{ "book_metadata": { "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials", "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose", "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge", "published_on": "2011" }, "chunks": [ { "chunk_index": 1, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 252 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00276-6b466301a82008bc9671.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Conference Begins in Bombay", "chunk_data": "133. THE THIRD DECENNIAL CONFERENCE, BOMBAY\n(1892-1893 A. D.)\nThe third all-India Decennial Missionary Conference began in Bombay on 29th December 1892. One notes that the issues discussed at this conference were similar to those considered at the earlier conferences. Papers cited here are found in the Report of the Third Decennial Missionary Conference held at Bombay, 1892-93. Vol. I (1) pp. 121-127; (2) pp. 247-249; Vol. II (3) pp. 602 ff.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "29 December 1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "Bombay" ], "event": "The third all-India Decennial Missionary Conference began in Bombay.", "tags": [ "Conference", "Christianity", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 2, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 252 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00276-6b466301a82008bc9671.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Banurji Defines the Native Church", "chunk_data": "1. Kali Charan Banurji on the Native Church—Its Organization and Self-Support\nThat the Missionaries of India, the majority of whom represent Foreign Missions, should, in Conference assembled, embody, in their programme, the conception of 'The Native Church,' is an indication of momentous significance. It signifies, on their part, a readiness to recognise the ideal that the Native Church in India should be one, not divided; native, not foreign. Nay, it conveys the promise that, henceforth, they shall not impose by rule, upon the converts they are privileged to gather, the accidents of denominational Christianity, at once divisive and exotic, with which they themselves happen to be identified.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Kali Charan Banurji" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Kali Charan Banurji argues that Indian Christianity should develop as one unified and indigenous Native Church.", "tags": [ "Church", "Missions", "Unity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 3, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 252 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00276-6b466301a82008bc9671.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Native Church Organization", "chunk_data": "Let us attempt an analysis of the conception, 'Native Church'. Clearly, the Church of England or Church of Scotland, for example, notwithstanding the fact that the membership of each includes natives of India, does not answer to the conception. Neither the one nor the other is the Church in India; neither to the one nor to the other, is the epithet native applicable. The conception, to be realised, demands that Indian Christians should all belong to one typical organisation, and that the organisation should be native, in the sense alike of being worked out by natives of India, and of being cast in a native mould.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "The Native Church is described as a single organization created by Indian Christians and shaped by the Indian context.", "tags": [ "Church", "Organization", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 4, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 253 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00277-9f925b5cb3e1d4919c92.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Case for Christian Unity", "chunk_data": "As regards the first of these factors, that of unity, few would go the length of challenging its desirableness, at least, in view of the belligerent position we were called upon to occupy. The besetting temptation was, rather, to deny its practicability, if not, as a tentative and transitory prelude or interlude, at all events as a durable finality. But the prayer of unity is allowed to be the prayer of orthodoxy and not of heterodoxy. Besides, the discountenancing insinuation is an audacious encroachment of Christian scepticism upon ground hallowed by a thrice offered prayer of our Lord Himself. At any rate, even supposing that the unity capable of accomplishment were bound to be of brief duration, it might, nevertheless, have a mission to discharge during its span of existence, which to despise, would be to arrogate judgment on a possible plan of Providence.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [], "event": "Kali Charan Banurji defends the desirability and possible providential purpose of Christian unity.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Unity", "Church" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 5, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 253 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00277-9f925b5cb3e1d4919c92.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Substantive and Adjective Christianity", "chunk_data": "As regards the second factor, indigenousness as to both agency and type, it would be important to emphasise the distinction between substantive and adjective Christianity. Substantive Christianity, or the principles of Christianity, its vital facts and doctrines based thereon, must ever be above all bending, in consideration of any possible environment. This issue of native or foreign, is absolutely inadmissible, when it is in the question. But adjective Christianity, or the procedure to be adopted with a view to ensure the conservation of Christian truth, where accepted, and its progression, where still in abeyance, need not be, had better not be, a hard and fast system. The very fact, that so many sects are recognised within the pale of Christendom, argues to us that orthodoxy does recognise the distinction. Substantive Christianity has been stereotyped; adjective Christianity has not been. All that is claimed for the Native Church in India, is, adjective Christianity through its own agents, and in harmony with its own environment...