No. 1402 CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR, RIO GRANDE DO SUL OUR FARTHL5T 50UTH llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllP^^ A SKETCH OF THE WORK OF OUR CHURCH IN BRAZIL t THE BOARD OF MI55ION5 281 FOURTH AVENUE : : NEW YORK ARGENTINE a IT I A N aT OUR FARTHEST SOUTH THE CHURCH'S MISSION TO BRAZIL The Republic of Brazil is larger than THE LAND the whole of the United States with the addition of another Texas! No brief statement could adequately describe the char- acter of the entire country, extending as it does from about five degrees north latitude to thirty-two degrees south latitude. In general, however, it may be said of the southern part of the republic (and even Rio de Janeiro is well to the south) that the country is largely composed of great grassy plains rising to lofty table lands. The state of Rio Grande do Sul, where most of our work is concentrated at the present time, is larger than the state of New York. Immediately south of it lies Uruguay; immediately west, the Argentine Republic. It has a population of 800,000 and a climate similar to that of our own gulf states, though, of course, the seasons are reversed, our winter being their summer. Abundant streams, some of them large, navigable rivers, abound. The soil is wonderfully fertile. All the cereals and vegetables of our own country fiourish there. It is a land of fruits and fiowers. Little extensive cultivation, however, of the soil is attempted. Indian corn and rice, the inevitable black bean and the valuable manioc root are the principal products. In the latitude of Rio de Janeiro, coffee is one of the great products and articles of export. The plains lend themselves especially to cattle raising. The climate is so favorable and the grazing so good that great herds of cattle thrive without much care and at inconsiderable expense. 3 The people of Rio Grande are a THE PEOPLE mixed and parti-colored race, made up of the following elements : Span- ish, Portuguese, aboriginal Indian, African slave, and more recently of German, Italian and Polish immigrants. The Spanish and Portuguese were the progenitors of the sturdy and honest race of Gauchos, or cowboys of the plains, among whom the Church has taken such firm hold. Through intermarriage the Indian blood still survives among poorer people. The laboring people have a strain of African blood in their veins. The Brazilian children show the beauty of their Spanish and Portuguese ancestry THE BEGINNING OF THE MISSION In the autumn of 1889, two graduates of the Virginia Theological Seminary were sent out under the auspices of the American Church Missionary Society to Southern Brazil. They were the Rev. Lucien Lee Kinsolving and the Rev. James W. Morris. At that time little interest was felt in Latin America, and these young men were regarded as enter- ing upon a desperate and rather quixotic undertaking. 4 Within two months after their arrival the republic of Brazil was declared, the whole civil fabric reor- ganized, all religious disabilities removed, the Church separated from the State, and complete liberty of worship guaranteed. The missionaries began their work in the city of Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern state in the republic. They found the people ready to pay attention to their message be- cause of a spirit of religious inquiry and interest in the air. In 1891 the force was appreciably strengthened by the arrival of the Rev. William Cabell Brown and the Rev. John G. Meem, and by 1893 the three principal cities of this state^ — Rio Grande, the seaport, a town of 20,000, Pelotas, about forty miles distant, with 40,000 people, and Porto Alegre, having 75,000 inhabitants — were vigorously occupied. In 1893 Bishop Peter- THE FIRST EPISCOPAL kin, of West Virginia, VISITATION at the request of the Presiding Bishop of the Church, made an episcopal visitation to the field. He ordained four deacons, and confirmed 140 persons. He gave the whole work a regular organization. It is, indeed, from this year that the Brazilian Mission, as an organized body, should be dated. In 1906, at the request of the American Church Missionary Society, the Board of Missions took over the work which the auxiliary society had supported so faith- fully for sixteen years. It was not at this