Chapter III. English Church Mission to Corea: Present State and Future Prospects
IN these latter days nothing changes so often and so rapidly as the "unchanging East." And Corea has now taken its place in the kaleidoscope. There is, therefore, no exaggeration in saying that the consecration of Bishop Trollope coincided with a new epoch in the history both of the country and of the Mission. Politically Corea, after her long period of unrest, is settling down with as much good humour as she can muster under the dominion of her new masters the Japanese, and at least peace and order reign throughout the peninsula. At the same time the great religious effervescence which had been such a marked feature of the first decade of the twentieth century has somewhat subsided. There is indeed some reason to fear that the widespread movement towards Christianity, which to a great extent coincided with Bishop Turner's episcopate, may be compensated for by an equally widespread reaction during the next decade. At any rate everything points to the immediate future being a time rather of strengthening stakes than of lengthening cords. Bishop Trollope inherits the fruits of Bishop's Corfe's fifteen years of patient labour in laying foundations, and also the results reaped during the period of rapid extension, under his immediate predecessor Bishop Turner, whose soul God rest.
Let us, therefore, consider first the problem as it presented itself to the new bishop, who has now spent nearly three years in making a first-hand acquaintance with every corner of his diocese, and then the materials which he has in hand for dealing with the problem. With regard to financial support it should be noted that in 1911 the S.P.G. annual grant was raised to £2,000.
That Corea is as large as Great Britain, and boasts a population of fourteen million inhabitants is little enough to our present purpose. Nobody supposes that the Church of England is going to take in hand the conversion of the whole of Corea single-handed any more than she is likely to compass a similarly impossible task in Africa, India, China, or Japan. Be this, however, as it may, she can certainly look forward to forming a very useful factor in the future Christianity of this and other similar countries if she makes the best use of the forces at her disposal.
A glance at the map at the end of the book will show what is more to the point--viz., that apart from its sporadic work among Japanese immigrants all over the country, the energies of the Mission do not extend beyond a periphery enclosed between the 36th and 38th degrees of latitude North, and the 126th and 128th degrees of longitude East, practically co-extensive with the two central Do or provinces of Corea (Kyong-ki Do and Chung-Chong Do) with a population of about three millions. In other words, if Corea is about equal in size to Great Britain (England and Scotland), the English Church Mission is endeavouring to carry on a fairly concentrated work over an area roughly speaking equal to Wales, or the eastern counties of England between the Humber and the Nore. Comparatively "concentrated," however, as the work is, it is more than enough to exhaust the energies of the exiguous staff of clergy, at its best never numbering more than ten or twelve, at the bishop's disposal. Outside these limits, therefore, it would seem unwise for the Mission, at least under present circumstances, to wander. There is nothing gained by trying to cover the whole world with a thin layer of Anglicanism, whereas a pinch of such Catholic salt as an English Church Mission can provide may be of real service if applied within a judiciously limited area.
Leaving on one side, then, for the present the fact that the bishop is confronted with a double-barrelled task, that of ministering to the native Coreans as well as the immigrant Japanese--who are widely sundered both by difference of language and lack of racial sympathy--we will confine ourselves in the first instance to the work among the Coreans, who are after all the natives of the country, and of whom there are nearly fourteen millions, as compared with only two to three hundred thousand Japanese. The Corean Christians attached to the English Church Mission now (1915) amount to well over five thousand souls--men, women, and children--for the most part living in small villages scattered over the area above described. They are mostly dependent upon agriculture for their livelihood, and but slenderly provided with this world's goods.