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Kali Charan Banurji distinguishes immutable Christian doctrine from adaptable forms of Christian practice.", "tags": [ "Religion", "Theology", "Indigenous Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 6, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 253, 254 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00277-9f925b5cb3e1d4919c92.webp", "raw\\pages\\00278-8047b94201f98cfcc61d.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Foreign Churches and Indian Development", "chunk_data": "In this view of things, Foreign Churches should simply guard the substantive Christianity of their converts, and while commending to them the importance of setting about the development of an adjective Christianity, should leave them, in the mean time, free to make their start with a type of adjective Christianity, the simplicity of which was commensurate with their infantine stage. The initial condition, then, of the organisation of the Native Church is, that Foreign Churches should, in the exercise of self-denial, refrain from imposing their adjective Christianity, by rule, on their particular converts. It is clearly the interest of each Church to secure that there might be a chance for Indian Christians as a body to grow into its organisation, and where there is faith in its excellence, there is no reason why there should not be patient waiting for such a consummation...\nWe come now to the question of self-support. The conception of self-support has unfortunately been reduced to a question of rupees.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Foreign Churches are urged to protect Christian doctrine while allowing Indian Christians to develop indigenous forms of church life.", "tags": [ "Church", "Missions", "Self-Government" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 7, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 254 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00278-8047b94201f98cfcc61d.webp" ], "chunk_title": "A Broader Meaning of Self-Support", "chunk_data": "A self-supporting congregation is understood to mean, a congregation which found the money required for the support of its pastor. It were better to include in the conception, the capability of finding, within itself, the pastor, and we would add, the missionaries, to be supported. Before a congregation is declared self-supporting, it should be possible for it to find, within itself, both men qualified to sustain and propagate Church life, and money sufficient to provide for their support. This enlarged view of self-support has an important bearing on the success of the problem in its more limited acceptation.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Kali Charan Banurji proposes that self-support include locally developed ministers, missionaries, and financial resources.", "tags": [ "Church", "Self-Support", "Leadership" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 8, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 254 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00278-8047b94201f98cfcc61d.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Gradual Growth of Congregations", "chunk_data": "Let us inquire into the causes which have hitherto frustrated, for the most part, a consummation so devoutly desired, even that of congregations finding adequate support for properly qualified pastors. Here, as in the matter of organization, Foreign Churches have fallen into the error of expecting the goal they have reached for themselves, to be the starting point with congregations in this country. Their language to the congregations founded by them has been: you must have a pastor on the salary we fix for him; so set to work at once, find a pastor, pay him as we propose, and declare yourselves self-supporting.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Foreign Churches are criticized for imposing their own financial and ministerial standards on Indian congregations.", "tags": [ "Church", "Missions", "Finance" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 9, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 254 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00278-8047b94201f98cfcc61d.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Collective Pastoral Ministry", "chunk_data": "Now, there may be no one in the congregation qualified, by himself, to overtake all the duties and responsibilities of the pastorate. The proper inference to draw from this position of affairs would be, that the congregation was not ripe yet for the economy of the one-man ministry. A believer in the divine doctrine of the fullness of time, submissive to the indications of Providence, would await in patience for the time when a pastor is raised in the congregation, and in the mean time, distribute the pastoral functions among a number, all within the congregation, who though individually unequal to the entire requirement, might collectively be able to overtake the whole duty.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Banurji recommends distributing pastoral responsibilities among several local believers until a congregation can produce a qualified pastor.", "tags": [ "Church", "Ministry", "Self-Support" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 10, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 254 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00278-8047b94201f98cfcc61d.