News
Stockwell, F. Olin & Esther (1900-1992)
Educational Missionaries In China And Singapore
Born in Oklahoma and Korea, Olin served as pastor in his home state of Oklahoma immediately after his marriage to Esther on 20 Jun 1924. In 1929, they went as Methodist missionaries to Foochow, China, and in 1939 to Chengdu. During this period, Olin served as an effective missionary preacher while Esther taught music in church-related colleges. They returned to the United States on furlough in 1941, and Esther earned a master of music degree in Chicago. Olin returned to China during World War II, and Esther rejoined him in 1946.
In 1950, Olin was arrested by the Chinese Communist government and was imprisoned in Chungking for two years. There he wrote some meditations or devotional talks with only the help of Moffatt’s translation of the New Testament. He also wrote about his experiences on the margins in an anthology of modern poetry, calling it With God in Red China.
Olin and Esther came to Singapore at the end of the missionary exodus from China occasioned by the new Communist government and the hatred engendered by the Korean War. They were “missionary refugees” welcomed on to the Trinity Theological College faculty, where they remained for 12 years (1955-67).
Esther taught English and music (piano and organ), and kept her home open to students and friends. Olin had one message, which he preached repeatedly, namely, that a strong church demanded well-trained pastors. He said, “Our march toward a self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating church depended on trained leadership, and that leadership we could produce at Trinity.”
The Stockwells showed faithfulness and courage in China. Teaching in two languages in Singapore, they manifested a consuming desire to train Christian leadership for the churches of Southeast Asia.
By Ho Chi Sin, Former Bishop, The Methodist Church in Singapore, Republic of Singapore
This article is reproduced from A Dictionary of Asian Christianity, copyright 2001 by Scott W. Sunquist, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved. It is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/s/stockwell-f-olin-and-esther.php
Sources:
Stockwell, F. Olin, With God in Red China (1953); Meditations from a Prison Cell (1954).
Zamora, Nicolas
First Indigenous Filipino Missionary And Founder Of Independent Filipino Methodism
One Sunday in July 1899, the interpreter for missionary Arthur W. Prautch failed to appear at services in Manila. Prautch asked one of the congregation, Paulino Zamora, to speak. Zamora did so briefly and then bowed out in favor of his son Nicolas, who he said could speak better than he. Young Zamora came forward, and surprised the small group by delivering an eloquent and effective sermon. His preaching was so impressive that Prautch placed the Sunday afternoon services in his hands.
Paulino’s uncle was Father Jacinto Zamora, one of three Filipino secular priests executed by the Spanish government for subversion, though generally believed to be quite innocent. The Zamora family became bitterly antifriar, and Paulino, breaking the Church’s tabu against private reading of the Bible, secured a copy of the Scriptures from a sea captain, read it, became a Protestant, moved out of Manila in order to pursue his Bibles studies in safety, and began introducing the Bible to his neighbors. For this he was arrested and exiled but returned to Manila after the start of US occupation.
Nicolas Zamora, just under twenty-five when he preached his first sermon, had studied in Santo Tomas University, a Roman Catholic institution in Manila. Spurred by correspondence with his father, he too studied the Bible privately and became a convinced evangelical. Soon after his first efforts as a preacher, Nicolas Zamora began devoting all his time to study and pastoral work. Under his leadership, the Spanish-language congregation at the Soldiers’ Institute began to grow, until by October there were 130 attendants. This increase was won in the face of public opposition from Roman Catholic sources.
At this point, Prautch and Zamora started a second Filipino congregation, in a private home in San Miguel, beginning with forty attendants. Zamora did the preaching, and an exhorter was engaged for house-to-house teaching and to invite people to the services.
On his second visit to Manila in 1900, Bishop James Thoburn was impressed by Nicolas Zamora—by his preaching ability and by his success as an evangelist—for Zamora was the leading spirit in the Filipino work that now was being conducted in seven congregations in Manila and its vicinity. Thoburn decided to receive him into the Methodist ministry and cabled Mission Secretary A. B. Leonard to arrange for him to be voted Conference relationship and ordination by an Annual Conference in the United States. The South Kansas Conference responded, receiving him on trial, electing him Deacon, and then transferring him to the Malaysia Mission Conference, which had oversight for the Philippines. They notified Thoburn of all this by cable. On 10 March, a few hours before leaving Manila, Thoburn ordained Zamora a Deacon, thus making him the first Filipino to become an ordained Protestant minister. He became a full member of the Malaysia Conference in 1903.