For purposes of diocesan administration it has been found necessary to divide them into seven mission districts, each with a resident priest in charge. These districts, called after the name of the central towns in which the priests in charge severally reside are as follows:--
1. Seoul (opened 1891), the capital, where for a variety of reasons our work has always been weakest, the Corean Christians attached to this station at the present time barely numbering 400 souls (225 communicants). An early endeavour should be made to amend this weakness, which reacts badly on our country work. Possibly the erection of a central church or "pro-cathedral"--for which plans are now being prepared--partly as a memorial to Bishop Turner--together with a modest but adequate residence for the bishop and his "headquarters staff," may help to mitigate the extremely poor figure which the Mission at present cuts in the capital, as well as to give our scattered country work the cohesion and support which it at present lacks. But plainly what is even more needed is more continuous and uninterrupted pastoral and evangelistic work than the single-handed priest-in-charge, has ever yet been able to devote to the Corean work in Seoul and its neighbourhood. The head-quarters of the Sisters of the Community of S. Peter are also located in Seoul, as well as the residence of the priest-in-charge of Japanese work, and that of the bishop and his chaplain, by whom regular English services are kept up in the "Church of the Advent" for the small English-speaking community.
2. Chemulpo (opened 1890), the seaport, distant about twenty-four miles from the capital, shares the weakness of the Corean work in Seoul. This is doubtless partly due to the fact that for eight years (1905-13) it had no resident priest-in-charge, and could only be served rather irregularly by visits from the bishop and clergy in Seoul. The number of Christians there all told does not amount to one hundred and fifty at present, but an improvement is hoped for now that a priest--the Rev. Father Drake, S.S.M.--has taken up his residence there, charged not only with the care of the poor, but also of the Christians in the smaller islands lying off the coast. His presence is the more called for as the chief hospital of the Mission (S. Luke's), founded in 1890, is located in Chemulpo, and provides many openings of work, and until last year the doctor has had perforce to do the work of lay-reader as well as medical officer. The little Church of S. Michael, Chemulpo, is used for Corean, Japanese, and English services, and there is a resident Japanese catechist, for work amongst Japanese.
3. Kanghwa (opened 1893), our oldest and most flourishing country station, about thirty-five miles north-west of Seoul, started with two Christians in 1897, and has now nearly 1,700, of whom close on 1,000 are communicants. [Of these one died not long after his Baptism, the other, after seventeen years' faithful service as a catechist, was ordained to the diaconate, at the first ordination of native clergy, on Trinity Sunday, 1914.] It boasts two handsome churches, both built in Corean style, one in Kanghwa City (SS. Peter and Paul), the other (S. Andrew) in the village of On Su Tong, some ten miles distant, besides ten or twelve outlying chapelries, which have to be served by the priest-in-charge, Mr. Gurney. There are small but good schools for boys and girls at On Su Tong, and a house accommodating two or three lady workers in the city. In 1914 there was started in temporary buildings in Kanghwa City our college for training native clergy and catechists, under the care of Mr. Hodges, assisted by Mr. Smith, who give the otherwise single-handed priest-in-charge what help they can in his district work.
4. Suwon (opened 1905) has its headquarters in the important provincial capital of that name, about twenty-five miles south-west of Seoul, with a station on the Seoul-Fusan railway. Mr. Bridle has been priest-in-charge ever since the work opened here. In Suwon itself there is a permanent brick church (S. Stephen), together with the branch house of the Sisters of the Community of S. Peter, an orphanage which is under their care, and important boys' and girls' schools. The work spread so rapidly down the railway line and into the next province that in 1911 it became necessary to cut off this lower half, and form it into a separate district, with its head-quarters at Chun-an, referred to below. The priest-in-charge of Suwon, however, who alone of all the clergy had for a short period an assistant-priest, has still eight outlying and widely scattered village chapelries to serve, as well as the church in Suwon itself, with a total flock of nearly 900 Christians, including 600 communicants.
5. Chin Chun (opened in 1907 by Mr. Gurney), is our most distant station, and serves a large straggling district, some 80 to 100 miles south of Seoul, with about a dozen outlying chapelries, in addition to the temporary Church of S. Paul at the central station. There are just over 1,000 Christians in this district, of whom rather over 500 are communicants. An important hospital and dispensary were opened in the Mission compound here by Dr. A. F. Laws in 1909, and these are doing excellent work.
