up agreed on a common policy of preparation for baptism that with routine matters, but two items on the last day caused involved a two-year period of instruction and probation and the ensuing storm of high feelings: first, a proposal drawn up “a common form of Church organisation,” although churches by the conference for a “federation” of churches that would would not have identical governance structures and patterns lead eventually to a united “native” (i.e., indigenous) church, of ministry. The conference agreed on “Regular Administra- and second, a service of Holy Communion in a Presbyterian tion of the two sacraments, Baptism and Lord’s Supper, by Church at which the Anglicans Peel and Willis presided and outward signs” and specified that baptism must be by water non-Anglicans received Communion.7 and in the name of the Trinity.12 It was agreed that the sacra- In previous conferences, starting in 1907, in order to maxi- ments would be administered by “recognised ministers of the mize the use of their slender resources, the Protestant missionary Church occupying the district.”13 There was to be no universal agencies had come to a comity agreement by which the different form for either the services of the Lord’s Supper and baptism missions, denominational and nondenominational, worked in or other services. Each denomination would use its accustomed different geographic areas. As the towns grew, however, they form, and “visitors” would be welcome to participate, but it was hoped that a simple common order would be developed Colin Reed grew up in Africa and worked in Kenya that would be acceptable to all. The overall basis of unity would for twelve years with the Anglican Society Crosslinks, be acceptance of the Holy Scriptures and the historic creeds. then served on the staff of the Church Missionary Agreement to these general proposals was given by representa- Society of Australia for fifteen years before returning tives of the major missionary societies: the (Anglican) Church to Africa to teach in Tanzania. He is the author of Missionary Society, the Church of Scotland Mission, the Africa Founded in Faith: The Early Years of the Anglican Inland Mission (an interdenominational mission, represented Church in Kenya (Uzima, 2003). by an American, Charles Hurlburt), and the United Methodist —[email protected] Mission. The smaller denominations did not sign.14 October 2013 207 Anglican Thinking at Kikuyu ments would be offered by clergy of the denomination active in the relevant area. In his report on the conference, Willis gave details of his thinking The proposals also raised the wider question of the orders of on the issue of non-Anglicans receiving the Holy Communion clergy of other denominations. Willis drew attention to the fact in Anglican churches. Christian converts from other churches that they were clearly used by God and that their ministry was who were not in an area of their own denomination should be fruitful and in that sense was valid. In Willis’s opinion, clergy of admitted to the Anglican service. The responsibility of agreeing nonepiscopal churches could be invited to preach in an Anglican to this practice was great, said Willis, but the responsibility of church, but only on the same basis as a lay reader—by invita- refusing the sacrament to a Christian was greater.15 But Willis tion of the clergy, with the bishop’s approval. Willis accepted ruled out the possibility of a minister who was not episcopally the view that, for Anglicans, ordination of the clergy would ordained offering the sacrament in an Anglican church, for that remain the prerogative of the episcopate. It seemed unlikely would be against the principles laid down in the Lambeth Quad- that the Church of Scotland Mission, for one, would agree to rilateral.16 The controversial possibility that Anglicans would that position, yet they were willing to accept the federation and receive communion in non-Anglican churches from clergy who work toward union.17 were not episcopally ordained was not addressed specifically Then there was the final gathering of the Kikuyu Conference. but was implicitly approved by the agreement that the sacra- According to the account of the two bishops, the Presbyterians had 208 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 37, No. 4 kindly offered them the use of a building, and they had invited Weston was a product of the Tractarian search for holiness. all Christian people to share in the Lord’s Supper. He had gone to Oxford in 1890 and to Zanzibar with the UMCA in 1898.20 Peel and Willis were inspired with the vision of holi- Heresy Charges The response of Frank Weston, the neighboring Anglican bishop of Zanzibar, to news of the conference lit the fire. Weston was a There seems to have been missionary of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA, an underlying assumption a “Catholic” Anglican Society).18 In an open letter to the bishop that the Anglican form of St. Albans entitled “Ecclesia Anglicana: For What Does She Stand?,” Weston stated that the Anglican Church was not fit to would predominate. send missionaries because of its internal “exceedingly chaotic system of Truth.” The actions of the two CMS bishops, accord- ing to Weston, were symptomatic of this chaos, and he charged ness of the Evangelicals, with its intensity and emphasis on them before the archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, total commitment to Jesus Christ. Willis and Weston developed with “propagating heresy and committing schism.”19 a relationship of mutual respect despite their theological differ- October 2013 209 ences, and on Weston’s death, Willis wrote that he thanked God April 1915.27 The Anglican Church was for the first time dealing for the Kikuyu Conference’s having brought him into contact specifically with the issue of Anglicans seeking intercommunion with this man, “whom one could wholeheartedly honour and with other denominations, a landmark in the history of mission one could not but love.”21 and of Anglicanism.28 To Weston, the proposed federation and the final service were On the matter of federation, the reply of the Consultative a betrayal.
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