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Keeping up with the Chinese: Constituting and Reconstituting the Anglican Church in South China, 1897–1951

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2020

Tim Yung
Tim Yung*
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
*
*E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

When Anglican missionaries helped to constitute the Chinese Anglican Church (Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui) in 1912, they had a particular expectation of how the church would one day become self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating. The first constitution crafted by missionary bishops presupposed an infant church that would require the step-by-step guidance of its parent association. However, the intended trajectory was superseded by the zeal of Chinese Christians and drastic changes in the national government of China. The constitutional basis of the Chinese Anglican Church had to be restructured fundamentally again and again due to political upheaval in republican China, the Japanese occupation and the Communist revolution. This article explores the difficulties of crafting and implementing church constitutions in China in the first half of the turbulent twentieth century. Focusing on the South China diocese, wider questions are posed about the formation of canon law in an age of extremes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 56: THE CHURCH AND THE LAW , June 2020 , pp. 383 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2020

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References

1 Stanley, Brian, The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910, SHCM (Grand Rapids, MI, 2009), 132Google Scholar.

2 Bray, Gerald, ed., The Anglican Canons 1529–1947, CERS 6 (Woodbridge, 1998), xxixGoogle Scholar.

3 For politics and the Chinese Anglican Church, see Philip Wickeri, ‘The Vicissitudes of Anglicanism in China, 1912–Present’, in William Sachs, ed., OHA, 5: Global Anglicanism, c.1910–2000 (Oxford, 2017), 148–68. For broader discussions, see Daniel Bays, A New History of Christianity in China, Blackwell Guides to Global Christianity (Malden, MA, and Oxford, 2012), Chloë Starr, Chinese Theology: Text and Context (New Haven, CT, 2016), Anthony C. Yu, State and Religion in China: Historical and Textual Perspectives (Chicago, IL, 2005). For general histories of the CHSKH, see Philip Wickeri, ed., Christian Encounters with Chinese Culture (Hong Kong, 2015); G. F. S. Gray, Anglicans in China: A History of the Zhonghua Shenggong Hui (Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui), ed. Martha Lund Smalley (New Haven, CT, 1996); Gordon Hewitt, The Problems of Success: A History of the Church Missionary Society, 1910–1942, 2: Asia, Overseas Partners (London, 1977). On South China, see Endacott, George and She, Dorothy, The Diocese of Victoria, Hong Kong: A Hundred Years of Church History, 1849–1949 (Hong Kong, 1949)Google Scholar; 鍾仁立 [Zhong Renli], 中華聖公會華南教區百年史略 [Zhonghua Shenggonghui Huanan jiaoqu bainian shilüe / The Centenary History of the CHSKH South China Diocese] (Hong Kong, 1951).

4 Stanley, World Missionary Conference, 8.

5 For instance, earlier Lambeth Conferences were occupied with resolving legal problems concerning episcopal jurisdiction (e.g. Lambeth 1878, resolution 11; Lambeth 1888, resolution 19; Lambeth 1897, resolution 24). The question of constituting indigenous churches remained a matter for the future. For details, see ‘Lambeth Conference’, online at <https://www.anglicancommunion.org/structures/instruments-of-communion/lambeth-conference.aspx>, accessed 12 February 2019.

6 Hong Kong Public Records Office (hereafter: HKPRO), HKMS94/1/5/60, ‘Letters and Resolutions of the Conference of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion in China, Hongkong and Corea held at Shanghai’, October 1899, 3–6.

7 Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Archive (hereafter: HKSKH), 2183/85, Bishop C. P. Scott, ‘The Chung-Hua Sheng Kung Hui’, 1918, 1–2.

8 HKPRO, HKMS94/1/5/60, ‘Letters and Resolutions of the Conference of the Bishops of the Anglican Communion in China and Hongkong held at Shanghai’, October 1903, 5. The bishops represented the dioceses of Shanghai (established in 1844), Victoria (Hong Kong) (1849), North China (1872), Chekiang (Zhejiang) (1880), Hankow (Hankou) (1901) and Shantung (Shandong) (1903).

9 HKPRO, HKMS94/1/5/52, ‘Letter from Clergy in Dioceses to Anglican Bishops in China about Unity’, 1906.

10 HKPRO, HKMS94/1/6/34, ‘Report and Resolutions of the Conference of the Anglican Communion in China and Hongkong held in Shanghai’, April 1907, 18.

11 Ibid. 7–8.

12 Gordon Hewitt, The Problems of Success: A History of the Church Missionary Society, 1910–1942, 1: In Tropical Africa, the Middle East, at Home (London, 1971), 36; Stanley, World Missionary Conference, 248–76.