The congregation in Pandacan, where Zamora preached regularly, became Methodism’s first organized Filipino church. It soon rented the site of a house burned down the year before in fighting between the United States and the Filipino soldiers and built for a few hundred dollars a simple thatch-roofed chapel that held about a hundred people. With Bishop Warne officiating, on August 12, 1900, this became the first formally dedicated Protestant church in the Philippines.
Through Zamora’s evangelistic leadership, Methodism continued to spread in the Philippines, with additional congregations and preaching points started. He served as an itinerant evangelist. In 1906, he preached nearly seventy-five times in more than twenty-five places in and beyond the capital city. For three years, beginning in 1906, Zamora served as head of the Tondo Circuit. In that capacity, he held a group of secessionists within the Chuch and opened an intensive evangelistic campaign, preaching every evening for three and a half months.
Zamora, however, became restive in his position as a Filipino minister under American missionary direction and after a time identified himself with the very separatist influences he had sought to curb. For several years, he had been chafing under the American Methodist harness. He was a preacher of extraordinary effectiveness, and the missionaries were quite happy to have his talents available, but within limits set by themselves. Like the other Filipino preachers, he had been bound for years by a missionary field policy that forbade using funds from appropriations for the purpose of paying salaries to Filipino workers. He was recognized as the outstanding Filipino Protestant minister in the Islands. Nevertheless, the Tondo Circuit was the highest ministerial post to which he was appointed.
More broadly, Zamora was sensitive to the inferior position of the entire Filipino corps of Methodist workers. Although the evangelization of the Methodist field on Luzon had been carried out mostly through their efforts, their sacrifices, and their acceptance of hardship and persecution, even the ordained men among them had no determining voice in the ruling councils of the Mission. Policy was fashioned and administrative decisions were made by the missionaries. The District Superintendents were all Americans, and serving under them were supervising Americans designated as missionaries-in-charge, who directed the activities of all the Filipino preachers and other workers.
Once Zamora decisively identified himself with those who were discontented with the Filipinos’ second-class position in the Church, he naturally became their leader. On Sunday, 21 February 1909, Zamora stood in the pulpit of St. Pauls’ Church, Tondo, and told his congregation that he was about to leave the ministry and membership of the Methodist Church. His position was that he cherished the doctrines and customs of the Methodist Church but had decided to sever himself from it and start a new church. Almost all the Filipino lay workers present at once voiced their determination to follow Zamora out of the Methodist Church and proceeded to turn in their licenses.
Out of the days of confusion, excitement, and harsh charges and countercharges that followed Zamora’s secession emerged a new church, La Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas, which Zamora headed until his death in 1914. Into it went during the first year, in addition to the three ministers who withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church, twenty-five evangelistic workers (about a fourth of those engaged in full-time work) and fifteen hundred church members and probationers (about 5 per cent of the total for the Conference).
Adapted by David W. Scott from J. Tremayne Copplestone, History of Methodist Missions, Vol. IV: Twentieth-Century Perspectives (New York: The Board of Global Ministries, 1973); 185-99, 211-5, 225-8.
Gibson, Otis
MEC Missionary To China And Chinese-Americans
In 1854, at the age of 27, Otis Gibson, a graduate of Dickinson College, was appointed a missionary to China, along with Dr. Erastus Wentworth, professor of natural sciences at Dickinson and one of the original sponsors of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s China Mission. Gibson and his wife reached Fuzhou (Foochow) on August 13, 1855.
In Fuzhou, Gibson undertook evangelistic work. The Missionary Society decided in 1856 that a boarding school should be established for the boys besides the day school already in existence and Otis Gibson undertook the task. Children between the years of twelve and eighteen were accepted on the written agreement of parent or guardian, for a period of four to six years. The school furnished, in addition to instruction, clothes, and books, both room and board, for the purpose of providing a Christian home for the students.
Mrs. Gibson’s ill health necessitated the couple’s return to the United States, where Otis Gibson served pastorates in California.
In 1868 Gibson began work as Methodist missionary to Pacific-coast Chinese. On his initiative four Sunday schools were organized within a year, three in San Francisco, and one in San Jose. Preceding Gibson’s arrival a school had been begun on October 25, 1865, in the Powell Street Methodist Church San Francisco.
