Union is based on the following: 377 of the 691 groups in the 1993 ary Coordinating Council to All Western Missionary Organizations Directory work there, plus 148 (or approximately half of the 296 Interested in Spreading the Gospel in the Former Soviet Union:' groupsidentified since 1993), plus36SouthKorean groups (9church March 23, 1993, RM. and 27 parachurch), 12. Mark Elliott, "The Protestant Missionary Presence in the Former 3. Grigori Komendant, "Certainly: ' East-West Church and Ministry Soviet Union:' Religion, State,and Society 25, no. 4 (forthcoming). Report 4, no . I (Winter 1996): 2. 13. Anatoli Pchelintsev, interview by Anita Deyneka, July 1993, RM. 4. AlexanderSorokin."A RussianPerspectiveon the MissionaryMove­ 14. PaulSemenchuk, "WesternChristians Working in the CIS:Are They ment," East-West Church and Ministry Report 4, no. 1 (Winter 1996): in Tune with Russian Evangelical Nationals?" (paper prepared for 16. Trans World Radio, November 1994), p. 4. 5. E-mail from Brother Seraphim, December 1, 1996, Russian Minis­ 15. Grigori Komedant, interview by Peter Deyneka, October 1996, RM. tries files, Wheaton, Illinoi s (hereafter RM). 16. Semenchuk, "Western Christians Working in the CIS:' p. 2. 6. Michael Bourdeaux, ed., The Politics of Religion in Russiaand the New 17. Manfred Kohl, "Filling the Leadership Void in the Post Communist States of Euroasia (London: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), p. 117. Church," Contact 23, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 4-5. 7. Quoted in Miroslav Volf, "Fishing in the Neighbor's Pond: Mission 18. Anita Deyneka, "Freedom for All," Frontier, September-october and Proselytism in Eastern Europe:' International BulletinofMission­ 1996, p. 11. ary Research 20, no. 1 (January 1996): 26. 19. Mark Elliott and Kent Hill, "Are Evangelicals Interlopers?" East­ 8. Pythia Peay, "Who's Really on the Fringe Here?" Religious News West Church and Ministry Report1, no. 3 (Summer 1993): 3. Service, July 2,1996. 20. E-mail from John Bernbaum, July 13, 1996, p. 3, RM. 9. LarryUzzell, "Yeltsin Statement DefendsReligious Freedom:' Keston 21. Working in Centraland Eastern Europe:Guidelines for Christians, Pre­ News Service, e-mail, November 12, 1996. pared fortheEurope GroupoftheEvangelical Missionary Alliance (1994), 10. Larry Uzzell, "Religious Freedom Losing Ground in Russia's Prov­ pp.3-5. inces:' Keston News Service, e-mail, November 21,1996. 22. Alexei Melnichuk, "We Asked . .. :' Pulse, September 23,1994, p. 3. 11. Otonas Balchunas (Shaulai, Lithuania), Semen Borodin (Krasnodar, 23. Peter Deyneka and George Law, interview by Anita Deyneka, Russia), Andrei Bondarenko (Elgava, Latvia), Anatoly Bogatov February 5,1997, RM. (Saransk, Moldova), Vassily Davidyuk (Kiev , Ukraine), Piotr 24. E-mail from George J. Law, "Summary of Afternoon Gathering Lunichkin (Vladikavkaz.Ossetia), Pavel Pogodin(Nalchik, Kavkaz), Sessions:' February 15, 1995, RM. Franz Tissen (Saran, Kazakstan), Henri Fot (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), 25. Johannes Reimer, "Mission in Post -Perestroika Russia:' Missionalia and Victor Shiva (Almaty, Kazakstan), "Open Letter of the Mission­ 24, no. 1 (April 1996): 34. Building the Protestant Church in Shandong, China Norman H. Cliff he Chinese have a saying, "He who holds Shandong advantage of the concessions wrung from the Chinese in the T grips China by the throat."! The story of the growth of a Treaties of Tientsin and Peking in 1858 and 1860. Some of these virile Protestant church in this province includes periods of Protestant missionaries had already worked in Shanghai and, political struggle between Chinese, Germans, and Japanese for after experiencing ill health, had been advised to go to the control of Shandong's economic resources, and ultimately be­ invigorating climate on the coast of Shandong. Within a few tween Kuomintang and Communist forces. More important, in years some died in a widespread cholera epidemic. the religious sphere there were fervent evangelistic efforts by The missionaries came into Shandong via three routes (see Catholics, mainline Protestants, and sect-type revivalist move­ map). In the early 1860s three missions, which later had the ments striving to recover the pristine simplicity of the early largestwork in the province, came via the treaty portof Chefoo­ church. the Southern Baptists (1860), the American Presbyterians (1861), At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Jesuit mission­ and the British Baptists (1862). In the late 1860s and early 1870s aries moved south from Peking to evangelize Shandong. Half a three missions came via the northwest border from Tientsin and century later they handed over the work in the province to Peking in response to invitations by Chinese peasants to bring Franciscans. In the 1880s an order from Germany-theSociety