Despite its globalising and ecumenical aspirations, there remain significant geographical and confessional blind spots in the literature in World Christianity. As the leading sociologist of religion, globalisation and politics Paul Freston has remarked in an interview for this special issue, Latin America is the Cinderella of World Christianity, the continent left out of the party. We believe there are a number of reasons for that. The first has to do with the genealogy of the field. The study of Christianity in Africa generated much of the initial intellectual impetus for World Christianity. The key architect of the field, British mission historian Andrew Walls, before establishing the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World at the University of Aberdeen in 1982, also founded the Journal of Religion in Africa in 1967, an important venue for the study of local seizures of the Christian faith in the continent and its interactions with Islam and traditional religion. Since the interest around World Christianity emerged in part out of a critique of the links between mission and empire, the initial intellectual capital and interest for it flourished in former British colonial territories. Notably in Britain, some of the leading scholarly influences of the field spent part of their careers in colonial and post-colonial Africa as lecturers, teachers and researchers, including Adrian Hastings, Terence Ranger, John Peel, David Maxwell and Emma Wild-Wood. Specialists in South and East Asia, most of them theologians based in North American institutions, also joined the party and made decisive contributions to World Christianity literature, including Robert Frykenberg, Kirsteen and Sebastian Kim, Peter Phan, Alexander Chow and Chloë Starr. Although there have been recent attempts to correct this imbalance, such as the appointment of Brazilian theologian Raimundo Barreto, Jr, as co-editor of the Journal of World Christianity, scholarly attention to Latin America still lags far behind the academic literature on Africa and Asia. Second, another crucial stream that shaped the concerns of World Christianity scholars and students was a focus on Protestantism, especially its evangelical variants. The first two generations of scholars who built up the field, such as Walls, Brian Stanley, Dana Robert, Mark Hutchinson, Mark Noll and Ogbu Kalu, came from Protestant backgrounds and were experts in mostly Protestant and evangelical history and theology: Lamin Sanneh was the notable exception. Catholicism, the form of Christianity that has historically predominated in Latin America, also lags behind, while Orthodoxy only makes occasional appearances in the literature and conferences.
This flyer by the Regions Beyond Missionary Union’s Southern Sierra Team was printed in 1973 to advertise personnel requirements on the one side, and material requirements on the other. The illustrations make the advertisement more eye-catching and invite the reader to read the advertisements. The Southern Sierra Team stated they needed a car, cassette players and contributions towards the establishment of a radio show that transmitted daily Gospel messages (see figure 2).
This use of cassette players and establishment of a radio programme tie into my previous blogposts, outlining the use of these media to spread Gospel messages in areas in the Loreto region. A similar tactic was clearly being used by the Southern Sierra Team. The advertisement for cassette players states that evangelical and teaching messages can be left on these tapes in Quechua or Spanish in villages or homes as part of teaching via the extension method or to foster interest in the mission’s teachings.
The daily radio programme advertisement describes the success of Hermano Pablo, or Paul Edwin Finkenbinder, in using radio Gospel messages as an evangelistic tool. Hermano Pablo’s radio gospel show In Mensaje a La Consciencia garnered many listeners in El Salvador, where he operated as an evangelist.The RBMU wanted to adopt a similar programme, as it was proving successful for other evangelicals in South America. The radio show was meant to garner interest in the Gospel, and could be supplemented by a free correspondence course, another example of teaching via the extension method. This method could also be used by Jan Hellens and Rosemary Flack, two missionaries for the RBMU who wished to go to villages in the surrounding area of Calhuanca on weekly visits, and were asking for a vehicle for their work in the Calhuanca area.
The other side of the flyer states that missionaries applying to the advertised posts often needed to speak both Spanish and Quechua (see figure 1). This would potentialize the effectiveness of their work and allow them to take part in the creation of such radio shows and cassette recordings and effectively reach out to communities in these areas.
This pamphlet is a visually interesting supplement to lots of the heavily textual material housed in the archive, while still being informative and interesting. It shows some of the approaches to missionary work adopted by the RBMU and how they reached out to potential new recruits.