6. Chun-an, which was cut off from Su-won in 1911, lies directly south of the Suwon district, and directly west of Chin Chun. No central station has yet been created, and the priest-in-charge resides at present with the priest-in-charge of Chin Chun, being thus ten or twelve miles from his nearest chapelry, and over fifty miles from the most distant. He has ten scattered chapelries to serve, with a constituency of over 600 Christians, of whom 400 are communicants. As soon as it is possible to provide him and the priest-in-charge of Chin Chun with assistant-priests, a central Mission station for this district should be erected at or near Chun-an, an important station on the Seoul-Fusan railway, about sixty miles from Seoul and thirty-five from Suwon on the same line.
7. Paikchun, about sixty miles northwest of Seoul, lies on the mainland to the north of Kanghwa, from which it was originally served, having been made a separate district only in 1912, owing to the growth of the work and the difficulty of access. There is usually a priest-in-charge, who has flock of over 250 Christians (of whom 150 are communicants) and a temporary church in the central station dedicated to All Saints, with a small house for two or three lady workers adjoining. As an experiment a hospital and dispensary were opened here by Dr. Nancy Borrow in 1912. But, although they did an excellent work for a year and a half, they had to be closed in 1914, when Dr. Borrow--who had recently been joined by Nurse Cars-well--took the place of Dr. Laws (on furlough) at Chin Chun.
Now the first thing to be remarked about the above is that, in almost every case, the priest-in-charge is single-handed. And this is plainly an intolerable state of affairs; intolerable for the priest, who is almost bound to break down under the strain of loneliness and the heavy responsibility imposed upon him; and intolerable for the people, who, as the priest must be always on his rounds, cannot count on finding services maintained and the means of grace accessible at the central church--and who, in the not improbable event of the priest's break-down through illness, or of his absence on furlough or holiday, are deprived of everything. Of course, we recognize that the Church at home cannot reasonably be expected to go on for an unlimited time providing English pastors for the flocks which, with the help of God, we have gathered together in Corea. They must look forward to being shepherded and ministered to as soon as possible by priests of their own race. But the Church in Corea is yet very young, and the Church at home (which holds the purse-strings and controls the supply of men) only just made it possible in 1914 for us to make a beginning in training native catechists and clergy. And if that training is to be long enough and sound enough to be worth much, we are not likely to have many native priests at work for five or six years to come, at the earliest; and by that time all the priests in charge of stations will have sunk into early graves, if they are to be allowed to carry on their work single-handed.
In 1913, therefore, a scheme was put forth in which the bishop said that, if the Church at home would allow him now, once and for all, to staff his six stations (counting Seoul and Chemulpo as one) adequately by placing three priests in each, he did not think that, barring accidents of ill health and death, the Church in Corea need ever trouble the Church at home again for men! And to this he adheres, as he is confident that, with such a staff, he could well "hold the fort" until the training college began to put forth its native priests, when the European clergy could be set free to open up fresh work in districts of Corea as yet untouched. He asks for three in each station, because he regards it as of the first importance that the worship of God should be steadily maintained and the means of grace readily accessible, year in and year out, at all the central churches, without in any way hindering the constant visitation of the outlying chapelries. And two in a station is not really very much better (though it is, of course, better) than one; as in the event of sickness or furlough the staff is reduced to one again, and most probably the work in some other station has to be dislocated to supply the need. Still, if three per station cannot be attained, at least let it be two.
Chemulpo, with its more circumscribed area and its chances of being supported from Seoul, can conceivably be left single-handed; but in every other station the staff ought to be raised without delay to two, or, preferably, to three. If the latter were possible, it would mean (still leaving the Japanese work out of count) an addition of ten priests to the existing staff of eleven--of whom two are detached for training-college work--whereas an addition of five would enable us just to supply each priest-in-charge with one colleague. If the Church at home can brace herself to the bigger task, it is likely to be the last time she is troubled on the point by the Church in Corea. If she can only manage the lesser effort, she must be content to listen to repeated "appeals for men" from Corea as elsewhere.
This brings us to the question of the Native Ministry and the very important consideration as to how it is to be supported. The bishop believes that he has his clergy with him in saying that it would be disastrous for the native Church in Corea to begin by relying, as is done in so many other Missions, on annual grants from S.P.G. or other home sources for the maintenance of the native clergy.