Despite the fact that Gibson was not conversant with the Cantonese dialect, he soon had a vigorous program under way. Advance was recorded when on Christmas Day, 1870, the Chinese Mission House, costing $30,000, deeded to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was dedicated. This at once became the chief center for Methodist Chinese Mission activities in the San Francisco area.
Gibson not only tended to Chinese immigrants’ spiritual and education needs; he worked to ensure their rights in their new country. Gibson was one of the few American voices that spoke out loudly against the Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882.
In 1877, Gibson began to give Christian instruction to two recent Japanese immigrants, Kanichi Miyama and K. Nonaka. This led to six Japanese being baptized two years later, the beginnings of Methodist work among Japanese immigrants to the United States.
Otis Gibson was compelled, on account of ill health, to give up the superintendency of the California Chinese Mission in 1884. His death occurred on January 25, 1889.
Adapted by David W. Scott from Wade Crawford Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, Vol. 3: Widening Horizons, 1845-95. (New York: The Board of Missions of The Methodist Church, 1957), 287-289, 292, 376-381.
Petersen, Ole Peter
Founder Of Norwegian Methodism And Co-Founder Of Norwegian-American Methodism
Methodism in Norway owes its introduction to a single founder, Ole Peter Petersen. As a young Norwegian sailor, Petersen had his first contact with the Methodists in Boston in 1843. The next three years brought much serious reflection and a strong feeling of spiritual need. In 1846 he responded to an altar call by Olof Gustaf Hedström, Swedish pastor of the Bethel Ship Mission in New York Harbor. On a sea voyage thereafter, in March of 1846, his soul found peace. Petersen returned to Norway to marry.
In 1850, Petersen returned with his new bride to America. Through the influence of Hedström, he was made a Local Preacher in 1851. Shortly thereafter Bishop E. S. Janes sent him as a missionary to the Norwegians in upper Iowa. He preached the first Methodist sermon in the US in Norwegian at Washington Prairie, Iowa.
Meanwhile, Norwegians were appealing to Hedström and to the Missionary Society for Petersen or someone equally well qualified to come to Norway and preach to them. Bishop Waugh recalled Petersen from Iowa and assigned him as a missionary to Norway. He ordained Petersen both deacon and elder on July 31, 1853. In December he arrived in Fredrikstad, Norway. Petersen gather Methodist converts there, leading them through the process of separating from the state-sponsored Lutheran church.
Petersen spent the rest of his career leading Norwegian Methodism on both sides of the Atlantic. As one point, Petersen became associated with Hedström as assistant pastor of the Bethel Ship Mission. A Norwegian-Danish mission was organized and afterward a Methodist Society was formed under the name “Bethelskib Norske Methodist-menighet,” the Bethelship Norwegian Methodist Church.
Adapted by David W. Scott from Wade Crawford Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, Vol. 3: Widening Horizons, 1845-95. (New York: The Board of Missions of The Methodist Church, 1957), 279, 933-938.
Hedström, Olof Gustaf (1803-77)
Missionary To Swedish Sailors And Immigrants To The US
Olof Gustaf Hedström was born in the province of Kronberg, Sweden. At age twenty-two, he shipped as a sailor on a vessel bound for South America. It was diverted from its course and in 1825 entered the port of New York where it was sold. On June 11, 1829, he married Caroline Pinckney and in the same year, under his wife’s influence, he was converted and immediately became active in Christian work. In 1835, he was received on trial in the New York Conference.
Peter Pergner, also a Swede and a zealous layman, became concerned for the spiritual welfare of Scandinavian sailors, thousands of whom visited the New York harbor every year. David Terry, then a city missionary, advised Bergner to correspond with Hedström, urging him to establish a Bethel Ship Mission.
Meanwhile the Missionary Society purchased an old condemned brig, remodeled it as a meeting place, created a board of trustees to hold the property, and rechristened the ship “John Wesley.” In May 1845, the New York Conference appointed Hedström to the “North River Mission.”
The first sermon in the Bethel Ship was preached on May 25, 1845, to a congregation of more than fifty persons. A Methodist Society was organized which within a few months had a membership of forty-five of whom twenty-three were seamen and six others were either wives or mothers of seamen.