13 London, LPL, LC100/7, ‘Report of the Committee on Foreign Missions’, 1908, fol. 7.

14 LPL, Davidson Papers, vol. 252, fols 2–3, Hoare to Fox, 17 August 1906; fols 9–13, Banister, memorandum on the proposed new diocese, 15 February 1909; fols 26–7, Banister to Fox, 11 May 1909; fol. 57, Fox to Davidson, 8 November 1909.

15 Ibid., vol. 191, fols 120–1, Banister to Davidson, 7 September 1914.

16 Scott, ‘The Chung-Hua Sheng Kung Hui’, 4.

17 LPL, Davidson Papers, vol. 252, fols 85–9, Davidson to Molony, 26 February 1918; fols 93–4, Molony to Davidson, 19 April 1918.

18 Birmingham, CRL, CMS Archive, CMS/G/AZ4/174, confidential memorandum, Baylis to King, n.d., 2–9.

19 HKSKH, 2755, ‘Provisional Constitution and Canons of the Chung Wa Sheng Kung Hui in the Diocese of Victoria Hongkong’, 1918, 4.

20 CRL, CMS Archive, G1/CH/1/L/4/60, Baylis to Duppuy, 23 September 1920.

21 LPL, LC114, Lambeth Conference 1920, ‘Memorandum of a Meeting of Chinese Bishops’, 2 August 1920, fols 84–92.

22 黃滌新 [Huang Dixin], ‘中華聖公會自行建堂之芻議’ [‘Zhonghuashenggonghui Zixingjiantang Zhichuyi’ / ‘A Modest Proposal on how the CHSKH can be Established as Autonomous’], 中華聖公會報 [Zhonghuashenggonghui Bao / Chinese Churchman] 7/5 (May 1914), 1.

23 CRL, CMS Archive, G1/CH/1/O/121, Lander to Baylis, 15 August 1913.

24 For more on the post-Versailles mood in China, see Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism (Oxford, 2007).

25 朱哲之 [Zhu Zhezhi], ‘如何使聖公會自養自治自傳’ [‘Ruheshi Shenggonghui Ziyang Zizhi Zichuan’ / ‘How the CHSKH can become Self-Supporting, Self-Governing and Self-Propagating’], 中華聖公會報 [Zhonghuashenggonghui Bao / Chinese Churchman] 14/24 (December 1921), 4–7. After the 1903 conference, four further dioceses were established: Fukien (Fujian) (1906), Kwangsi-Hunan (Guangxi-Hunan) (1909), Honan (Henan) (1909) and Anking (Anqing) (1910).

26 LPL, Davidson Papers, vol. 252, fols 334–44, Memorandum from Tissington Tatlow, 28 February 1927.

27 Dunch, Ryan, Fuzhou Protestants and the Making of a Modern China, 1857–1927 (New Haven, CT, 2001)Google Scholar, is a good case study of the intersection between politics, piety and progress.

28 LPL, Davidson Papers, vol. 252, fols 132–6, joint letter from the Chinese bishops, 7 August 1920.

29 LPL, Lang Papers, vol. 100, ‘CHSKH General Synod Resolutions’, 1921, fols 86–8.

30 HKSKH, 2183/97, ‘Kwangtung Christian Council Notes’, 7 November 1925.

31 LPL, Lang Papers, vol. 100, fols 81–5, Norris to Davidson, 11 June 1928.

32 Ibid., fols 99–101, Davidson to Norris, July 1928.

33 Ibid., fols 102–6, Norris to Davidson, 31 August 1928.

34 Ibid., fols 110–11, ‘Memo: Interview with Bishop Roots of Hankow’, 13 December 1928.

35 HKSKH, 2930/3, Seventh South China Diocesan Synod Meeting minutes, September 1928, 6–7.

36 HKSKH, 2486/1, Standing Committee minutes, 30 April 1929, 1–4.

37 LPL, Lang Papers, vol. 124, fols 191–3, Lang to Mowll, 21 July 1933; fols 194–6, Lang to Norris, 21 July 1933; fols 197–201, Norris to Lang, 24 July 1933; fols 207–9, Cash to Lang, 28 July 1933; fols 211–12, Lang to Cash, 7 August 1933.

38 Ibid., fols 194–6, Lang to Norris, 21 July 1933; fols 224–6, Alan Campbell Don, memorandum on China, 18 August 1933.

39 Hewitt, Problems of Success, 1: 465–70. In 1922, a sizeable group chose to break away from the CMS and form the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society over disagreements on the official stance of the CMS concerning biblical inerrancy.