Simultaneously, therefore, with the opening of the Training College for Clergy and Catechists, the bishop addressed to the priests-in-charge of stations a letter in which he called their attention to the point that, while the creation of a native ministry is the primary need of the Church in Corea at the present moment, it will be fruitless to spend time, money, and labour in preparing men for the ministry, if there are to be no funds available for their maintenance after ordination. Our people must learn from the outset that all Christians are bound to contribute, according to their means, to these three objects:--
(a) Church expenses: i.e., repairs, thatching, papering, furnishing, warming, and lighting of churches and chapels, together with the cost of the bread and wine, candles, incense, and other necessaries or accessories of public worship, and the provision, repair, and washing of necessary ornaments, vessels, vestments, and linen (except so far as these last four items are provided by private benefaction).
(b) The relief of the poor and needy.
(c) The maintenance of the ministry, to which may be added special collections and contributions for--
(d) Church and chapel building, support of schools, missionary work, etc.
Our people being very poor, their present "collections" and free-will offerings barely suffice to cover the first head, while special "gatherings" are occasionally made to meet the needs comprised under the second and fourth. And for many years to come special gifts of vessels, vestments, linen, and other "ornaments" will be welcome and well bestowed on those who do so much for themselves. But in the meanwhile they have by some means or another to be encouraged to add to their present offerings, adequate contributions to a fund for the maintenance of native clergy.
And it seems to the bishop that this work will best be done by something corresponding to the ancient systems of "tithe" and "glebe," that is to say, that the clergy should be partly supported out of free-will offerings made yearly, and partly out of invested capital or endowment. Let us assume, therefore, that the Church at home will continue to make herself responsible for:--
1. The maintenance of all English clergy and other workers of "foreign" birth whom she sends to Corea.
2. The maintenance (as hitherto) of the existing unordained and untrained native catechists, who will be gradually reduced in number as their places are taken by ordained clergy of native birth.
3. The actual cost of training candidates for the ministry and (where necessary) of maintaining them during training. The native Church, relieved from anxiety on these points, has to address herself to the task of raising sufficient funds to maintain her native clergy after ordination.
The bishop and his clergy in consultation with the faithful will have to settle what will be an appropriate and adequate salary for a native priest. Whatever that sum may be (and it is not likely to be much under £30 a year), the bishop will not agree to ordain any native to the diaconate and priesthood where this minimum is not ensured, nor will he, except under exceptional circumstances, agree to license or appoint any native pastor (deacon or priest) to any district which cannot provide by yearly contributions a fair proportion (say two-thirds) of the yearly income thus required. This will be in the nature of a yearly "tithe." To meet the balance (say one-third) he proposes to raise a Diocesan Endowment Fund (answering to "glebe"), the income of which may be used to bring the salary up to the required figure. In the more populous and more well-to-do districts, however, it is hoped that less and less reliance will be placed on the Diocesan Fund, thus setting it free for the smaller and poorer districts.
In order to make a beginning with this Diocesan Fund, the bishop issued instructions that each district should begin in Advent, 1913, raising a quota (based on the number of communicants), which is to be remitted to him quarterly or yearly, and for the present to be invested by him on behalf of the fund. Each priest is informed what the quota of his district is, and consults with the leaders of the native congregation as to the best way of meeting their liability. The money so raised year by year will be invested until any candidates are ready for ordination, and be increased by such other sums as the bishop is able to raise from other sources for the Diocesan Endowment Fund.
As soon as a deacon or priest is ready for ordination and appointment, any district which is raising a quota amounting to two-thirds or more of the salary decided on for a native minister may claim the use of so much of their yearly quota as is necessary to pay the minister two-thirds of his salary, while still continuing to contribute the balance to the Diocesan Fund out of which the remaining one-third will be met. This scheme has already been started, and--as it is unlikely that any native ministers will be ready for appointment for some years--there is good reason to hope that, by that time, the Diocesan Endowment Fund, fed by these yearly contributions and increased by special gifts and benefactions, will be strong enough to meet the demands made upon it, while the people will have formed the habit of regularly contributing to the Clergy Sustentation Fund.