Figure 1 – Projected Personnel Requirements for the Southern Sierra Team. CSWC 33/41/1, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.Figure 2 – Projected Materials Requirements for the Southern Sierra Team. CSWC 33/41/1, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
The Centre for Research Collections has recently begun cataloguing a series of periodicals from The Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU). These texts summarise the Union’s work in Africa, India, Polynesia, China and Central and South America in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, our current work has focused on the missionary practices applied in Latin America. The following blog post will discuss articles on missionary obstetricians featured in the 1906 periodical (ref. CSWC 51/23/3/9).
The RBMU periodicals feature a range of articles, covering the training of missionaries in England, recommended texts, prevalent issues in missionary areas and accounts from missionaries in the field. These articles are intended to be read by RBMU supporters, encouraging them to donate or enroll in training, as well as to become missionaries. The periodicals give significant historical and geographical information on the countries in which missionaries were stationed, particularly the “Neglected Continent” Latin America. Many of the articles on Latin America discuss the difficulties faced by missionaries, for example clashes with Roman Catholics or the impact of political instability. The articles in the 1906 edition on missionary obstetricians focus on the poor conditions in which the patients live and how this inhibits the role of the nurses.
The principal article on obstetrics is titled Cuzco Women’s Wrongs and was written by obstetric nurse Mrs McNairn.[1] The title is somewhat misleading, as the article highlights the needs of the women McNairn is treating, it appears their “Wrongs” are the poor conditions in which they live. She describes how her mission training at Doric Lodge, the RBMU training school, was supplemented by a full obstetrical course (fig. 1 shows Mrs McNairn with two other Regions Beyond nurses). This shows that the Union were keen to provide medical support as part of their missionary work. In Mrs McNairn’s case her husband was also a missionary and so they both travelled out to Cuzco together. He worked as a minister whilst she tended to the health of his (potential) congregation.
Figure 1: Portrait photographs of three nurses, including Mrs McNairn, p241 (CSWC 51/23/3/9)
Mrs McNairn describes how the obstetric nurses in Peru were sought out by the “well-to-do” in Peruvian society who believed English medical care to be more reliable. However, the article focuses more on the poorer women McNairn has treated herself. She was very concerned that many of these mothers are young teenagers that were unable to properly care for their children. She describes three cases where women have died or been close to death due to poor conditions or a lack of nearby hospitals. McNairn recalls the case of a woman she visited in a “Indian Tambo” (Inn) who was in labour and required surgery (fig. 2). She describes the Tambo as dirty and uncomfortable with “hens and guinea pigs running about the floor”.[2] The unsanitary room and the lack of clean water led to McNairn recommending she be taken to hospital. However, the hospital was two miles away and, due to a lack of ambulances, she had to be carried there by her family on a blanket. McNairn believed that this arduous journey unnecessarily led to the woman’s passing. It seems that the lack of established medical facilities in Peru at this time made it very difficult for nurses to apply the training they had received in England.
Figure 2: An Image of a Cuzco House similar to those that McNairn was working in. p239 (CSWC 51/23/3/9)
According to McNairn’s account it seemed missionary obstetricians in Cuzco were in high demand in this period and treated very high numbers of women. Though she was frustrated that the poor conditions led to preventable deaths, the care provided by missionary nurses would have exceeded any medical treatment typically available to poorer women. McNairn describes the gratitude of her patients and how she “always gets a warm welcome back into their homes”.
The importance of obstetric care to the missionary cause is stressed by Mrs McNairn. She believed that her home visits were “almost the only way to reach [native] women’s hearts”. The childbed has offered a woman-only space in many cultures throughout history, and this has been observed by McNairn as an important tool for missionaries. She describes the native women in Peru as confined to their houses, and so through offering treatment she was able to form personal connections to individuals who may not otherwise access ministry. Though McNairn is sympathetic, to a certain extent she blames the poor conditions in which the expectant mothers live as “misery of their own making”.[3] She strongly believed that conversion to Christianity was the best way to help the native people make “their home-life all it should be”.[4] Her medical work certainly seems to have helped the community, but this article makes it clear that Mrs McNairn was not impressed by the Peruvian way of life.
This article was intended to encourage patrons to fund improved medical facilities and greater numbers of practitioners in Peru. This shows that in some situations missionary organisations put the support of native communities and saving lives first and conversion second. Nursing, including obstetrics, was clearly considered an important skill for many missionary women. As McNairn’s account shows, it offered an opportunity for missionaries to connect with women face to face and build a personal relationship. However, as a researcher we must acknowledge that the central aim was always conversion and aspects of McNairn’s account speak to a colonial mindset within the Union.
