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The Voluntary Principle in the Colonial Situation: Theory and Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Margaret Donaldson
Margaret Donaldson*
Affiliation:
Rhodes University, Grahamstown
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Extract

When the London Missionary Society (LMS) came into being in 1795 two principles formed the twin pillars of its existence: the Fundamental Principle, which declared that the Society existed to preach the gospel to the heathen and not to promote any particular form of church polity: and the voluntary principle, which declared that financial responsibility for a church devolved upon its members, and not upon the government or, in the long term, upon the missionary society. This paper examines the problems of applying the voluntary principle in a colonial situation. The investigation focuses on the work of the Revd Richard Birt, LMS missionary in South Africa from 1838 to 1892. Birt was a supporter of the voluntary principle by conviction, by background and by commitment to the LMS. In practice, however, his life’s work was to show the difficulty of maintaining the voluntary principle in a pioneering missionary situation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 23: Voluntary Religion , 1986 , pp. 381 - 390
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1986

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References

* Abbreviations: CWM Council for World Mission; CA Cape Archives

1 Kaye, E., The King’s Weigh House Chapel (London 1968) p. 67.Google Scholar

2 Bin to Directors, 14 Apr. 1847, CWM SAI Box 21 FI 5D.

3 Birt to Directors, October 1849, CWM SAI Box 24 F2 JD.

4 Freeman, J.J., A Tour in South Africa (London 1851) p. 106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Southey, Circular to Missionaries, 17 Apr. 1848, CA BK 437.

6 Birt to McKinnon, 26 July 1848 and 28 Aug. 1848, CA BK 433.

7 Board Minutes, 24 Oct. 1849, CWM Box 31.

8 Baines to Freeman, 27 Sept. 1847 CWM Home Box 9 F5 JB.

9 Union Chapel, Minutes of Church Meetings, 31 May 1848 and 30 Mar. 1855, CA ACC 1697.

10 Peelton Report 1850, CW, SAI Box 25 F5 JC.

11 Grey to Maclean, 27 Aug. 1855, CA BK 1; Rawson to Maclean, 19 May 1855, CA BK 437; Birt to Maclean, 15 Sept. 1855, CA BK 91.

12 Lovett, R., The History of the London Missionary Society 2 vols. (London 1899) 1 P. 575.Google Scholar

13 Birt to Directors, 8 Aug. 1855, CWM SAI Box 29 F4 JA.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid. This estimate was too low. By 1858 the government had provided £916. Pilkington to Maclean, Estimate for finishing Peelton Schools, 29 Jan. 1858, CA BK 91.

17 Tidman to Birt, 23 Jan. 1856, CWM Africa Europe and Madagascar Outgoing Box 8.

18 Maclean Memorandum, enclosed with Maclean to Grey, 17 July 1856, CA GH 8/29.

19 Birt to Tidman, 8 June 1860, CWM SAI Box 32 Fi D.

20 Whitehouse to Birt, 6 Oct. 1870, CWM Africa Outgoing Box 12.

21 Birt to Mullens, 13 July 1875, CWM SAI Box 38 F2 J1.

22 Birt to Directors, 8 Aug. 1855, CWM SAI Box 29 F4 JA.