A word now as to the Training College, which began in 1914, in a very humble and tentative way in the old mission-house in Kanghwa City (now not required for the residence of the priest-in-charge of the district), under the charge of Mr. Cecil Hodges, assisted by Mr. Stanley Smith. The two first students were our two oldest and most respected catechists, of whom one is the first adult who ever received baptism at the hands of the Mission clergy. Standing in a special position as they did, they were ordained on Trinity Sunday, 1914, if not exactly per saltum, at least with a far shorter and less exacting course of training than will be required of the ordinary students; and as one is being retained for service as assistant tutor in the college, and the other attached to the personal staff of the bishop for diocesan use, and not to any particular locality, the question of their support need not contravene the general regulations set forth above. Meanwhile the priests in charge of the several districts had prepared a small list of the more suitable young men of their acquaintance for entry as ordinary students into the college at Easter, 1914. These will have a course extending over some years, in the middle of which they will be sent out for a year or more's practical work as "reader" or possibly "subdeacon," under the eye of one or other of the priests in charge, returning later, if suitable, to continue their course and prepare for Holy Orders. Moreover, each year, beginning with this autumn, the existing untrained catechists will be brought up to the college for a "summer" or "autumn school" of two or three months' duration, the authorities of the college being at liberty to retain and draft into the class of theological students any who are in their judgement suited for the purpose. And there can be little doubt that out of the ranks of these deserving men, who have for years past borne the burden and heat of the day, some at least (D.V.) will find their way into the ranks of the ministry.
After the men, the women. What is the Mission doing or proposing to do about women workers? For it must never be forgotten that the primary reason for the presence of "foreign" workers in the Mission field is not that they (anyhow after the first few years) should do the work themselves, but that they should fit and prepare natives of the country to be missionaries to their own people.
It is now over twenty-one years since the first Sisters of the Community of S. Peter, five in number, arrived in Corea. Of these five, two are still at work there, one was invalided home after seventeen years' service, and two died at their posts. Since those early days five others have arrived, bringing their number up to seven. In the absence of trained workers it was necessary that much in the early years should be done by the Sisters themselves, and as they could not compass the whole work, other women workers have thrown in their lot with the Mission, and four of these (apart from those attached to the hospitals or working on the Japanese side) are still in Corea, working chiefly in the Kanghwa and Paikchun districts.
Probably each of the priests would gladly welcome the presence of a body of Sisters or other women resident and working in this district. The expense alone, however, of such a course would be practically prohibitive. Even more than for the men, it is necessary to have women living in threes together, so that in the event of illness or furlough removing one, it need not be necessary to remove the other also. But there is not the slightest chance of the Mission being financially in a position to provide even modest salaries and build houses for groups of women workers in each of our stations. Moreover, the larger the "foreign" staff and the bigger the "foreign" plant, the more natural the conviction on the part of the Corean, that the presence of the "foreign" missionary is an essential and permanent factor in the life of the Church.
In the early days of any Mission a considerable "foreign" element is necessary, but it requires to be kept in the background as much as possible, and to be withdrawn bit by bit, as time goes on, and the Coreans realize that the Church is their Church, and that they have to learn to stand upon their own feet, and not to be interminably "spoon-fed" by the foreign priest and women workers.