time on the same footing as the other missions undertaken by the Board, but was an independent National Church, and for several years was under its own independent bishop, the Right Rev. Lucien Lee Kinsolving. THE RIGHT REVEREND LUCIEN LEE KINSOLVING, D.D. Bishop of Southern Brazil In 1907, the council of BISHOP KINSOLVING the Brazilian Church de- cided to ask the Church in the United States to accept the work in Brazil as one of its missions. The General Convention of October, 1907, agreed to do this; Bishop Kinsolving resigned as a bishop of the Church in Brazil and was elected by the same Convention as Missionary Bishop of Southern Brazil. He still retains this title, although the whole republic, not only the single state of Rio Grande do Sul as formerly, is now the field of the American Church. THE MISSION POLICY When a man is sent to open a new center of work, his orders are: “ Give yourself entirely to preaching and expound- ing the Word of God. Do not come before the people as a school teacher. Let the community know you, once for all, as a preacher, a prophet, an official witness to Christ, an accredited messenger of Christ’s Church. Let the people see that this is your sole business among them. You are to do this one thing — to proclaim the good news of salvation in Christ, and to invite men to use and enjoy the reasonable and reverent faith of our truly Catholic Church.” Experience has shown that for best results it is necessary to use at the very start the distinctive forms of the Church’s liturgical worship. For awhile, the missionaries were led to believe that these people should have at the beginning the simplest and even the barest form of service. This was found to be a mistake, the ordered form of worship in accordance with the Prayer Book being particularly effective among the Brazilians. Liturgical services, by vested clergy, in a well-arranged place of worship, appeal to their sense of propriety, and give for them solemnity to the act of worship, and power to the Word preached and expounded. For a considerable time TRANSL ATIN G^HE service books, containing SCRIPTURES AND Mo rning and Evening THE PRAYER BOOK Prayer, with selections from other parts of the liturgy, tolerably well translated, were, by ecclesi- astical authority, put in use throughout the mission. Later, the Rev. Dr. Brown, assisted by the young Brazilian presbyter, the Rev. A. V. Cabral, trans- 7 lated very beautifully and accurately into Portu- guese the whole Book of Common Prayer. This translation, through the generosity of the Bishop White Prayer Book Society of Philadelphia, and of Mr. James Pott, of New York, was published and put into the hands of the people in 1899. Since then it has been in use in all the Brazilian congregations. When a missionary is HOW A NEW MISSION deputed to open up a IS OPENED new and important cen- tre of work, the rule is for him to wait until he can establish the regulation services of the Church. He is to delay his public preaching until he can begin in this permanent way. He rents a convenient hall, fits it up for a chapel, and makes preparation for a formal opening service. He meets and visits as many of the people as he can, explains in private what he is come to do, and gathers as many as he can interest to his own house or else- where for the practice of the hymns and chants, and for instruction in the order of the service. He thus has a number of people ready to take part in public worship. On a specified day, after wide notice given, he opens his new place of worship with an inaugural service. He has with him the bishop, and as many as possible of the other clergy. He begins with the regular order of Evening Prayer, which will be reverently and enthusiastically participated in by the large crowd assembled. Then the bishop and others deliver ad- dresses explanatory of the Church and her ways, emphasizing her historical position and her apostolic heritage, closing with an earnest presentation of the old, ever new, message of salvation in Christ Jesus. 