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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

March 4, 2016

Mary Parke and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this installment from her diary, Mary writes about civil court actions against Okuno, Ogawa, and Kitahara, three Japanese converts who worked closely with the Thompsons and were leaders in the native church.

In August and October 1874, David Thompson presided over the burials of two Japanese Christians “after the Christian manner.” Christian burial is this context probably meant burial of the body without cremation. Such burials were not unknown in Japan, but...

December 4, 2015

Mary Parke and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this installment from her diary, Mary writes about the reaction to a “slanderous article” against missionaries and the strength of Japanese Christians in the face of government threats against them.[1]

Nov. 1[1874, Tokyo]: …Mizuno was baptized today….The church again over crowded. Before David finished twenty or thirty were standing in the aisles.

Nov. 2: …Miss Gamble...

October 13, 2015

Mary Parke and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this installment from her diary, Mary writes about successes in the native church and about the controversial burial of two Japanese Christians.[1]

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Sabbath [Sept.] 27 [1874, Tokyo]: David’s class so large this morning that his little study would not hold them, and they assembled in Ogawa [Yoshiyasu]’s room….I did not go to the Japanese service.  It rained all afternoon....

May 15, 2015

In the early 1920s, the Japanese town of Kanazawa had been transformed. A new state house, a steel bridge, and a barracks on the former grounds of Kanazawa Castle had all recently been constructed. Mary Miles, Presbyterian missionary and music teacher at the girls' school Hokuriko Jo Gakko, wrote of the barracks "No one is allowed to enter except the soldiers and, I suppose, tradesmen." She had seen Prince Hirohito, barely twenty years old, reviewing military...

May 5, 2015

Mary Parke and her husband David Thompson served as missionaries to Japan for over five decades. In this installment from her diary, Mary writes about the initial resistance to David’s appointment as interpreter to the U.S. legation and about the acceptance of both Presbyterian and Union (interdenominational) churches. Mary also reflects on how much her life has changed since she left the United States to serve as a foreign missionary.[1]

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Aug. 3: [1874, Tokyo]. Miss Gamble[...

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