It is hoped, therefore, that while for some years to come we must continue to rely on the direct activity of our Sisters and women workers, in the near future the Sisters, instead of doing so much work directly with their own hands, will be able both to train and help the order of untrained "Bible women," upon whom we have at present to rely, and also to create a small band of trained and disciplined women, who will live under the shadow of S. Peter's Community, busy in Church needlework, washing, and similar tasks, and ready at all times to assist the Sisters and other ladies in their work of teaching and training either by travelling about the country with them or by taking classes in the head-quarters house under their supervision. The little Orphanage which the Sisters have carried on for years may produce one or two such (though the most probable fate of those brought up there is to become wives and mothers), and any school work that the Sisters may be able to carry on for girls would naturally have this as one of its objects. The Mission, now that it is face to face with this task of training native men and women workers, is feeling acutely the lack of any educational plant of any size. Small schools for boys and girls we have in Kanghwa, Suwon, Chin Chun, Chun-an, and Paikchun districts, but not on any sufficient scale. And now that the Japanese Government is undertaking the work of education in Corea, it is not too much to say that, while they show no desire to suppress existing schools, they offer no very effusive welcome to any new venture. Indeed it has now been publicly and officially stated that the Government only tolerates mission and other private schools, pending the completion of its own educational system. More and more, therefore, our educational efforts will have to take the form of making all possible use of the Government schools by providing hostels for our own children to live in, and confining ourselves, so far as special schools are concerned, to our Clergy Training College and Institute for training women workers under the Sisters. For the latter we have no pledged support at all, for the former only the interest on a grant of £3,000 from the Pan-Anglican Offering Fund (amounting at the outside to £180 a year), and a small number of studentships generously granted by the S.P.C.K. and other friends.
It remains to say a word about our hospital work, which has formed such a prominent part of the Mission's activities, ever since Bishop Corfe started out with the motto, "Preach the Kingdom of God and heal the sick," and persuaded his old sailor friends to help him to such good purpose to carry out the latter part of the injunction. What has been said above about schools is also true to a certain extent about hospitals, now that the Japanese have taken complete control of the country. Still, there is no reason why we should give up attempting to fulfil both sides of our Lord's commission.
Our chief hospital venture is now, and has been for years, in Chemulpo, where the Hospital of S. Luke has made a name for itself, and built up a work under the able supervision of Dr. Weir and his staff, which no competition on the part of the Government or any one else seems likely to affect. Only second to this is the splendid hospital and dispensary work which Dr. A. F. Laws has built up in more recent years in our most remote Mission station at Chin Chun. And there seems no reason why both these institutions should not have a long life before them. What has become plain is that the work of the Chemulpo Hospital is far more than one doctor can manage, and that now we have a third doctor in the person of Dr. Nancy Borrow it will be our wisest policy to put two to work together as soon as possible, and thus make S. Luke's Hospital, with its men's and women's wards, a stronger centre than ever; and at the same time mitigate, if not wholly obviate, the difficulty arising from absences on furlough or holiday or in consequence of illness.
We must now turn to consider the other side of the Mission's activity, viz., the work among the Japanese. Always highly important, owing to the proximity of Japan and the growing influence of the Japanese, that importance has become enormously enhanced now that Corea has been absolutely annexed as a dependency to the Japanese Empire, while the number of Japanese resident in Corea has gradually increased until the census shows that it exceeds a quarter of a million souls. It ought indeed to be accounted for righteousness to the English Church Mission in Corea that, unlike the other Missions in the country, from the outset it kept the importance of this work in view, and did its best to minister to the spiritual needs of Japanese immigrants, among whom, of course, were found from time to time some who had entered the fold of the Church in Japan. It is probably, however, true that quite fifty per cent, of the Japanese members of the Church in Corea--of whom there are now over three hundred--owe their conversion and their Baptism, under God, to the clergy and their workers labouring in connection with the English Church Mission in that country.
The work is very difficult, owing to its sporadic character--Japanese being now found in every corner of the country--and to the fact that so many of the immigrants are "birds of passage," constantly moving about from place to place, and then returning to their native land. Moreover, the Japanese language being totally distinct from that of Corea--to say nothing of racial differences--it has been inevitable hitherto that the two sides of the work should grow up side by side, finding their only point of contact in the person of the bishop.
