The Church of the East and the Church of England A History of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Assyrian Mission

by Coakley, J. F.

• ISBN13: 9780198267447
• ISBN10: 0198267444
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-08-20
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

In the years before the First World War the Church of England maintained a mission of help to the Assyrian Church of the East (popularly known as the Nestorian Church) in its then homeland, a corner of eastern Turkey and north-western Persia. The mission's ideal was to restore this body to itsancient vitality and its place as an independent branch of the true church. The mission faced many problems. At home there was the difficulty of justifying the support of a 'heretical' church. In the field, the confidence of the Assyrians proved difficult to gain, especially in competition withother missions: French Catholic and American Presbyterian. Still, it had notable accomplishments. Some of the missionaries were scholars, like A. J. Maclean, who edited and printed the ancient Syriac liturgies of the Church for the first time. Others were diplomats, like W. A. Wigram, who labouredto establish a basis for intercommunion between the two churches. Archbishop Benson, the founder, strictly ruled out any proselytizing to the Anglican church, and in this respect his Assyrian mission stands scrutiny in modern eyes.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps
Introduction
Scope, aims, point of view	p. 1
Terminology	p. 4
Sources and scholarly apparatus	p. 6
First Acquaintance
The Church of the East in 1835	p. 11
Earliest contacts with the Church of England	p. 18
George Percy Badger	p. 35
An interval	p. 44
Towards a Mission, 1868-1884
New petitions, new plans	p. 55
E.L. Cutts and Christians under the Crescent	p. 68
Rudolph Wahl, Archbishop Tait's missionary	p. 76
The end of the beginning	p. 86
Archbishop Benson's Mission, 1884-1890
The re-foundation	p. 98
The first four years in Urmia	p. 108
In the mountains	p. 123
Nestorianism and printing	p. 134
Home organization	p. 144
Growth and Development, 1890-1896
The Sisters of Bethany	p. 150
Maclean and his successors	p. 163
Anglican v. Catholic missions: Turkey	p. 170
Anglican v. Catholic missions: Persia	p. 179
The end of expansion	p. 186
The Court of Mar Shimun	p. 195
F.F. Irving	p. 204
Reverses and Recovery, 1896-1904
The murder of a bishop	p. 209
The Russian crisis	p. 216
Reduced circumstances in Persia	p. 234
Wider work in Turkey, narrower means at home	p. 250
Catholics and the Catholikos again	p. 257
Last Initiatives, 1903-1915
Mar Shimun and the Malabar connection	p. 270
The Old Church in Persia	p. 279
Facing the doctrinal question	p. 290
From Van to Amadia	p. 300
After Browne	p. 314
On sufferance	p. 325
In Retirement, 1915-1938
The First World War	p. 336
Wigram, the Mission, and the refugees	p. 340
Unfinished business, 1922-1930	p. 346
Disengagement	p. 354
Notes	p. 365
Select Bibliography	p. 407
Index	p. 414
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.