South Seas Evangelical Church, Solomon Islands

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, with ten men from New Hebrides, and a young La-as-si, 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, and the QKM was established in 1886 based on the models of the China Inland Mission and the Livingstone Inland Mission.

Its governing structure was congregational, with leadership in elected elders. Young relied on help initially from her sister-in-law, Ellen Young, and encouraged remotely by Mrs. Ben Dowling, a retired missionary to India, as well as her family, and 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, Florence Buchanan and Ellen 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.

Also See

• Pearls from the Pacific, London & Edinburgh: Marshall Brothers, 1925
  • Florence Young's autobiography

• missiology.org   

Sources

Wikipedia

• Florence Young
• South Seas Evangelical Church

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.