of the Gospel to their villages-the British Methodists (1866), the the DivineWord (SVD)-tookoveran area in southeastShandong. American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1867), When the early Protestant pioneers arrived in 1860, there were and the (American) Methodist Episcopal Church (1874). Then, some 20,000 Catholic Christians. three more missions entered via Chefoo: the (Anglican) Society Protestant work in China had been carried on for two de­ for the Propagation of the Gospel (1874), the China Inland cades when the first missionaries came to Chefoo (Yantai), taking Mission (1880), and the Christian (Plymouth) Brethren (1888). Lastly, in the 1890s, three Continental societies entered via Qingdao and [iaozhou Bay, where the German influence was Norman H. Cliffspent thefirst twenty years ofhis lifein Shandong,first at the Chefoo Schools for the children of missionaries, and then in Weifang in a strong-the Swedish Baptists (1892), the Berlin Mission (1898), Japaneseprisoncamp. His parentsand maternal grandparents were missionar­and the Weimar Mission (1898). Other groups came later, so that ies in China with the China InlandMission. His great-grandfather Benjamin by 1920 there were eighteen societies at work in the province, as Broomhall wasthesecretary ofthemission in London from 1875 to1895. Hehas well as some indigenous independent groups. All these repre­ pastored churches in South Africaand Zimbabwe and is now in retirement in sented the whole spectrum of Western denominations and sects. Harold Wood, Essex, England. Shandong was the "sacred province" in which Confucius 62 INTERN ATIO NAL B ULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH - - -- ~ . __ ... - -~----.......~~-- and Mencius had left a strong influence, and the Bohai SouthernBaptists 1860 (Gulf of Chihli) Amer. Presbyterians 1861 pioneers had to take account of this in their British Baptists 1862 Anglicans-S.P.G. 1874 evangelistic efforts. While they opposed foot­ China Inland Mission 1880 binding, concubinage, and the selling of daughters ChristianBrethren 1888 and were critical of manyaspects of Chineseculture, N theseearlyarrivals learned to have a deep respectfor the teachings of the great Sage. John Nevius of the T 60 Presbyterian mission said of Confucius, "The sys­ , tem of ethics and morality which he taught is the Miles purestwhichhas everoriginated in the history of the 1892 world, independent of the divine revelation in the 1898 Bible,andhe hasexerted a greaterinfluencefor good 1898 upon our race than any other uninspired sage of antiquity."? The strategy of John Nevius and Hunter Map names in modern Pinyin; Corbett, both of the Presbyterian mission, and Brit­ Wade-Giles ortraditional forms in parenthesis ish Baptist Timothy Richard was to quote from Societies entering Shandong via Chefoo, The Northwest, and Qingdao. Confucius as a springboard from which to lead the hearers on to the deeper teachings of Christ and the British Baptist Timothy Richard aimed at reaching the lite­ dynamics of his power. rati through intellectual discussions and the publishing of aca­ demic writings, believing that the common people would follow Early Opposition if their leaders, whom they held in high respect, accepted the Christian religion. This approach, while creating goodwill be­ The gentry and populace, however, opposed the teachings of the tween the missionaries and community leaders, brought little new religion. Open-air services and the distribution of tracts, tangible results. The strategy of Arthur Smith of the American methods used in young mission fields throughout the world, Board was the opposite. He argued that Christ always started broughtlittle response here. Thus, in orderto gaina basichearing with the disadvantaged and the poor and worked upward.' for the Gospel, many missionaries turned to the running of Calvin Mateer, with a genius for making gadgets and con­ primary schools and small hospitals and clinics, much to the ducting laboratory experiments, gave scientific demonstrations dismay of the home boards, who charged that donations for to groupsofinterestedstudents,regardinghis method as preparatio evangelism were being misused. evangelica. His major strategy can be seen in the way that he and This change of approach brought a little more response. his wife, Julia, ran the Tengchow College. Having no children of Then in 1877/78 a devastating famine over an extensive area of the province involved the missionaries in large-scale reliefwork. Timothy Richard of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) ob­ Timothy Richard aimed at tained from the foreign communities in Chefoo and Shanghai large sums of money for the thousands of peasants dying of the literati. Arthur Smith hunger. He and John Nevius, and later other Protestant mission­ argued that Christ always aries,