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Imported Church Machinery", "chunk_data": "If, however, whether the one-man pastor was forthcoming or not, an appointment must be made to the pastorate, the congregation could not very well be expected to realize its responsibility in the direction of self-support. Indian Christians are, doubtless, poor, but the real drawback is not their poverty so much, as a lurking feeling, which may not always rise to consciousness, that they might, to greater purpose, spend their substance in other channels of Christian activity, than in the maintenance of a form without the substance, necessitated by the demands of a finished machinery, bodily imported into the country. Any attempt to force on the man, must fail to force on the money. God's plan of work knows of no anomalous discrepancies...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Banurji argues that imposed pastoral structures cannot create genuine financial self-support among Indian Christians.", "tags": [ "Church", "Finance", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 11, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 254, 255 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00278-8047b94201f98cfcc61d.webp", "raw\\pages\\00279-774cf583c83c61ee01ad.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Clark Describes Jesuit Methods", "chunk_data": "2. H. Martyn Clark on the Jesuit Advance\nI have now said enough to show you the nature of work done by the Romanists, and the methods by which it is carried on. The weapons of their warfare are carnal, intensely so. They neither preach, nor teach, nor do they distribute the Word of God. Popery, I found on personal enquiry, had not even penetrated skin deep into the perverts in the Punjab. The liturgical services and glories of Mary were neither understood nor appreciated. Thus I found a Christian who had been inclined to join the Papists, but was disgusted to find they prayed to Mary, 'who had crumbled into dust long ago.' Nor is he better pleased with their ritual or their way of worship, which he tersely described thus: The father stood at a table and a man stood behind holding the skirts of his robe. Then the father rang a bell and poured wine into a cup and drank it all himself and gave nobody else any—that was all the idea the celebration of the Mass conveyed to him.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "H. Martyn Clark", "Mary" ], "places": [ "Punjab" ], "event": "H. Martyn Clark criticizes Jesuit teaching and describes a Punjabi Christian's reaction to Catholic worship.", "tags": [ "Catholicism", "Punjab", "Missions" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 12, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 255 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00279-774cf583c83c61ee01ad.webp" ], "chunk_title": "A Protestant Response to Romanism", "chunk_data": "The practical question still remains: how is the Romanist onset to be met? A defensive war is usually a losing war. I counsel strongly that we should not wait to be attacked, but, wherever Romanists are, should persistently, strenuously, and most unflinchingly carry the war into the enemy's camp.\nGood concise handbooks on Romanism and tracts on it and its teaching should be prepared and published, for the use of pastors, students, teachers and for distribution. Public lectures, popular in character, concerning Romanism and its history and its doings are very valuable, the more so if they be abundantly illustrated. Carry them with the fire of the magic lantern as well as the Sword of the Spirit.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "H. Martyn Clark" ], "places": [], "event": "Clark urges Protestants to confront Romanism through publications, teaching, and public lectures.", "tags": [ "Protestantism", "Catholicism", "Evangelism" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 13, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 255 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00279-774cf583c83c61ee01ad.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Protestant Preference in Punjab", "chunk_data": "Much is to be gained by enlightening the heathen and Mohammedans concerning Papists and their doings. Thus, in the Punjab, when the Romanist tide was at its flood in the district, I found the non-Christians were like Gallio caring for none of these things, but on the whole they much preferred their old friends the Protestant Missionaries, who did not drink, were kind friends, could understand them and make themselves understood, and who never were alone with women or had them confess to them.\nThere are many other ways in which any one with a quantum of the wisdom of the serpent can checkmate the Papists without compromising in the slightest the innocency of the dove. Into these I will not here enter in detail.\nAmongst measures defensive the first place must be given to the systematic teaching of the Word of God concerning the principles of Christian life and faith, and to very definite teaching concerning the evils and errors of Popery. The practice of committing a selection of texts on such subjects to memory is highly to be recommended.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "H. Martyn Clark" ], "places": [ "Punjab" ], "event": "Clark reports that non-Christians in Punjab preferred Protestant missionaries and recommends systematic instruction against Romanism.", "tags": [ "Punjab", "Protestantism", "Education" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 14, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 255, 256 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00279-774cf583c83c61ee01ad.webp", "raw\\pages\\00280-26c63138209767049bf4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Punjab Missions Coordinate Action", "chunk_data": "As regards further measures, missionaries elsewhere should take a leaf out of the book of their Punjab brethren. In view of the Romanist invasion, the Church Missionary Society, American Presbyterian Mission, U.P. Church of America, Church of Scotland and the Baptist Mission, in short every Society at work in Punjab, with the exception of the S.P.G., appointed delegates to confer and to take common action concerning this matter.\nThe delegates met and devised a common plan of attack and defence which has been accepted by these missions. In the course of their valuable report they laid down rules for common guidance concerning candidates for Baptism, Teaching, Intercommunion, Inter-Mission Discipline, Work in Common, Social Advancement, Councils, Buildings, etc.