9 I, Rev. W. M. M. Thomas; 2, Rev. J. M. de Mello ; 3, Rev. G. M. Krischke If, Rev. J. B. B. da Cunha; 5, Rev. H. Tschornack ; 6, Rev. L. Ferreira 7, Rev. C. H. C. Sergei; 8, Rev. J. A. Coelho ; 9, Rev. A. M. de Fraga 10, Rev. W. Cahell Brown, D.D.; 11, Right Rev, Lucien Lee Kinsolving, D.D. 12, Rev, J. G. Meem; 13, Rev, A, V, Gabral, H, Rev, A, J, L, Guimaraes 10 It is found that the Church put before a new com- munity in this formal and official manner attracts attention and stimulates inquiry at once, and that from the initial service there is a congregation of regular worshippers gathered together. In Brazil, the great majority of the people are Christians, but Christian orphans, the church of their birth having left them unfed and uncared for. They come together readily to attend the services of the Church, and thus it grows not through children but through the con- firmation of men and women of mature age. Bishop Kinsolving’s AMERICAN WORKERS American staff consists of the Rev. W. Cabell Brown, D.D., the Rev. J. G. Meem, the Rev. W. M. M. Thomas, the Rev. C. H. C. Sergei, and Deaconess Mary Packard. Each one of these is doing great work. Of one in particular the bishop says: ‘‘The new version of the New Testament, finished some time since by the revision committee, of which the Rev. Dr. Brown is the moving spirit and chief collaborator, is in great demand. About 75,000 copies were sold in one year. I count it a high honor that the Church has been permitted to take a leading and formative part in this great work here.” The Brazilian clergy, BRAZILIAN WORKERS eighteen in number, are, like their American co- workers, a faithful band. Change in the personnel of the mission — except in growth — is rare. The picture of Bishop Kinsolving and his clergy on the opposite page was taken six years ago. That without exception the men shown are all serving in the mission today speaks well for both bishop and clergy. n EVANGELISTIC WORK The Church’s work in Brazil is carried on as follows: There are, all in all, 35 stations in which 1,258 communicants are administered to by four American and fourteen Brazilian clergy. A recent visitor to Brazil reported to us that these clergy de- served special notice and commendation. They are, he tells us, doing about the best work that is done in the field. As an illustration of this the following items, taken from the Bishop’s report, even though they are material items, are eloquent. “In Porto Alegre, the con- SIGNIFICANT FACTS gregation carry the fol- lowing items of self-sup- port: $1,000 per annum toward the support of the clergy, and about $400 on running expenses. “In Rio Grande, the congregation pay $800 toward the support of the clergy, and over $400 per annum for running expenses. “In Pelotas, the congregation paid last year $400 of the debt on their modest parish house; $340 on the salary of the clergyman, and met running expenses to the amount of $400. “In Santa Maria, they have bent their energies on the building of a rectory which relieves the Board of $300 annually for house rent; they contribute $150 to the support of a clergyman and carry their running expenses, about $300. “In Bage, the congregation pay $260 for clergy support; have purchased a lot valued at $4,000 during the past six years, and are doing their best for a church fund which will relieve the Board of $400 per year for chapel rent. 12 “The congregation of the Chapel of the Redeemer averaged last year in their contributions to Church work, $291.26 per communicant. Yet they are unable to make the initial outlay for the acquiring of property in so expensive a center of population as Rio de Janeiro. “Every other Mission station does what it can for the support of its own clergyman and contributes something toward the support of the general mis- sionary, whose salary of $1,200 per annum is thus raised. “I take it that we are contributing between $7,000 and $8,000 annually to running expenses and the support of the ministry in this field, and are putting into building funds about $3,000 per annum, which will as soon as practicable relieve the Board of burdens now found in the annual estimates.” What do these significant facts mean? They mean that these people are tremendously in earnest, not that they do not need our aid. Though so strong in love for their Church, they are a feeble folk in number. S ure 1 y we ought to give all the help in our power to those who are so ready to help them- selves. CHURCH OF THE MEDIATOR, SANTA MARIA 13 EDUCATIONAL WORK In his report for 1912 the Bishop said: “During the past year, the long-desired organiza- tion of educational work has been initiated. In January the Rev. J. M. de Mello founded a Church school in Santa Anna do Livramento, to which — without my previous knowledge — he gave the name of ‘Collegio Kinsolving.’ In spite of such a handicap, the school has done excellently well and now numbers 85 day-pupils of both sexes. Mr. Mello has unusual pedagogic gifts allied to rare culture. He has been able, too, to develop locally two assistants for his staff who are entirely supported from the income of the school.” “In Sao Gabriel, the Rev. Julio d’ Almeida Coelho opened a small parochial school for boys and girls in February last. “In Porto Alegre, in March last, the Rev. W. M. M. Thomas, assisted by the Rev. Jose B. Leao, founded the first boys’ boarding school attempted by this mission. It was named the ‘Escola Diocesana’ or Diocesan School. Day-pupils, to a limited number, are also admitted. The matriculation for the first year amounts to forty. “This is the most ambitious as well as the most complex educational problem undertaken, and fills a most urgent want. Instruction must be given ab initio and new methods introduced all along the line. The atmosphere and environment of a Church home is thrown round each pupil, night and day. At present the Diocesan School occupies a rented build- ing on a hill-top in one of the suburbs of Porto Alegre; a beautiful locality, and with spacious grounds. It is hoped that before long a permanent home may be secured for this important phase of the work.” 14 RECAPITULATION In closing this brief statement THEN AND NOW of the work of our Church farthest south, it is well to think for a moment of the change which has taken place since the two young men went out from the Virginia Seminary. Then there were no Sunday Schools — now our Church has thirty-two. Then our whole work was carried on in a rented room — now there are nine church buildings, among them such fine edifices as the Church of Our Saviour at Rio Grande do Sul and Trinity Church at Porto Alegre, besides twelve chapels and some rented rooms. Only a few years ago there was an auto dafe of Bibles, ordered by the Roman archbishop, in the public square of one of the largest towns — now 75,000 copies of the New Testament are sold in a single year. It is a cause for thankfulness that in the twenty- four years of our work in Brazil we have had no controversy with our Roman brethren. There has been no proselytizing, but the Roman Church has felt the impetus of public opinion and is no longer neglectful of her people. The great need of the Brazil mission today, in Bishop Kinsolving’s opinion, is more schools. A notable beginning has been made without asking the Board of Missions for either equipment or rent. But much more needs to be done. In Brazil the evan- gelistic work has outrun the educational work. The time has come when they should go hand in hand to insure a healthy growth. 15 THE WORK IN BRAZIL May, 1914 Bishop: Right Reverend Lucien Lee Kinsolving, D. D. Rio Grande, R. G. do Sul Brazil BAGE Rev. a. J. L. Guimaraes DOM PEDRITO Rev. J. B. Leao JAGUARAO Rev. T. O. Machado LIVRAMENTO Rev. j. M. de Mello MEYER (RIO DE JANEIRO) Rev. C. H. C. Sergel MONTENEGRO Rev. a. M. Frag a PELOTAS Rev. Jose S. de Silva Rev. E. a. Bohrer Rev. N. d’Almeida PORTO ALEGRE Rev. W. M. M. Thomas, B.A., B.D. Rev. a. V. Cabral RIO DE JANEIRO Rev. W. Cabell Brown, D.D. Rev. John G. Meem Miss Mary Packard {Deaconess) RIO DOS SINOS Rev. j. B. B. da Cunha SAO FRANCISCO DE PAULA Rev. a. V. Cabral SAO GABRIEL Rev. Julio A. Coelho SANTA HELENA Rev. H. Zschornack SAO JOSE DO NORTE Rev. G. U. Krischke SANTA MARIA Rev. L. Ferreira SAO LEOPOLDO Rev. j. B. B, da Cunha VIAMAO Rev. a. V. Cabral STATISTICS Clergy: American, 5; Brazilian, 18 18 Stations 31 Communicants 1244 Boarding and Day Schools 2 Sunday Schools 38 Appropriation from the Board of Missions .... ^39,677 Contributions from the mission ^16,964 This parri'phlet may he obtained from the Literature Department Board of Missions, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. Ask for No. 1j^02. All offerings for missions should be sent to Mr. George Gordon King, Treasurer, Church Missions House, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. : 3d Ed., 4-14, 5M. R.P,