JtiäVQ.n, One Hundred and FIrst Annual Report Board of Foreign Missions Reformed Church in America 1933 Reformed Church Building 25 East Twenty-second Street, New York Board of Foreign Missions MEMBERS OF THE BOARD 1931-1934 Rev. J. Frederic Berg, Ph.D. Rev. J. M. Martin, D.D. Rev. Edward Dawson, D.D. Rev. J. G Meengs, D.D. Rev. Wm. Bancroft Hill, Litt.D. Rev. E. F. Romig, D.D. Rev. M. J. MacLeod, D.D. Mr. S. B. Chapin Mr. H. A. Kinports 1932-1935 Rev. J. W. Beardslee, Ph.D. Rev. M. T. Stauffer, D.D. Rev. E. J. Blekkink, D.D. Rev. J. H. Warnshuis, D.D. Rev. George D. Hulst, D.D. Mr. E. D. Diment, Litt.D. Rev. T. H. Mackenzie, D.D. Mr. Cornelius Dosker Mr. Herman Vanderwart 1933-1936 Rev. Henry E. Cobb, S.T.D. Rev. Harry W. Noble, D.D. Rev. J. A. Jones, D.D. Rev. H. J. Veldman, D.D. Rev. Bernie Mulder, D.D. Mr W. E. Foster Mr. Jay Weemhoff (Tw o vacancies) OFFICERS OF THE BOARD President—Rev. Wm. Bancroft Hill, D.D., Litt.D. Vice-President—Rev. Edward Dawson, D.D. Recording Secretary— Rev. M. T. Stauffer, D.D. Corresponding Secretary—Rev. W. I. Chamberlain, Ph.D. Associate Secretary and Treasurer—Mr. F. M. Potter, L.H.D. District Secretary—Rev. W. J. Van Kersen, D.D., Holland, Mich. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Rev. T. H. Mackenzie, Chairman Rev. J. W. Beardslee Dr. E. D. Dimnent Rev. George D. Hulst Mr. W. E. Foster Rev. E. F. Romig Mr. H. A. Kinports Rev. M. T. Stauffer Mr. Herman Vanderwart (One vacancy) Ex Officiis: The President and Vice-President MEDICAL ADVISERS John Wyckoff, M.D., 75 East 55th Street, New York Edward M. Dodd, M.D., 156 Fifth Avenue, New York R. H. Nichols, M.D., Holland, Michigan Dr. Lilian C. Warnshuis, 89 St. Mark’s Place, New Brighton, N. Y. One Hundred and First Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the ReformedA Vw Church in America The Seventy-sixth Year of Separate Action Organized, 1832 Independent, 1857 Incorporated, 1860 MISSIONS Amoy, China, 1842 Arcot, India, 1853 Japan, 1859 Arabia, 1889 United Mission in Mesopotamia, 1924 Approved by the Board, M ay 11, 1933 ■Bàie R z s irjùt-llû i T-*- 'vi r A ANNUAL REPORT 1933 The Board of Foreign Missions respectfully presents to General Synod its One Hundred and First Annual Report and the seventy-sixth 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 expire with the 1933 Session 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 Messrs. A. P. Cobb and N. Y. Dungan died in 1932 during the period of their service. Rev. J. H. Brinckerhoff has resigned his membership as he has moved beyond the bounds of the Denomination. T h e C e n t e n a r y C ommemoration The plans for the Commemoration of the Completion of One Hundred Years since the commencement of organized Foreign Missionary Work have been set forth in the Annual Reports of the Board for 1930, 1931 and 1932. In this Report we record the events consummating this Commemoration in the special Services held during the session of General Synod, June, 1932, in the historic First Church of Kingston, New York. These were gathered about the Public Services in which the Delegates to General Synod were invited to participate. On Sunday evening of June 5th a Solemn Service of Thanksgiving was held, presided over by the President of General Synod. Greetings were presented on behalf of the General Synod by its President; of the Boards of the Reformed Church by the Rev. James S. Kittell, Secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions, and of the Woman’s Board of Foreign Mis­ sions by Miss E. P. Cobb, the Corresponding Secretary. The Sermon was preached by the President of the Board, the Rev. Henry Evertson Cobb, who chose for his text for this Commemorative Address passages from Psalms 96, 97 and 99. A second Service of a more distinctly historical character was held on the evening of Monday, June 6th, presided over by the President of the Board of Foreign Missions. At this Service Greetings and Messages of congratulation were presented on behalf of the Boards of Foreign Missions organized in Europe and America before our Board. These were: U. S. A .: Society of the United Brethren (M oravian)........................... 1745 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.. 1810 American Baptist Foreign Mission Society............................. 1814 American Bible Society............................................................. 1816 Methodist Episcopal Board of Foreign Missions................... 1819 Foreign Missionary Society, Protestant Episcopal............... 1821 Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions................................. 1831 3 4 FOREIGN MISSIONS British: Society for the Propagation of the Gospel............................... 1701 Baptist Missionary Society.......................................................... 