Hedström’s custom was to meet all incoming ships from Scandinavian countries, distribute Bibles, sermons, and tracts, and invite the immigrants to visit the Bethel Ship. Hedström stressed the importance of temperance and frugality and it was estimated that within a few years Scandinavian seamen had deposited not less than one million dollars in the Seamen’s Savings Bank alone.
He so continuously counseled immigrants on where to settle that he has been credited with having no small part in determining the course of Swedish immigration. He made extensive missionary journeys to Swedish settlements in different parts of the country and was instrumental in 1852 in organizing Methodist Societies in Jamestown, New York, Candler’s Valley, Pennsylvania, and Chicago.
Of the immense immigration during the late forties a large part of all nationalities entered through the port of New York. In 1848 the average was more than five hundred immigrants daily. Of these the majority landed in the vicinity of the Bethel Ship with the result that not only Swedes but people of almost all nations attended religious services at the mission.
Hedström continued in charge of the Bethel Ship Mission until 1875, when illness compelled him to retire.
Adapted by David W. Scott from Wade Crawford Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, Vol. 3: Widening Horizons, 1845-95. (New York: The Board of Missions of The Methodist Church, 1957), 271-273.
Miyama, Kanichi
Founder Of Japanese-American Methodism; Missionary To Hawaii And Japan
In 1877, when only fifty or sixty Japanese had arrived in San Francisco, Kanichi Miyama and K. Nonaka began to receive Christian instruction from Otis Gibson of the Chinese Mission, and later united with the Church. Kanichi Miyama was a native of Japan, born in Choshu Province, and was of Jomura rank, and a retainer of the Lord of Choshu. He was about 28 at the time of his conversion.
In 1881, Miyama began preparation for the ministry. He had been instrumental in leading seven of his countrymen to be baptized and unite with the Church in the previous year. In 1884 he was admitted on trial to the California Annual Conference, the first Japanese ordained in the US, and commenced ministry among Japanese immigrants.
The first company of Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawaii in 1885. Two years later, Japanese Methodists in San Francisco raised among themselves $200 and sent Miyama to investigate conditions among them. He preached his first sermon in Queen Somna’s Hall on October 2 and on October 10 organized a Japanese Mutual Aid Society. On July 27, he organized in Honolulu a Methodist Society. Preceding the 1888 session of the California Conference, Miyama was appointed to the Hawaiian Mission, where he “labored with great zeal and effectiveness” before returning to San Francisco in August of 1889.
Two years later, he was transferred to work in the Japan mission, where he conducted a successful ministry there.
Adapted by David W. Scott from Wade Crawford Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, Vol. 3: Widening Horizons, 1845-95. (New York: The Board of Missions of The Methodist Church, 1957), 292-294; and Charles Volney Anthony, Fifty Years of Methodism: A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church Within the Bounds of the California Annual Conference from 1847 to 1897. (San Francisco: Methodist Book Concern, 1901), 398.
Penzotti, Francisco G. (1851-1925)
Gran Colportor Metodista
1851 – 26 de Setiembre, nacimiento de Francisco G. Penzotti en la ciudad de Chiavenna, Italia.
1864 – Llega a la ciudad de Montevideo, Uruguay, a la edad de trece años.
1870 – Contrae matrimonio con Josefa Joaquina Sagastibelza, nacida en Elduayen, España. La ceremonia religiosa se realizó en la catedral de Montevideo. Tienen ocho hijos: Adela, Francisco, Alberto, Elisa, María Esther, Pablo, Pedro, Daniel.
1875 – En los primeros días del año conoce el Evangelio en Montevideo, Uruguay.
1876 – Enero, se produce su conversión, en el templo metodista de la calle treinta y tres. A su cargo estaba el Rev. Dr. Thomas B. Wood, quien hizo realidad su conversión.
1879 – Marzo, Penzotti es enviado por el Dr. Thomas B. Wood como evangelista a la Colonia Valdense de Uruguay. Algunos valdenses se disgustaron por ser un evangelista metodista.
1883 – Penzotti se dirige a Chile, cruzando los Andes y pasando por la ciudad de Tacna, en la cual permanece un buen tiempo.
1887 – La Sociedad Misionera Metodista nombró a Penzotti como Agente de la Sociedad Bíblica Americana, para actuar como colportor de biblias en la costa del Pacífico.