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [], "places": [ "Punjab" ], "event": "Missionary societies in Punjab appoint delegates and adopt a common plan for responding to Romanist activity.", "tags": [ "Punjab", "Missions", "Cooperation" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 15, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 256 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00280-26c63138209767049bf4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Punjab Christians Return", "chunk_data": "We have scarcely a pervert left now in the Punjab. Those who left have almost all come back again. Similar plans in other parts of the land would, in likelihood, give equally blessed results.\nThe Romanist lion came roaring to devour us. Because of his coming, our Punjab Missions were drawn the closer together, thus were we enabled not only to rend the devourer, but also to eat out of him the sweet honey of a closer union and a more living and intelligent sympathy with one another. Why should not brethren elsewhere have the like happy experience?\nLet us be united, have right views on the subject, have a defined policy on preparation and of attack, let us steadily pursue it before the enemy is on us, and let all our teaching be of the law and testimony—so shall we be ready, and by God's blessing it will be ours not only to bring men out of the darkness of heathenism and Mohammedanism into the light of God, but it will be ours also to keep them in the pure faith, nurture and admonition of our Lord, who will Himself keep them and us from falling, and will present them and us one day at His coming, blameless and exceeding joy. A last word: it is only Protestant apathy and disunion that makes Romanism the least bit formidable.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "H. Martyn Clark" ], "places": [ "Punjab" ], "event": "Clark reports the return of most former converts in Punjab and attributes the result to Protestant cooperation.", "tags": [ "Punjab", "Protestantism", "Unity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 16, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 256 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00280-26c63138209767049bf4.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Thoburn Questions Mission Boundaries", "chunk_data": "3. Bishop Thoburn on Missionary Comity\nThe policy of assigning a separate field to each society is perfectly defensible if the object sought is solely that of making a proper division of labour, and at the same time occupying as much territory as possible. Many practical objections to such a policy have been brought to light in the progress of the work, some of which may be briefly stated:", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Bishop Thoburn introduces objections to assigning separate missionary territories to different societies.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Church", "Cooperation" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 17, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 256, 257 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00280-26c63138209767049bf4.webp", "raw\\pages\\00281-a14500eff69a38d3033f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Boundary Lines Create Disputes", "chunk_data": "1. These boundary lines are very apt to create the difficulty which they are intended to guard against. So far from keeping the missionaries apart, and thus preventing causes of disagreement, the very line itself becomes a fruitful source of contention. At the last Missionary Conference in London one brother with admirable candour admitted that his mission had suffered more trouble from disputes about boundary lines than from any other question. A boundary line is often a very shifting quantity, and it is nearly impossible to prevent contentions when dealing with vast regions in which there is no actual occupancy, while there is nearly always a strange, and not very reasonable, eagerness to grasp as wide a territory as possible...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [ "London", "India" ], "event": "Thoburn argues that mission boundaries generate disputes rather than preventing them.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Conflict", "Administration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 18, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 257 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00281-a14500eff69a38d3033f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Latecomers Face Closed Fields", "chunk_data": "2. These territorial allotments are unfair to those who come latest to the mission field. We must remember that Missionary Societies are constantly multiplying, that every few years a new society appears in such a field as India, and that its agents will naturally look around for the most suitable sphere of labour within their reach. It must puzzle them not a little to be told when they reach Bombay, that very little of India is open to them, that all the centres of influence have been occupied and are practically closed against them, and that they must seek a field which thus far has been neglected by their more fortunate brethren who came earlier upon the scene...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [ "India", "Bombay" ], "event": "Thoburn criticizes territorial allotments for restricting newer missionary societies to neglected regions.", "tags": [ "Missions", "India", "Administration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 19, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 257 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00281-a14500eff69a38d3033f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Unequal Mission Districts", "chunk_data": "3. The custom has been for the agents of each society to decide for themselves the extent of the field which they are to occupy. Some of them have made their selection with wisdom, while others have chosen fields which they had no reasonable prospect of fully occupying for years, if not centuries, to come. Experience has proved that it is nearly impossible to persuade such men that they are grasping at more than they can possibly reach, and hence we have inequalities of the most singular kind among what are called the separate mission districts of India...