1792 London Missionary Society........................................................ 1795 Church of Scotland Foreign Mission Committee................... 1796 Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East............... 1799 British and Foreign Bible Society............................ 1804 Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society................................. 1813 A response was made in behalf of the American Societies by Dr. Robert E. Speer, Secretary of the Presbyterian Board, and on behalf of the British Societies by Dr. James Endicott, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Mis­ sions of the United Church in Canada. There followed Messages, accom­ panied in some instances by tokens on embroidered linen and carved wood, from the various Missions of our Church, presented in person by represen­ tatives of those Missions. These Messages also included congratulatory communications from the Churches in these fields of Asia to whose organiza­ tion the missionaries of our Church have made large contributions. These documents, together with the Messages received from the Boards of Foreign Missions in Europe and America, have been carefully preserved and will make valuable additions to the archives of our Board. Two especial Guests of Honor were present at this Historical Service: the Rev. James L. Barton, D.D., Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, under whose auspices the work of our Board had been carried on for the first twenty-five years after its organization, and the Rev. Paul de Schweinitz, D.D., Secretary of the Moravian Missions for America, whose first Mission was organized in 1732 and which was thus celebrating its Bi-Centennial at the time of our Centennial Commemoration. This Service was concluded with an Address upon The Challenge of the Century by the Corresponding Secretary of the Board. While the Board held before its constituency the aim of a Centenary Fund of $100,000 the financial limitations of the year naturally prevented great emphasis being laid upon this Fund. The total amount received has been about $45,000. L a y m e n ' s F o r e ig n M i s s i o n s I n q u i r y An event of the year much discussed in the Home Church, as also on the mission field, has been the Report of the Appraisal Commission of the Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry. This Inquiry, it should be understood, was a voluntary and unofficial movement on the part of a number of mis­ sionary-minded laymen in several of our American denominations. For it the Boards were asked for no financial aid, nor were they invited to assume any responsibility. Their only relationship was to request missionaries of the Churches they represented to welcome the Commission and to facilitate its work. The Board of the Reformed Church, although it had no part in its inauguration, has observed the Laymen’s Foreign Missions Inquiry from its inception with real interest, especially in view of its announced objective, “ The beginning of a new creative era in the initiative, intelligent participa­ tion and effective leadership of laymen in the world mission of Christ.” CHURCH UNION IN SOUTH INDIA 5 The Report was presented to the various Boards, not for acceptance or rejection, but for consideration. At several most critical points our Board and the Missions of our Church find themselves out of sympathy with its positions and its recommendations. Fundamentally, the point of view of the Board is not that of the Report as to the purpose of Missions, as to the relation which missionary work holds to existing religions and as to the distinctive elements of the Christian religion. At its meeting in December, 1932, the Board adopted a statement upon the Report of the Laymen’s Appraisal Commission which was published and widely circulated in the Church. The Board is prepared to use with freedom those elements in the Report which can aid in the improvement and advancement of its work. In pursuance of this policy, the Board has sent a copy of the Report to each mission station for careful consideration by the missionaries, who are invited to communicate to the Board the results of their consideration. It has also referred the Report to special committees of the Board who will make a careful study of its recommendations and will await response from the Missions whenever the recommendations involve the work of the field. There can be no more pathetic and futile figure than a minister or a missionary who has missed his way or mislaid his charter. In the realm of Aim there must be certainty. Methods offer inviting and ample scope for diversity of operation, but in the matter of direction there can be only one polar star.