05 de Diciembre, Penzotti se embarcó, con su familia y el colportor J.B. Arancet, rumbo al Perú. Hizo escala en Arica por seis meses debido a una epidemia de fiebre amarilla.
1888 – Febrero, pierde a su hija menor, de dos años, Elisa. A los siete días nacía su hija María Esther.
Julio, llegan al Callao procedente de Uruguay. Alquila un local y realiza el primer servicio religioso, celebrado con la asistencia de la familia de Penzotti y el matrimonio Noriega (Manuel y Teresa).
Octubre, la asistencia llega a más de cincuenta personas y luego a trescientas. Los ingleses ofrecieron su capilla, que permanecía cerrada por falta de pastor.
Los enemigos de Penzotti amenazaron volar la capilla con dinamita. Los ingleses aterrorizados aconsejaron a Penzotti volver a su anterior local y así lo hizo.
19 de Octubre, entre la labor de colportaje y la tarea pastoral, Penzotti administró su primer bautizo en la persona de una niña.
1889 – Penzotti organiza grupos de estudios, lo que trajo como consecuencia la formación de una congregación metodista en el puerto del Callao, la cual se constituyó el 10 de Enero, siendo la primera iglesia evangélica que se fundó en el Perú, conocida como Iglesia Metodista Episcopal del Callao. Penzotti fue su fundador y primer pastor.
16 de Junio, Penzotti realiza el primer matrimonio en la iglesia.
Agosto, la congregación se trasladó de la calle Teatro a la calle Colón 214, que era una vieja bodega.
El cura Vidal y Urias llegó a ensuciar las puertas del salón con excremento. Puso candado a las puertas, dejando encerrada a la congregación, pero el hermano Manuel Rubio, que había llegado tarde, pudo abrir el candado con una llave.
1890 – Enero, Penzotti viaja al sur del país, dejando encargada la congregación a los hermanos. Envió a Arancet e Illescas a Mollendo y él se fue a Arequipa. Los dos colportores escaparon milagrosamente de morir apedreados, mientras que a Penzotti lo llevaron a la cárcel, en la cual permaneció diecinueve días y predicando el Evangelio a los presos. Salió en libertad por orden del Presidente de la República, Don Andrés Avelino Cáceres.
26 de Julio, a las 7.00 A.M., en pleno desayuno, se presentó un oficial con cuatro agentes para llevarlo detenido por el delito de haber violado el Artículo 4° de la Constitución. La acusación la hizo el sacerdote y abogado, José Manuel Castro ante la autoridad judicial, solicitando una año de prisión y su posterior expatriación.
Penzotti fue conducido a la prisión, entre cuatro bayonetas, como un vulgar criminal. Fue encerrado en “Casas Matas”, en un calabozo del Castillo Real Felipe.
Los presos acogieron a Penzotti y él se convirtió en el consuelo para ellos. Su esposa Josefa consiguió que se le permitiera traer a su calabozo una cama y alguna otra comodidad, así como la comida diaria, ya que Penzotti no podía comer el arroz y los porotos medios crudos y mal condimentados, que se servían diariamente a los presos.
El encierro de Penzotti dio lugar a una manifestación del pueblo, tanto a favor como en contra. Los comerciantes utilizaban el apellido Penzotti como señuelo de propaganda para los artículos de su comercio. Hasta los periódicos se interesaron por el asunto Penzotti.
La esposa de Penzotti logró una entrevista con el Ministro de Gracia y Justicia. De la cual el Ministro comentó: “Es Ud. la primera esposa, que yo conozco, capaz de defender a su marido con la valentía con que Ud. lo ha hecho; y por ello la felicito.” Y ante la negativa de la señora de Penzotti de acceder a salir del país a cambio de la libertad de su esposo, el ministro exclamó: “¡Pues, Señor! ¡Jamás me vi en un trance igual! ¿Será que estos tercos y audaces protestantes han conseguido resucitar a la mujer espartana? Si no corto por lo sano, hubiera sido capaz de convencerme de que no soy cristiano. Y en verdad, que no le falta razón. ¡Cuán necesitados estamos en el Perú, de mujeres como ésta! Pero el Catolicismo no crea tipos de ese temple”
Otra acusación es hecha contra Penzotti: “seducción a los presos”; es decir, que intentó regenerarlos; lo que se le achacaba como un crimen.
En la cárcel Penzotti logró convertir a muchos presos, siendo luego miembros de la iglesia, al salir de la cárcel.
