The Presbyterian Moderator, Rt Rev Dr Charles McMullen, has received a special plaque in memory of the first Irish Presbyterian medical missionary to Manchuria in China, Dr Joseph M Hunter.
Pastor Chuanyu Ren, Chief Pastor of Christian Church of Liaozhong District Shenyang City, presented Dr McMullen with the plaque, which is in Mandarin and English, to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the medical mission.
Shenyang is the largest city and provincial capital of Liaoning Province, one of the People’s Republic of China’s three north eastern provinces in a part of the country formerly known as Manchuria. The Christian Church of Liaozhong District Shenyang City is an officially registered church and has 10,000 members across 16 branches. There are over 200,000 Christians in total living in Shenyang City.
“This year, 150 years ago, Dr Joseph M Hunter arrived in China.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Pastor Ren said, “This year, 150 years ago, Dr Hunter arrived in China. We really appreciate what he did for us, for China and the Chinese Christian Church. My mission has been to do something to honour the memory and legacy of Dr Hunter so we do not forget our history.
It is written ‘what we sow in tears and reap with songs of joy’, and I say truly from my heart that we should give big thanks to those who came, like Dr Hunter, and others too who gave their lives, so I really wanted to come to Ireland to say thank you and give you this plaque on behalf of the Christian community of Liaozhong District.”
Travelling with his wife, Yue Bai, who is also a pastor, their daughter Tianle and their translator, Catherine Qiufen Li, Pastor Ren said that he had a family connection with Dr Hunter. For 20 years one of his great uncles was the principal of the first school that Dr Hunter founded in 1870.
The Manchurian mission was established following resolutions to the 1867 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Volunteers were then encouraged to take part and Rev Hugh Waddell of Glenarm and Dr Hunter and his wife Elizabeth Jane, responded, sailing for China in February 1869. They landed at the port of Newchwang (now Yingkou) in April of the same year and quickly set up a Mission Station, which came to include a small dispensary, a church, and a school.
Two years after they arrived in Manchuria, Mrs Hunter died of tuberculosis, leaving an infant son, John, who was brought back to Ireland by Rev Hugh Waddell who had to return for health reasons. Dr Hunter remained in China, spending 15 years working in the dispensary, travelling widely, preaching, selling literature and giving out tracts. Sadly, he died while returning home in 1884. He was buried at sea aged 51.
Receiving the plaque, Dr McMullen explained to Pastor Ren that in the late 1980s his wife Barbara had been sent by PCI as an English teacher to China, where she spent two years, “This is an unexpected, but very welcome gift which acknowledges a deep sense of heartfelt gratitude that is still felt by our brothers and sisters in Christ in north east China for the work, mission and legacy of Irish Presbyterians. I am greatly honoured to receive this special gift on behalf of the General Assembly.
I understand that from the time of Dr Hunter and Rev Waddell until the last missionaries left Manchuria nearly 70 years ago, our Church sent over 90 men and women to that part of the country. This included one of my predecessors as Moderator, Dr Jack Weir, who was the last missionary to leave in 1950.
Today our denomination as a whole, and our local congregations across Ireland, support many people in key roles in different countries around the world, including our 29 global mission workers. Today global mission is still an intrinsic part of our Irish Presbyterian DNA,” he said.
Pastor Ren’s 12-day visit also included a meeting at Union Theological College as part of his research project on Irish Presbyterians in Manchuria. As Dean of Religions Department at the Minorities in North China Cultural Research Centre of Shenyang Normal University, he is leading a team researching and writing a number of books on the missionaries.
A special event will be held in China to mark the 150th anniversary.
In August 2019, a special event will be held in Shenyang City to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Rev Hugh Waddell & Dr Hunter in Manchuria and also Rev Dr John Ross, a Scottish missionary who arrived after the Irish Presbyterians in the 1870s. PCI will also hold an event in the autumn.
Read more PCI news on their website here.