200th anniversary of the arrival of CMS Missionaries | Sunday Observer

200th anniversary of the arrival of CMS Missionaries

15 July, 2018

The Revd. Robert Meyor the first missionary to the Baddegama Mission set foot in Galle on the June 29, 1818 and visited Baddegama for the first time in October. He considered the village convenient for the residence of a missionary and decided to settle down in Baddegama.

The Ceylon Government gave him the land called Church Hill. In November 1818, a mission house was constructed with a large school room attached to it. The church was built and consecrated on the September 24 in 1825 by Bishop Reginald Heber.

A Service of Thanksgiving to mark the 200th Anniversary of the CMS Mission in Sri Lanka was held at Christ Church, Baddegama on the June 30, 2018 with a procession from the Winter Thotupola starting at 8.30 a.m and the service commencing at 10 a.m. This was followed by a public meeting. Lunch was served to all participants at the service. The Bishop of Kurunegala Rt. Revd. Keerthisiri Fernando was the Preacher and Celebrant at the service along with the Archdeacon of Galle, Ven. Sunil Ferdinando. Several other priests took part in the procession and the Thanksgiving Service.

 

Here are highlights of the event.

Timeline...

The Anglican Church, the Church of Ceylon exists in Sri Lanka today because of the hard labour of missionary societies namely the London Missionary Society which arrived in 1806 and exited in 1818, the Church Missionary Society (CMS - arrival 1818), Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (1840) and the Tamil Coolie Mission (1854).

The Anglican Church existed in this country since 1796 with the British invasion of the island but it was only a chaplaincy for the troops and was not mission oriented. The letters of Chief Justice Alexander Johnstone motivated the Missionary Societies in England to come to Ceylon.

Church Missionary Society

William Wilberforce helped found the CMS in 1799 with 16 clergymen and nine laymen who met together in a small room in the Castle Falcon Inn, Aldersgate Street and inaugurated the Society for Missions to Africa and the East which later changed its name to Church Missionary Society.

 

The first four missionaries to arrive in Ceylon were Revds. Samuel Lambrick, Benjamin Ward, Robert Mayor and Joseph Knight. The history of the Diocese records that on December 20, 1817 the four men with Mrs. Mayor and Mrs. Ward embarked at Gravesend on board the ‘Vittoria’. The travel was slow in those days and the voyage took 200 days to accomplish with the missionaries disembarking at Galle on June 29 1818.

The missionaries understood the scope of work and the diversity of the nation, its culture and languages and decentralised their work from inception, sending Revd and Mrs.Robert Mayor to Baddegama in November 1818. In 1822 Rev. Samuel Lambrick who had been stationed in Kandy, moved to Kotte.

The Revd. Joseph Knight arrived in Jaffna in July 1818. Revd. and Mrs. Benjamin Ward who were stationed in Trincomalee were moved to Jaffna and afterwards to Baddegama.

The missions in Kotte, Baddegama, Jaffna and Kandy gradually increased and in 1908 there were six large Missionary Districts namely Colombo, Baddegama, Kotte, Kandy, Kurunegala and Anuradhapura.

In 1857 Revd John Ireland Jones a CMS missionary opened the Kandy Collegiate School. In 1876 its name was changed to Trinity College.

In 1831 Revd Joseph Marsh started the Colombo Academy (now Royal College).

In 1831 the Rev Joseph Marsh a 26-year-old Scotsman, arrived in Colombo to take up the position of Mathematics and Classics tutor at the CMS Kotte. Later in1835, he was appointed the Acting Colonial Chaplain of St. Paul’s Church, Wolfendhal, Colombo.

Between St. John the Baptist Church in Kalutara and Holy Trinity Church in Patuwatha there is no Anglican Mission station. In 1850 with the arrival of Rev. G. Pettitt started the church in Galle Face and which was opened in 1853.

In 1865 the Government granted a land in Cinnamon Gardens situated on Borella Road to start a school and a mission house. Fredrick Mendis in his article to the 125the anniversary souvenir (1881-2006) of St Luke’s Church, Borella records that the Revd. Ireland Jones, the founder of Trinity College in Kandy laid the foundation stone for St. Luke’s Church, Borella on October 8, 1880 which was dedicated on the June 30 1881.

 
 

Comments

While the christiana celebrate this event we Buddhsit should appreciate the impact these people had on Buddhism and our indegenous culture in Ceylon. The hypocritical kandyan convention nearly killed Buddhism with the support of telegu kingdom in Kandy, if not for the intervention of Olcott, ven Sumangale, Dharmmapala etc. We were a tolerant race and these people took advantage of the subservient subjugated mentality of the Buddhists in Sri Lanka amd Hindus. Jaffna gave the hardest blow with missionaries allowed to prosper, producing the tamil elite who beleives they are the elite of not only Tamils but the whole of Sri Lanka humiliating Hinduism and Buddhism. At least they thnk they are educated.