Irish Presbyterian Mission

The Irish Presbyterian Mission was an Irish Presbyterian missionary society.

Activities

China

It was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty.^[1]

India

It also sent missionaries to Kathiawar peninsula of Gujarat, India in 1840s.

The Irish Presbyterian Church commissioned Alexander Kerr and James Glasgow in 1840 for missionary work in Gujarat. They arrived in Bombay in 1841 and reached Kathiawar Peninsula. They set up mission offices in Porbandar and Ghogha by 1843. When London Missionary Society closed its mission in Surat in 1847, the IP mission took over the church. It restarted it work in Ahmedabad in 1863. The mission established the first Christian village in Gujarat, Khashivadi near Borsad, in 1847. It also established a Robert's Hospital in Borsad in 1859. It founded other Christian villages; Ranipur near Ahmedabad (1862), Wallacepur, Khadana near Borsad, Porda, Anand, Brookhill and Nadiad. It also established the first 'ony girls' school at Muglisara, Surat in 1876. The first theological training course was set up in 1864 in Ahmedabad. In 1892, Fleming Stevenson Divinity College opened under the guidance of G. P. Taylor. In 1948, the administration was taken over by Gujarat Church Council (Presbytery) and later by Gujarat Christian Society by 1969.^[2][3][4]

See also

• Protestant missionary societies in China during the 19th Century
• Timeline of Chinese history
• 19th-century Protestant missions in China
• List of Protestant missionaries in China
• Christianity in China
• I P Mission School

References

1. Fulton, Austin (1967). Through Earthquake Wind and Fire: church and mission in Manchuria 1867-1950: the work of the United Presbyterian Church, the United Free Church of Scotland, the Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland with the Chinese Church in Manchuria. Edinburgh: St Andrew Press.
2. Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad. Government Central Press. 1879. p. 310.
3. "Irish took to Gujarat with missionary zeal". The Times of India. 24 November 2013. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
4. "Archives of the Irish Presbyterian Mission in Gujarat". yale.edu. Retrieved 20 February 2015.

Further reading

• Badley, B. H. (Brenton Hamline) (1886). "The Irish Presbyterian Mission". Indian Missionary Directory and Memorial Volume. Princeton Theological Seminary Library (3rd ed.). Calcutta: Methodist Publishing House. pp. 183-185.