(Source: Regions Beyond, 1906, CSWC 51/23/3/9, Cuzco Women’s Wrongs, pp. 237 – 241)
[1] Mrs McNairn, “Cuzco Women’s Wrongs”, in H. Grattan Guinness, Regions Beyond, (S. W. Partridge & Co: London, 1906), pp. 237 – 241
As I was going through the financial records for the Regions Beyond Missionary union, which includes records for the RBMU run Evangelical Hospital at Lamas, Peru, an internet search of the Evangelical Hospital of Lamas led me to a Facebook group called Bienvenido a Lamas. Posted on here are some wonderful photographs from the 1950s and 60s submitted by one of Lamas’s residents of the mission post of the Peruvian Inland Mission (PIM), later the Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU).
These images mostly show snapshots of everyday life at Lamas – sports matches, dinners, and weddings, amongst others. There are also some photographs of the old Evangelical Hospital and its staff, which is what originally led me to finding this page. Many people have commented under these photos, identifying the people, pets and horses shown in the photos. I recognise many of these names, as they have come up in the files I have catalogued so far. Take for example, this photograph, posted to Bienvenido a Lamas:
Figure 1 Bienvenido a Lamas. Facebook, June 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3163945540310697&set=a.3163945280310723
The many comments under this photograph say that this is a photograph of Vicente Coral, who, according to a commenter under the photo, went to study theology at the Costa Rica Bible Institute. My first blogpost on some index cards amongst the contents of one of the earlier files relating to the PIM includes a photograph of A.G Soper with some students who went to the Costa Rica Bible Institute with her. The caption to this photograph identifies one of the young men on this photograph as Señor V. Coral! Coral also has his own index card and is mentioned many times amongst the meeting minutes of the PIM or was himself present at these meetings.
Figure 2 Photograph taken at the Costa Rica Bible Institute showing Miss Soper, Senor V. Coral, Don Alejandro Castillo, Don Hildebrando Tello, Señora Hortensia de Pina and Señorita Rosa Portacarrero. CSWC 33/39/3, Archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union, Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
Hildebrando Tello is also amongst the group photographed at the Costa Rica Bible Institute. A photo posted to the Lamas Facebook group shows him, identified as ‘pastor Hildebrando Tello’ with his students at the Lamas Bible College.
Figure 3 Bienvenido a Lamas. “alumnos del estudio biblico.” Facebook, June 11, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3163947886977129&set=a.3163945280310723
Many other names of missionaries identified by the commenters under the photos are mentioned amongst the records of the PIM in the index cards. One of the index cards I came across while writing the first blogpost notes the details of a Megan Jones. A photo on the Lamas Facebook page shows a ‘Dra Miss Megan’ smiling next to ‘Miss Pat’. The names Megan Jones and Patricia Greening frequently feature in the financial records receiving donations for their work at the hospital in Lamas. Commenters under the photos on Facebook share memories of their childhoods at the missionary schools or hospital in Lamas, some even sharing that they were born at the missionary hospital.
Figure 4 Figure 3 Bienvenido a Lamas. “1959, en la mision en Lamas, Miss Pat y Miss Megan, la enfermera doctora.” Facebook, June 14, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=3175135389191712&set=a.3163945280310723
Seeing these photos and the comments on social media brings these stories closer to the present, and helps create perspective on the establishment and development of the mission. The memories shared in the comments under these photos on Facebook adds so much more meaning and depth to the images, as well as to the materials housed in Edinburgh, such as the photo of Vicente Coral, Hildebrando Teller and Miss Soper at the Costa Rica Bible Institute. When I showed these photos to Kirsty Stewart, the archivist helping me as an intern, she commented how seeing these photos reminded her of the importance of the work we are doing. Making the collections housed at the University’s archives accessible to researchers around the world is so important, because this history pertains to many more people than those with physical access to the collections. Cataloguing and digitising these resources makes them accessible to the people in Lamas who have shared their own memories and photographs of the mission online with us. We hold a part of history in our archives that was experienced by many people around the globe. As such, our resources and records deserve to be shared, including with the relatives of the those featuring in the photos posted on Bienvenido a Lamas and in the archives of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh.
