Friday, December 2, 2011

Channing Moore Williams, Bishop of Japan

During this first week of Advent, the Church remembers and honors a missionary to China, Channing Moore Williams. He was born in 1829 in Richmond, Virginia. Williams was educated at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, and went to seminary at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. Upon the completion of his studies in Alexandria, he was ordained a deacon in 1855.

The Episcopal Church sent Williams to China, where he was ordained priest in 1857. In 1859 Williams was sent to Nagasaki, Japan.

In 1866, Williams was consecrated the bishop of China and Japan. The governments of both countries restricted access to Westerners who were very mistrusted. Christian missionaries, in particular, were watched with suspicion, as they were suspected by the government of being spies for their own respective governments. Christianity was legally banned in Japan since the 16th century. Christian clergymen were allowed into Japan, but only in the capacity as chaplains to the few Western diplomats that were allowed access to the Japanese government.

In 1868, the Meiji Restoration opened Japanese society to the West. Interaction between Christian missionaries and native Japanese became much easier. As a result, Bishop Williams decided to take advantage of the new political situation to concentrate his efforts on that country. China was not abandoned, however. Williams’ friend, Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewski, was elected bishop of China in 1874. Thereafter, Bishop Williams’ Episcopal jurisdiction was centered in Japan, and he moved his office to Tokyo, which had become the capital of the new Meiji government.

Williams’ success in Japan is well documented. He oversaw the translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Japanese and founded St. Paul’s University in Tokyo. He also assisted Bishop Schereschewski in the translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Chinese. In 1887 at a synod held in Tokyo, Williams brought together missionaries from England and the United States, along with native communicants, to form the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, or the Holy Catholic Church of Japan. Today, the Japanese Church, with its native clergy and bishops, is an important constituent province of the Anglican Communion.

In 1889, Bishop Williams’ health began to fail. He asked for a successor, but this was not granted until the appointment of John McKim as the second bishop of Japan in 1893. Williams retired to Kyoto, where he continued to offer assistance to his Bishop McKim as needed. He returned to the United States in 1908, having been away from the land of his birth for 52 years. He died in Richmond on 2 December 1910.

Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Channing, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Asia. Raise up, we pray, in this and every land heralds and evangelists of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.


WORLD AIDS DAY: 1 DECEMBER

During this week we remember all of those who suffer from HIV/AIDS. Christian leaders are calling for continued support for the nearly 34 million people living with HIV around the world and encouraging renewed education and advocacy efforts to bring an end to the global pandemic.


The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams, speaking from the Congo in Africa said the following in a video statement:


The conflict in Congo has made it hideously clear that sexual violence is one of the great tools of war in our age; one of the great means by which people humiliate and subdue others. The women in Congo, especially in this part of Congo, have suffered dreadfully because of this. And the connection between sexual violence of this kind and the spread of HIV/AIDS is one of the most shameful facts of our day.

Trauma is something which cannot be overcome overnight but when people feel they’ve been abandoned by families, by communities, because of the shame and stigma of HIV/AIDS, the church in this part of Congo has been there for them.

For these people, who have been abused systematically, been raped, violated, abducted often at the youngest of ages – for these people, the church has been the family that mattered. The church has been the community that has given them back the dignity that they need. The church has given them the hope that they need.

As we seek to confront the terrible scandal of sexual violence as one of the causes of HIV/AIDS, let’s hope and pray that communities like the churches here will continue to fight as hard as they can against the stigmatising and marginalising that so reduce human dignity.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity of listening to the experience of women here – grateful, though it has been hard to hear. I hope the world will be able to hear what is being said here and to see what is being done here.
Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson issued a joint letter for World AIDS Day 2011, saying that the two churches have embarked upon a new age of full communion:


World AIDS Day is an opportunity for each of us to reflect on God's call to lift up the dignity and value of each person. … We are called to confront this pandemic - whose scale has no precedent in human history - through prayer, by speaking out to eliminate stigma and discrimination against those living with HIV and AIDS, by caring for those afflicted by the virus in our own communities, by advocating for strong government support of life-saving programs, and by supporting the global effort to alleviate the global systems of poverty within which HIV and AIDS is so endemic. … We are part of a global family of 150 million Anglicans and Lutherans, most living in developing countries, for whom the virus is an ever-present daily reality. … This is an opportunity for us to remember the 30 million lives that have been lost to the deadly pandemic over the past three decades, to rededicate our energies in support of those 34 million living with HIV and AIDS today and to work toward building a future without AIDS.
CALENDAR REMINDERS

Hope, Peace, Joy & Love: The Advent Adult Education Series, Sundays at 11:00 a.m. in the parlor behind the sacristy. Join us as we explore the Advent themes on our Advent banner.

Organ Extravaganza at Trinity Episcopal Church in Galveston, Saturday, 3 December: 6:30-7:15 p.m.—Self-guided tours of the historic sanctuary. 7:30-8:00 p.m.—Performance by The Sons of Orpheus. 8:00 p.m.—Pipe Organ Extravaganza, Ronald Wyatt, concert organist. Following the performance—Reception with refreshments in historic Eaton Hall. Stained glass jewelry from the Tiffany window will also be on sale. Tickets are $10.

Galveston Heritage Chorale, Barbara Tucker and A Chosen Few will hold a concert Sunday, 4 December at 6 p.m. at Moody Methodist Church. There is no admission charge, but donations are welcome.

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List especially for the family of Carrie Walpole, a young woman of 35 who died suddenly of a brain aneurysm; we pray for her husband, Daryl, and their sons, Billy and Tommy, as they mourn the loss of wife and mother; we pray for Robert Strawder who is in critical condition from burns, for Charles Lemons' wife, Roylene, who suffered a fall and is in the hospital, those seeking work, for the ill, for the poor, the hungry and those of who have no one to pray for them.

Your servant in Christ,

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+
St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550

1 comment:

  1. Channing Moore Williams is in my husbands family tree.

    ReplyDelete