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Thoburn describes how missionary societies create unequal districts by claiming fields beyond their capacity to occupy.", "tags": [ "Missions", "India", "Administration" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 20, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 257 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00281-a14500eff69a38d3033f.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Territorial Rules Restrict Evangelism", "chunk_data": "4. In its practical application this rule has tended to shut out the Gospel from vast regions where it would otherwise have penetrated. It will seem incredible to those in England and America, who so earnestly advocate this policy, and yet it is a simple fact with which many of us in India are painfully familiar, that good men often object most strenuously to the advent of missionaries of other societies into regions where they themselves are not able to give the Gospel to the people...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [ "England", "America", "India" ], "event": "Thoburn argues that mission boundaries prevent evangelism in regions that the assigned society cannot adequately serve.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Evangelism", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 21, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 257, 258 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00281-a14500eff69a38d3033f.webp", "raw\\pages\\00282-75507ff69a12ddc28d99.webp" ], "chunk_title": "The Meaning of Occupation", "chunk_data": "5. The word 'occupy' is used in so flexible a way that it often misrepresents the facts. For instance, a good man, a very good man once wrote to a brother missionary that he had occupied a district containing a million of people, and hoped the brother would not enter it. The occupation consisted in sending a native preacher to live in a small town, and preach in its bazaars and the surrounding villages. Had there been any plan for extension, or any resources to make extension possible, this might have been called an occupation in part, but many years have since passed without any vigorous attempt being made to occupy the field. A district is not occupied because a missionary station has been established within its borders. Missionaries who have lived in their station for years have been startled to find people living within a few miles of their doors who had never heard the name of Jesus Christ. What, then, shall we say of the million, or perhaps two millions, who live in other parts of the so-called 'occupied district?'...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn", "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Thoburn argues that establishing a station does not constitute occupying a district when surrounding populations remain unreached.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Evangelism", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 22, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 258 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00282-75507ff69a12ddc28d99.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Accusations Among Missionaries", "chunk_data": "6. This policy annoys and harasses men who love unity and concord, and seek peace and pursue it, and yet who are constantly put in the wrong by accusations of interference with the work of others. Any man with the mind and heart which a true preacher ought to have, cannot but feel grieved and pained when accused unjustly of hindering his Master's work by marring the labours of Christian brethren. Charges of this kind are made far too freely, and very often without a shadow of just cause.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [], "event": "Thoburn condemns accusations of interference directed at missionaries who seek cooperation.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Conflict", "Unity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 23, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 258 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00282-75507ff69a12ddc28d99.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Different Peoples Need Different Missions", "chunk_data": "7. This rule ignores the fact that within a given field there may be different races, or castes or languages, and that one society may not be able, or may not choose, to do all the work to be done. For instance, Santhals and Bengali people may live side by side. One missionary may wish to work for the one people and another for the other. If the society in occupancy will do all the work, well, and good; let no one interfere with its agents. But if a tribe or a caste, or a separate people of any kind, are wholly neglected, outside people should certainly be permitted to go to these neglected people with the Gospel...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Thoburn argues that neglected ethnic, caste, or linguistic communities should remain open to other missionary societies.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Evangelism", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 24, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 258 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00282-75507ff69a12ddc28d99.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Converts Should Choose Their Mission", "chunk_data": "8. The rule ignores the freedom of the converts. As generally interpreted, it assumes that all natives who become Christians within a given area, shall be assigned to the missionary working within the area in question. It is taken for granted that the converts will do as they are told, but as a matter of fact they are by no means always willing to obey such directions. Any one who has observed the course of events in other countries, ought to be wiser than to expect that such a policy could be enforced in a country like India. