South Seas Evangelical Church, Solomon Islands
From BrethrenPedia
South Seas Evangelical Church was founded in 1886 as the Queensland Kanaka Mission (QKM) in Queensland, Australia as an evangelical, non-denominational church targeting Kanakas (blackbirded sugarcane plantation laborers) mostly from the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Florence Selina Harriet Young (1856-1940) is considered the founding superintendent of the organization, and their headquarters was located on her brothers' Fairymead sugar plantation near Bundaberg, on Malaita Island, where they arrived in 1880 from Invercargill, New Zealand where Florence's parents had a previous sugar plantation.
Born in Motueka, South Island, New Zealand, Florence was the fifth child of Henry (b. 1803) and Catherine Young (d. 1875), who were affiliated with the Open Brethren, and also influenced by the English Keswick Convention. Henry Cathcart Arthur Young (known as Arthur) was born in Machilipatnam, India and worked for the East India Company, and was the youngest judge in India.
Florence settled at Fairymead plantation in 1882, and indicated interest in evangelizing the Islanders, and her family offered her use of an old house on the plantation teach a Bible class in pidgin English, for ten laborers from New Hebrides, and La-as-si, the Young's housegirl, comprising her first class, according to p. 175 of her autobiography. By 1885, the classes were attracting 80 Islanders on Sundays, and 40 each evening.
The first convert was named Jimmie Aoba, after a Sunday afternoon lesson to forty men on the differences between the "the wages of sin" and "the gift of God". A few months later, Jimmie developed consumption and died on Nov. 2, 1885. Florence recalled he used to earnestly pray, "Teach all my Boys to know Thee", in reference to those from his island. Within nine months of Jimmie's death, twelve of his friends had been converted and baptized.
The QKM was established in 1886 based on the models of the China Inland Mission and the Livingstone Inland Mission. Miss Young and her friend, Miss Florence Buchanan also met weekly at the North Bundaberg State School to give a children's Bible lesson. They also began a branch of the Young People's Scripture Union, eventually becoming secretaries for Queensland, establishing other branches attracting over 4,000 members.
They produced a circular letter covering facts and needs of their outreach in Queensland, and sent it to various Christians. Florence's sister, Mrs. Deck, showed this letter to George Muller, who was visiting Sydney, and upon reading it slowly, he replied, "I think the Lord wants me to help this work", and gave her two guineas, the first contribution to the QKM, and told Mrs. Deck to advise Florence to "expect great things from God, and she will get them". They took this as God setting His seal upon the Mission.
Funds continued to come in until they had enough for their first quarter, and up until this point, the Mission was only staffed by women. One man who considered volunteering was dissuaded by his friends in Victoria who thought it "a waste for a capable Evangelist to spend his life in teaching black fellows." Some time later, the Christians among the laborers prayed in their broken English that God would send someone to teach their countrymen. A week later, C.F. Johnston, a Swede who with his wife had been with the Congo Mission in Africa, offered to join them, arriving in January, 1887.
The governing structure of QKM was congregational, with leadership in elected elders. Young relied on help initially from her sister-in-law, Ellen Thorne Young, and encouraged remotely by Mrs. Ben Dowling, a retired missionary to India, as well as her daughter Ella, who spent a winter at Fairymead, and also the Deck and Grant families. C.F. Johnston, formerly part of Livingstone Inland Mission in the Lower Congo, was also actively involved. A feast in 1890 attracted 1,000 participants.
From 1891-1900, Florence served with the China Inland Mission until the Boxer Rebellion, when she subsequently returned to assist the QKM. During her absence in China, the QKM was directed by Rev. Alfred E. Eustace and his wife L.D. Eustace, from Victoria, as well as Rev. James Coles, and Mr. and Mrs. C.F. Johnston, Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie, Miss Florence Buchanan and Ellen Thorne Young.
During 1900-01, 4776 classes were held. At the height of QKM in 1904-05, it employed 17 missionaries, and 101 volunteer "native teachers" spanning eleven centres. Between 1886-1906, 2,461 Islanders were baptized in Queensland. The South Seas Evangelical Mission (SSEM) was established in 1904/1907 by Young as a follow-up branch on the Solomon Islands. changing name to the South Seas Evangelical Church in 1964, and independent from the Mission in 1975. This church is presently the third largest denomination in the Solomon Islands, claiming 17% of the population, and is presently considered Pentecostal.
Sources
Wikipedia
Other
- “Malaitan Christians Overseas, 1880s–1910s.” Making Mala: Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s–1930s, by MOORE CLIVE, ANU Press, Australia, 2017, pp. 144-145. JSTOR, www.jstor.org. Accessed 16 Oct. 2020.
- Pearls from the Pacific, London & Edinburgh: Marshall Brothers, 1925
- Florence Young's autobiography
