History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.Anderson, Rufus
Religion
History of the missions of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions to the oriental churches, Volume II.
Anderson, Rufus
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; Missions -- Eastern churches
Dr. Dwight was eighteen days at Oroomiah during his Eastern tour in
1860 and 1861. Mr. Wheeler had accompanied him from Harpoot. Some
important changes in the practical working of the mission, made at
the Annual Meeting, threw a greater responsibility on the native
pastors. They were to have the responsibility, not only of
administering baptism, but of the Lord's Supper; and the children of
none except communicants were to be baptized. The relation of pastor
and people was thus made more prominent and distinct. Dr. Dwight
declares himself satisfied by what he saw at Oroomiah, that nothing
more than this was needed to complete the organization of the
reformed church. He had had the impression, for years, that sooner
or later the converts among the Nestorians, like the same class of
persons among the Armenians, would be organized into separate
churches, wholly distinct from the Nestorian Church. The
excommunications and persecutions that had led to that result among
the Armenians, he seemed to think would not occur among the
Nestorians; and it was evident to him that the old ceremonies of the
Church were silently vanishing away, and that reformed services were
taking their place, as the result of a fundamental change in the
minds of the people. A distinct theological class was to be formed
in the seminary of promising young converts, and no more men were to
be educated in that school than could afterwards be profitably
employed. The conclusion was also reached, in view of past
experience, that the mountain regions should not be occupied by
American families; reserving them as the peculiar field of the
reformed church of the plain; as a training-school for their
missionary spirit, and a necessary outlet for their pious zeal.
The native preachers and helpers held a two days' meeting at
Oroomiah while Dr. Dwight was there, in which several important
subjects were discussed. He liked their appearance, admired the
spirit of many of them, and was greatly moved by the extraordinary
fire of their eloquence, though he understood them only through an
interpreter. He was specially impressed by the childlike piety of
the venerable Mar Elias.
Mr. Breath, the ingenious and efficient missionary printer, died of
cholera on the 10th of November, 1861. He had so far succeeded in
training native printers and book-binders, that there was no further
call for such workmen from the United States. Mrs. Breath returned
home, with her three children, in the following year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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