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, sincere converts will wish to follow those who first bring them to Christ, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they will do better under the care of these persons than under any others...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn", "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Thoburn defends converts' freedom to remain with the missionaries who first brought them to Christianity.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Converts", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 25, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 258, 259 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00282-75507ff69a12ddc28d99.webp", "raw\\pages\\00283-38cd1ad96558191e3e45.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Indigenous Christianity Spreads", "chunk_data": "9. This policy interferes with the normal progress of the Gospel. We ought to look forward to the time when Christianity will free itself from the narrow limits of the mission house and mission agencies, and begin to advance over the country from heart to heart and from village to village, by a steady process of normal growth. Whenever it becomes a living indigenous Christianity, it will advance in this way. In some places we see indications of such advance for which we ought to be devoutly thankful...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Thoburn envisions Christianity spreading through indigenous, community-to-community growth beyond mission institutions.", "tags": [ "Christianity", "Evangelism", "Indigenous Christianity" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 26, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 259 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00283-38cd1ad96558191e3e45.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Spirit-Led Missionary Work", "chunk_data": "10. This policy ignores the special call which the Holy Spirit so often gives to the Christian preacher. Paul and Silas were Spirit-led, and they planted permanent churches where they preached. If India is ever brought to Christ, many successors to these men will yet appear. Could such men work, in India, as Paul worked? It is constantly said that Paul never built on other men's foundation, but this policy forbids a man to dig for his own foundation...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn", "Paul", "Silas", "Jesus Christ" ], "places": [ "India" ], "event": "Thoburn argues that mission boundaries obstruct Spirit-led preachers from founding new churches in India.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Holy Spirit", "India" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 27, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 259 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00283-38cd1ad96558191e3e45.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Limits of Intermissional Rules", "chunk_data": "II. Let us in the next place glance briefly at the proposed code of intermissional rules. Such a code, if agreed upon with practical unanimity by all the Societies interested, would no doubt be of value as a guide to young missionaries, and it would also greatly influence public opinion, which in the long run will be found the chief factor in settling points in controversy. But it is nearly certain that any attempt to give such rules the force of laws will end in failure, and probably aggravate the evils which they are intended to prevent...", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [], "event": "Thoburn supports voluntary intermissional rules as guidance but rejects enforcing them as laws.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Administration", "Cooperation" ] } }, { "chunk_index": 28, "chapter_name": "1892-1893. The Third Decennial Conference, Bombay", "page_numbers": [ 259 ], "image_paths": [ "raw\\pages\\00283-38cd1ad96558191e3e45.webp" ], "chunk_title": "Missionaries Should Work Together", "chunk_data": "III. If, then, we are to have no code of rules and no mission boundaries, can nothing at all be done to promote a proper spirit of comity among missionaries? Beyond all doubt something can be done, but not on the old lines.\n1. First of all, there should be a radical change of policy. We should for ever discard the notion that missionaries cannot dwell together in love and harmony. Instead of saying, How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell apart in comity, let us boldly and firmly maintain the ground that it is a good and pleasant thing for brethren to dwell and work together in amity. As a matter of fact, we all have reasons to know that brethren of different societies who live and work side by side have fewer differences than those who live far apart. We ought to be ashamed to proclaim to the world that we cannot work side by side. I saw Christians of two societies last year in a common assembly day after day, taking counsel together, and waiting on God together, and it was impossible to distinguish between them. How much better this than to keep them separated as if they belonged to separate castes! We need not plant our stations in the same towns for the mere sake of exhibiting our fraternal love, but let us no longer shun one another's presence, and thus ostentatiously proclaim to the world that we cannot live together.", "time": { "start_year": 1892, "start_month": 12, "start_date": 29, "end_year": 1893, "end_month": null, "end_date": null, "time_display": "1892–1893" }, "meta": { "people": [ "Bishop Thoburn" ], "places": [], "event": "Thoburn calls for missionaries from different societies to live, worship, and work together in harmony.", "tags": [ "Missions", "Unity", "Cooperation" ] } } ] }