40 LPL, Lang Papers, vol. 100, standing order of the CHSKH House of Bishops, 1924, fols 93–4.

41 Ibid., vol. 124, fol. 252, Norris to Lang, 22 August 1934.

42 ‘Native elected Diocesan Bishop’, South China Morning Post, 5 May 1934, 3.

43 ‘Assistant Bishop in S. China Diocese’, South China Morning Post, 5 June 1933, 16; Gray, Anglicans in China, ed. Smalley, 50.

44 HKSKH, 2756/1, Minutes of the Eighth Diocesan Synod, 1929, 5–9.

45 HKSKH, 2930/1, Fifth South China Diocesan Synod Meeting minutes, September 1926, 4; 2930/3, Seventh South China Diocesan Synod Meeting minutes, September 1928, 10.

46 HKSKH, 2755/36, Constitutions and canons of the CHSKH diocesan synod, 1929, 10–11; 2138/102, CMS resolution on diocesan board of missions, 23 January 1929.

47 LPL, William Temple Papers, vol. 10, fols 338–41, draft memorandum on ‘Church in China’, 26 June 1942.

48 Ibid., fols 358–61, Barclay to Davidson, 30 July 1942.

49 LPL, MS 3126, fols 477–8, ‘Diocese of Hong Kong Unified Statement 1939–40’, 28 October 1938.

50 LPL, William Temple Papers, vol. 10, fols 349–52, ‘Comments on Memorandum on Church in China’, 6 July 1942.

51 CRL, CMS Archive, G/AP3/1, Warren to Wittenbach, 23 October 1946.

52 LPL, Fisher Papers, vol. 24, fols 251–60, ‘Max Warren's Report of Shanghai General Synod’, August 1947.

53 CRL, CMS Archive, CMS/ACC589/O1, Wittenbach's China tour journal, ch. 2, ‘Canton’, unpaginated.

54 Ibid., CH/g/O1, Outside Organisations – CHSKH 1937–1950, ‘Explanatory Note to Memorandum’, 22 May 1943.

55 Ibid., ‘Crises of the CHSKH’, May 1943, 1.

56 The dioceses of Shensi (Shaanxi) and Yunkwei (Yunnan-Guizhou) were established in 1934 and 1947 respectively.

57 ‘Crises of the CHSKH’, 2.

58 CRL, CMS Archive, CMS/G/AD1/10, ‘Warren's Report to Executive Committee’, 14 October 1947, 2–5.

59 Anglican Communion Office, ‘The Lambeth Conference: Resolutions Archive from 1948’ (2005), 6, 21, online at: <http://www.anglicancommunion.org/media/127737/1948.pdf>, accessed 12 July 2018.

60 London, CERC, MC/OV/CHINA/2/1, Tsu-Temple conversation notes, 14 September 1944.

61 LPL, Fisher Papers, vol. 24, fol. 247, Fisher to Warren, 4 June 1947.

62 HKSKH, 2755/34, ‘Constitution and Canons of the CHSKH’, 1948.

63 HKSKH, 2737/1, Standing Committee to CMS London, 10 December 1945.

64 HKSKH, 2737/2, Diocesanization Meeting minutes, 7 December 1946.

65 HKSKH, 2737/7, Diocesanization Meeting minutes, 6 June 1947.

66 ‘Victoria Diocese: Why the Status of Bishop has been changed’, South China Morning Post, 8 August 1947, 8.

67 LPL, Fisher Papers, vol. 84, fols 58–66, Hong Kong Diocesan Synod petition to Canterbury, 21 August 1951.

68 CRL, CMS Archive, CHg/AC1, Purchas to Wittenbach, 12 June 1950, 136–7.

69 LPL, Fisher Papers, vol. 84, fols 34–6, Moyung to Chung, 13 May 1951.

70 Ibid., fols 79–83, memorandum on conversation with Purchas, 14 September 1951.

71 Ibid., fols 40–1, Fisher to Hall, 13 June 1951.

72 HKSKH, 2463/2, ‘The Bishop's Charge’, 1951.

73 For more on this method in the history of Christianity, see Cabrita, Joel, Maxwell, David and Wild-Wood, Emma, eds, Relocating World Christianity: Interdisciplinary Studies in Universal and Local Expressions of the Christian Faith, Theology and Mission in World Christianity 7 (Leiden, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 The diocese of Hong Kong and Macao became the province of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui in 1998, after Hong Kong and Macau rejoined China with the legal status of ‘Special Administrative Region’.