La reacción nacional e internacional no se hizo esperar. Los liberales y las logias masónicas clamaron: “Porque el asunto Penzotti se ha convertido en cuestión nacional; puesto que ante el mundo civilizado, ya no es Penzotti, sino la nación peruana, la que está presa bajo la odiosa tiranía clerical” Londres y Washington dieron instrucciones a sus representantes para que enviaran información y auxilien a Penzotti. Los abogados, Dr. José María Vivanco, Dr. José B. Ugarte, y Dr. Alberto Quimper, por encargo de la logia masónica, patrocinaban la defensa de Penzotti. El apoyo de la Masonería respondía a un movimiento encabezado por ilustres hermanos y dirigentes políticos liberales que tuvo como objetivo promover y lograr la derogación del Art. 4° de la Constitución de 1860 que prohibía la difusión de otra confesión que no fuese la católica.
Un ingeniero norteamericano y cristiano E. E. Olcott, que recorría la región minera del Perú, lo visitó y sacó las fotografías, con un artículo de lo sucedido a los periódicos (New York Herald y otros) de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica y éste fue publicado.
Un día el hijo de Penzotti llegó a la celda sin la cestita con los alimentos, ya que no había para comer en casa. Él despidió a su hijo pidiéndole que en casa estén en oración, que así también lo estaría él. Penzotti con lágrimas gimió ante el Señor y solicitó su ayuda para dar de comer a su familia.
Mientras tanto los presos al enterarse de la situación del preso amigo, hicieron una colecta y se la dieron. Sin embargo, él no la aceptó de inmediato, pidió que le dieran un plazo de tres horas para recibir la ayuda de Dios, de lo contrario la aceptaría. Al cabo de una hora, llegó su hijo trayendo la correspondencia que acababa de llegar. Entre las cartas encontró una que venía de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica y en el interior había una letra de cambio con una cantidad respetable. Los presos no podían creer lo que estaban viendo y se retiraron con la cabeza cabizbaja y sin pronunciar palabra alguna.
1891 – 28 de Marzo, a las 5.00 P.M. Penzotti salía de la cárcel en compañía de sus abogados en medio de aplausos, vivas y vítores de la multitud. Al día siguiente, Domingo de Ramos, la capilla se llenó de una concurrencia que quería escuchar a su Pastor.
24 de Agosto, llegó el Rev. Dr. Thomas B. Wood para ponerse al frente de la Obra. Penzotti tomó un descanso y se fue a Santiago de Chile, donde tenía en un colegio a sus dos hijas y de allí se marchó a Buenos Aires, Argentina, para el enlace de su hija Adela. De Buenos Aires regresó al Perú para continuar su labor.
1894 – Enero, luego de un tiempo la Sociedad Bíblica Americana solicitó a Penzotti hacer un viaje de exploración a América Central.
1903 – 06 de Junio, en la Iglesia Metodista de Nueva York, Estados Unidos de Norteamérica, fue consagrado Penzotti, Diácono y Presbítero de la Iglesia Metodista Episcopal. Regresó al Perú para ver a su familia y luego partió a ocupar su nuevo puesto en América Central.
1906 – La familia Penzotti se reúne con él, dejando definitivamente el país.
1910 – Penzotti visita el Perú en una gira al continente sudamericano.
1925 – 24 de Julio, Penzotti fue llamado a la presencia del Señor, en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Por: Rev. Lic. Jorge Bravo C., de su página web personal, http://www.angelfire.com/pe/jorgebravo/penzotti.html, con su autorización.
Fuentes de Información:
- Celada, Claudio, Un Apóstol Contemporáneo (La vida de F.G. Penzotti), Editorial “La Aurora”, Buenos Aires, 1945.
- Escobar, Samuel, “El proceso Judicial contra Francisco Penzotti” (1890-1891), Revista Época, Archivo Histórico del Protestantismo, Lima, Año 2, Nro. 3, julio-diciembre 1996, pp. 7-17.
- Actas de la Iglesia Metodista del Callao, 1888-1925.
