John Lapp - Churches Engage Asian Traditions

Book Design and Layout: C. Arnold Snyder

Map Design: Cliff Snyder

CHURCHES ENGAGE ASIAN TRADITIONS

Copyright 2011 by Good Books, Intercourse, Pennsylvania 17534

ISBN: 978-1-56148-749-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011939373

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner, except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, without permission.

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Asheervadam, I.P.

Churches engage Asian traditions: global Mennonite history series: Asia/I.P. Asheervadam [et al.]; general editors, John A. Lapp, C. Arnold Snyder.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-56148-749-3

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Mennonites --Asia --History. 2. Brethren in Christ Church --Missions --Asia. 3. Asia --Church history. 4. Missions --Asia. 5. Christianity and culture --Asia. I. Lapp, John A.

II. Snyder, C. Arnold. III. Series. IV. Title

BV2185 .A84 2011

266/.25 dd22

2011939373

Photography and Illustration Credits

Cover photograph, John F. Lapp, Mennonite Mission Network; Cover photo scroll (left to right), Jonathan Bartel; Hiroshi Kaneko; EMM archives; Unattributed; Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies; Chiou-Lang (Paulus) Pan. Back cover photograph, EMM archives.

Courtesy KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden, Netherlands, top.

John A. Lapp and C. Arnold Snyder

Alle Hoekema

Alle Hoekema

Adhi Dharma

I. P. Asheervadam

Chiou-Lang (Paulus) Pan

Regina Lyn Mondez

Masakazu Yamade

Kyong-Jung Kim

Luke Martin with Nguyen Quang Trung, Nguyen Thanh Tam and Nguyen Thi Tam

Takanobu Tojo

List of Maps

The five volume Global Mennonite History celebrates the geographical spread of the world-wide Mennonite and Brethren in Christ movement. These volumes are written by individuals from the major continental regions. In the case of Asia, this includes writers from Indonesia, India, China (Taiwan), Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This Asia volume is the fourth of the series to be published. One more volume on North America will appear in 2012.

We are grateful to the writers of this volume for telling the story of their churches from their own points of view. They have interpreted oral and written records and have collected written and visual sources. These dedicated writers are deeply immersed in the life of their churches as pastors, teachers, conference leaders and theological educators.

Asia is a very large region both spatially and in population. There are hundreds of languages with ancient histories in China and India as old as the cultures of the Middle East. All the major world religions have large populations in Asia. Christianity, as noted in the introductory chapters, was present in Western and South Asia before it appeared in northern Europe or the Americas. Indeed the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches have also engaged the richness of Asian traditions.

Dutch and German Mennonite merchants were in Asian waters beginning in the seventeenth century. The first Mennonite church from the Netherlands was established in Java in the mid-nineteenth century. Russian Mennonite missionaries arrived in India in 1889, and other missions arrived throughout the twentieth century. Today the Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches are well established in thirteen countries, organized into thirty-one conferences with a membership of more than 265,000.

While the goal of this history was to have a comprehensive vision, the dynamic quality of the Christian movement means the story is always in process. The church in Asia is no exception. Hence this volume is not able to tell the stories of much contemporary Mennonite and Brethren in Christ work. In countries like China and India there are groups at work that are not included in this story. We have been able only to mention Mennonites in Australia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Nepal. We wish there could have been a chapter on the Asia Mennonite Conference. We have not been able to describe Mennonite churches in central Asian countries or Asiatic Russia.

In addition to these writers, a number of other individuals made significant contributions to this volume. Alle Hoekema not only wrote two introductory chapters but along with Wilbert Shenk read the entire manuscript. Kenneth Hoke, Werner Kroeker and John F. Lapp were readers of the India chapter. Janet Reedy translated the Indonesia chapter, and Ken Shenk translated the Japan chapter and the concluding essay. Luke Martin interrupted his personal writing to assist the Vietnamese authors. Within each country there was additional support staff in typing, research assistance and writing, and we are grateful to each one and all.

We thank churches in each country for opening their hearts, minds and records so that these writers could gain an understanding of their churches experience. This requires trust, confidence, and faith in the integrity of these writers. We believe the churches of Asia have been well served.

We are mindful that this is a pioneering history. No one has tried in recent years to tell the complete story of all the churches in any one of the Asian countries, let alone all of Asia. In many ways this is a first draft which future historians will enlarge and revise, based on new source discoveries and explorations, deepening the insights expressed here. Nonetheless we believe this present volume faithfully bears witness to Gods work.

This project would not have happened without the sponsorship and strong support of Mennonite World Conference particularly that of the general secretary Larry Miller. His wisdom appears in this volume as well as in earlier ones.

The Global Mennonite History project has enjoyed the strong financial support of United Service Foundation, Mennonite Central Committee, Goodville Mutual Casualty Company, Oosterbaan Foundation through the Algemene Doopsgezinde Societeit, Good Books, Mennonite Mutual Aid (now Everence) and Mennonite Foundation Canada. Mennonite historical societies in Canada, the United States and Paraguay contributed to this volume as did individuals in North America and Europe.

As editors we have lived with this volume for a number of years. We feel privileged to work with these deeply committed authors. We offer this volume to the churches of Asia and the rest of the world as a testimony to the continuing work of God reconciling the world to himself. (II Cor. 5:18)

John A. Lapp, Akron, PA.

C. Arnold Snyder, Waterloo, ON.

Asia

The first issue we encounter when speaking about Asia is the matter of its borders. The Asian part of Turkey (Anatolia) forms its western border and its historical and cultural link with Western Europe. South of Turkey, the Arab peninsula and the Middle Eastern countries (including Israel-Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan) as well as Iraq and Armenia, all belong to West Asia (or Southwest Asia), according to the United Nations sub-division. The main countries belonging to South Asia are Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Iran, located between Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, is sometimes said to be a part of West Asia, and sometimes a part of Central Asia, which includes countries such as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. For the most part, Afghanistan and sometimes Mongolia are reckoned among the Central Asian countries as well. Southeast Asia comprises the mainland countries of Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, and the archipelagoes of Indonesia and the Philippines. And finally, East Asia consists of the Peoples Republic of China (eventually also Mongolia), Japan, North and South Korea and Taiwan. To the north, Russian Siberia forms an inhospitable part of Asia as well. The great island of New Guinea is not reckoned as a part of Asia but of Australasia; however, its western part, Papua Barat or West Papua, during many centuries was a part of the colonial Dutch East Indies and became a province of Indonesia when the Dutch were forced to turn it over in 1962. Papua New Guinea and East Timor are neighboring Australia, which is related to Asia in many respects.