Nor, although the Japanese authorities are making every endeavour to force the spread of the Japanese language in Corea, does there seem to be any immediate prospect of these two sections of the Christian family being able to worship together--still less to take any common synodical action. The bishop hopes indeed that before very long it may be possible to print the Prayer Book and other works of devotion and instruction in use in the Church in Corea, in parallel columns of Corean and Japanese, and, when the new "pro-cathedral" is built in Seoul, to arrange for all our Christians to worship within the same four walls if not at the same time, and for the chief Eucharist to be sung in Corean and Japanese on alternate Sundays. At present, not only do the Coreans and Japanese worship in entirely separate buildings in Seoul, but it is impossible to avoid drawing on Japan both for our Japanese liturgical and other literature, and also--which is far more important--for the bulk of our workers among the Japanese. This naturally encourages a tendency among our Japanese Christians, although they have been conspicuously loyal hitherto, to be constantly looking across the Straits of Tsushima for their inspiration and for the centre of their spiritual life; and it will obviously require great circumspection to prevent the cleavage between the two sides of the work from hardening into a positive schism, as time goes on. The difficulty is not made less by the fact that our Japanese work, except in Seoul and Chemulpo--in each of which places the Mission maintains a Japanese catechist--lies in districts remote from those in which our Corean work is centred, being strongest in Fusan and other places in the southern provinces.
Meanwhile all concerned agree that Mission work among the Japanese in Corea away from their own homes is far more hopeful and encouraging than in Japan itself, and we are thankful to be able to record a steady but slow growth all along the line. What is imperatively needed is another English priest to share with the present priest the oversight of this important work; and two, if not three, more Japanese priests who will do in Ping Yang, Gensan, and elsewhere, the same excellent work that the Rev. A. N. Shiozaki has been doing since 1910 in Fusan, where he has been ably seconded by Miss Grosjean and Miss Elrington.
Closely allied with this question is the constitutional future of the Church in Corea. At present it forms an autonomous missionary diocese directly dependent on the Archbishop of Canterbury, and lying between the highly-organized Church of Japan on one side and the Church of China on the other. It is quite certain that any proposals for merging the Church in Corea with the Church of Japan--which is also to be deprecated for other reasons--would be strongly resented by our Corean Christians, and put a great strain upon their loyalty.
Happily the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with its three mutually independent but sister Churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, provides us with a model, while the attempts made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to override the independence of the Churches of Scotland and Ireland, and to direct their affairs from England, provide us also with a warning. Meanwhile, it must be remembered that, both from the point of view of area and of the number of Christians, Corea is already as much entitled to two or three bishops as Japan is to six or seven. There is every reason, therefore, why, as the native ministry becomes a fait accompli, Corea should look forward to becoming a separate, if small province, with a distinct individuality and organization of its own as complete at least as that of the Province of York (which until the Reformation comprised only three dioceses), if not as those of the Churches of Ireland and Scotland.
Of the home organization of the English Church Mission to Corea the salient feature is that it is a child of the S.P.G., which since the foundation of the Mission in 1889 has supplied the block grants, and thus provided the backbone of the Mission finance. Bishop Corfe founded shortly after his consecration an Association of Prayer and Work for Corea, with but one rule--that of daily prayer for Foreign Missions of the Church and with no obligatory subscription. Incidentally, however, the association which has now a large membership, raises a considerable sum of money which, with contributions from other sources, is held by the S.P.G. as a "Special Fund" for Corea.
An organization of Bishop Corfe's naval friends, known as the Hospital Naval Fund, under the patronage of His Majesty King George, has ever since the inception of the Mission contributed largely to the hospital and medical work, in which (as well as in educational matters) the S.P. C.K. has also constantly given generous help.
An association of friends of the Community of S. Peter, known as the S. Peter's Foreign Mission Association, supplies the funds for the maintenance of the Sisters in Corea, and smaller associations known as the "Education Fund" and the "Children's Fund" have given considerable help to our schools and orphanage.
The home affairs of the Mission are managed by a council and an executive committee, of which the Lord Bishop of London and C. G. Napier Trollope, Esq., are respectively chairmen. The bishop's commissaries are the Rev. Canon Deedes, Vicar of S. John the Divine, Kennington; the Rev. Canon Ottley, Canon of Christ Church, Oxford; and the Rev. H. Mosley, Rector of Hackney. The organizing secretary of the Mission is the Rev. S. J. Childs Clarke, 5 Amen Court, S. Paul's Cathedral, E.C. The magazine of the Mission, known as Morning Calm, is published quarterly (3d.) by Messrs. Spottiswoode & Co., a "letter leaflet" with a communication from the bishop, and heads of Intercession being published in the intervening months.
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