Founder Of Peruvian Methodism
In 1883, the Methodist Episcopal Church sent Penzotti across the continent to Bolivia. He traveled with various colporteurs (peddlers of religious tracts and Bibles)—principally Andrew M. Milne of the American Bible Society—to establish mission posts. In 1885, Penzotti left his wife and children in Uruguay for 14 months while he visited Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. He was sent across the continent again in 1888, but a cholera outbreak kept him in quarantine in Peru for six months. During this time, he established a church in Callao, the seaport of Lima, Peru. In July 1888, he wrote to his mission secretary, saying: “As soon as I arrived here I sought to bring the people together, and from that time I have held three meetings each week. The attendance and interest have constantly increased.”
In fact, attendance increased so much that a much larger hall had to be rented. This drew the attention of both the Catholic clergy and the Peruvian government. So, when Penzotti and a couple of colporteurs began a Bible distribution in southern Peru in 1890, they were observed by a Catholic bishop who consequently had Penzotti arrested. The case was appealed to the president of Peru, who ordered Penzotti’s release, upon which he returned to Callao. But after the Callao Methodist Society was formally organized, persecution intensified. Notices of “Death to the Protestants” were scrawled across the door of the meeting hall. Penzotti was again arrested and thrown into jail without bail. Meanwhile, the Callao church kept growing.
Peru’s Supreme Court could not come to a decision on the case, but a couple of New York reporters published an article that garnered international interest. As a result, Penzotti was released after eight months of imprisonment. Once the ball was rolling, the US Secretary of State intervened with the government of Peru, asking for assurances that the religious liberty and safety of Protestant missionaries would be guaranteed. This international attention eased the persecution suffered by the church in Peru. In 1970, the Iglesia Metodista del Perú (IMP) became autonomous. Today, it is organized in six districts under a bishop and a general assembly.
By Christie R. House, editor of New World Outlook magazine. Based on Wade Crawford Barclay, History of Methodist Mission, Volume 3, Widening Horizons, 1845-95 (The Board of Missions of The Methodist Church, New York, 1957), pp. 773-781, 784-786.
Cartwright, Peter (1785-1872)
Pioneering Methodist Preacher In Illinois
Peter Cartwright (1785-1872) was born in Amherst County, Virginia. The family soon moved to Logan County, Kentucky, where 16 year old Peter was converted at a camp meeting and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He became a preacher in 1802 and was later ordained by Francis Asbury and William McKendree. In 1812 he was appointed a presiding elder (now District Superintendent), and he served in that office for the next fifty years.
Cartwright moved from Kentucky to Illinois in 1824. In his autobiography he gave several reasons for this decision. Among them were that in Illinois he “would get entirely clear of the evil of slavery, that he could improve his financial situation and procure lands for my children as they grew up. And…I could carry the Gospel to destitute souls that had, by their removal into some new country, been deprived of the means of grace.”
Cartwright was a founding member of the Illinois Annual Conference in 1824, and remained in Illinois for the rest of his life. He was a towering figure of frontier Methodism and one of the most colorful and energetic preachers the church has produced. He was elected to 13 General Conferences and called himself “God’s Plowman.”
Despite (or perhaps because of) his own background, Cartwright tirelessly promoted Methodist education and helped found McKendree College (Lebanon), MacMurray College (Jacksonville), and Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington). He also was active in state affairs. Twice a member of the Illinois legislature, he ran for the United States Congress in 1846, but was defeated by the Springfield lawyer, Abraham Lincoln.
In 1808, Cartwright married Frances Gaines; together they had two sons and seven daughters, one of whom, Cynthia, died on the journey to Illinois.
The present Cartwright United Methodist Church began in 1824 as a class in the Cartwright home. In 1838, Cartwright donated land and $300 towards the construction of a log chapel where the congregation worshipped until 1853. By that time, the church had grown so much that it had to divide into two congregations. One moved two miles west and built the Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church (which was torn down in 1953). The other moved into the new village of Pleasant Plains and the current building was constructed in 1857. Two additions have been made, but the sanctuary is nearly the same as it was during Cartwright’s time.
Taken with permission from Heritage Landmarks: A Traveler’s Guide to the Most Sacred Places in The United Methodist Church, by the General Commission on Archives and History. For more information, see http://www.gcah.org/research/travelers-guide/peter-cartwright-united-methodist-church
Moore, Jr. Arthur J. (1922-1996)
Mission Editor
Arthur J. Moore, Jr. was for 34 years an editor of the mission magazine of The Methodist Church, then The United Methodist Church, first with World Outlook, and later the editor in chief of New World Outlook for 22 years. At its peak, the publication has a circulation of more than 100,000. He was the son of Bishop Arthur Moore, Sr. president of The Methodist Board of Missions for almost 20 years and bishop of the Atlanta area from 1940 to 1960.
As Betty Thompson [a colleague] wrote of him when he retired: “Arthur found his true vocation as this magazine’s editor. He brought to the magazine an encyclopedic knowledge of church and culture … [a] keen intellect, wit, and intimate knowledge not only of his own church but of Christendom …. “
Lifelong concerns for Christian unity and racial justice can be seen in his early articles from 1956 and 1957, Graham wrote, “So it is not surprising for us to learn that Arthur was part of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1965-or that he covered assemblies of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi, India (1961); Uppsala, Sweden (1968); Nairobi, Kenya (1975); and Vancouver, B.C. (1983), or that he reported on the Second Vatican Council for Religious News Service in 1965.
“Arthur was also a contributor to Christianity and Crisis (on whose board he served), Commonweal, Worldview, The Christian Century, and the National Catholic Reporter. A native of San Antonio, Texas, born May 7, 1922, he served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II and graduated from Emory University in 1947.”
In 1988, Arthur was elected to the United Methodist Communicators Hall of Fame. In 1990, he was given a Citation of Honor by the Associated Church Press.
Arthur Moore transformed New World Outlook from a traditional mission magazine into a publication that covered and commented on contemporary events and that won award for editorial excellence and graphic design.
Moore died in 1996 age of 74.
This profile is drawn from a tribute to Moore written by Alma Graham, then editor of New World Outlook in the September-October 1996 issue of the magazine.
Moore, Bishop Arthur J. (1888-1974)
“Mr. Mission”
Bishop Arthur J. Moore was “Mr. Mission” for a generation of Methodists in the middle of the 20th century. He was president of the unified Board of Missions of The Methodist Church (forerunner of the Board of Global Ministries) from its founding in 1940 through 1956, and had played a pivotal role in the extensive mission work of the Methodist Episcopal Church South (MECS), beginning in 1934.
Arthur Moore was born on December 26, 1888, in Argyle, Georgia, and as a young man worked as a railroad flagman. He became a Christian and a church member in 1909 and began his ministry as a lay evangelist. Ordained deacon in 1912 and elder in 1914 he served as a general evangelist until 1920, when he was appointed pastor of the Travis Park Methodist Church in San Antonio, Texas. In 1926, he was moved to the First Methodist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, and in 1930 was elected to the MECS episcopacy, assigned to Pacific Coast Area. He studied at Emory College in Oxford, Georgia, but never graduated from a theological seminary.
As northern and southern branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church, joined by the smaller Methodist Protestant denomination, planned for union in the late 1930, Bishop Moore led a Bishops’ Crusade to enliven commitment to mission in the American Methodist family. With union in 1939, he was appointed to the Atlanta Episcopal Area, where he served until his retirement in 1960. He was president of the Council of Bishops in 1951–52.
Bishop Moore traveled the world in his capacity as president of the Board of Missions. He followed Methodist founder John Wesley in seeing the entire world has his parish. The last of his many books in 1973 was an autobiography entitled Bishop to All Peoples.
His influence reached into many parts of Methodism. In 1934, he was one of a group of leaders who created The Upper Room, the widely used daily devotional guide. He served on the board of numerous colleges, universities and health facilities, and played a role in developing the Epworth by the Sea retreat center on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
He was awarded a certificate of honor for work in humanitarian relief by the Chinese government in 1938 and in 1952 President Syngman Rhee of Korea presented him with the Korean National Medal of Honor.
In 1906, Moore had married Martha McDonald, who died in 1964, with whom he had five children, including Arthur J. Moore, Jr. who was for many years editor of New World Outlook, the official mission magazine of The United Methodist Church.
The bishop remained active as an evangelist until his death on June 30, 1974.
(The material for this profile was provided by a range of sources, including the Internet archives of The New York Times, the South Georgia Annual Conference, and the State of Georgia, and the pages of World Outlook and New World Outlook magazines. The papers of Bishop Moore are housed at the Pitt Theological Library of Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, and at the Methodist Museum, Epworth-by-the-Sea, St. Simons Island, Georgia.)
By Elliott Wright. Elliott Wright is information consultant for Global Ministries.