American Evangelists
[PHOTOS COMING SOON]
American missionaries were sent to Cyprus in the 19th Century. Their primary goal was to ‘convert the heathens’ to their brand of religion. They initially set-up small Sunday schools on the island with a single-minded ‘mission’ to spread their version of the ‘truth’.
It all began in 1835, when the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent Reverend Lorenzo Warriner Pease to Cyprus along with his wife Lucinda Leonard. They set up a school in Larnaca and managed to enrol ten students that year. Rev. Pease had the foresight to set-up a school to train teachers as there were hardly any on the island. By the end of 1836, the mission had two schools, (besides the teacher training school), with a total enrolment of around 170 students.
Although these early missionaries tried to distribute their bibles across Cyprus, they soon discovered that approximately ninety-five percent of the population could neither read nor write. The few that could, were mostly priests, imams or other important community leaders. In a letter dated 3rd April 1835, Pease writes. “From the best statistics which we could gather, there must be at least 70,000 Greek Christians on this island. For this large number they have had no missionary from any quarter, have had no schools, are destitute of books and hence the peasants are extremely ignorant.”
Reverend Pease goes on to recommend Lapithos and Larnaca as the two most likely places to set up a mission camp. “With regards to this horrid climate, there is only two places that a mission station can be established on the island in a safe and practical manner and that is in the town of Larnaca and the village of Lapithos. The latter is protected from the hot south winds by the northern range of mountains which lie behind the village. In and around Lapithos is a population of about 15,000 and within a day’s ride there are not less than 25,000 or 30,000 all of whom might be visited and schools superintended amongst them by the mission at Lapithos. A magnificent fountain of water also bursts out from the mountains behind Lapithos and roars and foams down through the whole village finding its way to the sea. This fountain, besides turning a number of mills in its descent, is distributed through gardens, tumbling from terrace to terrace which must greatly alleviate the intense heat of a Cyprus summer. In Larnaca there is a good deal of European society; more comforts are also to be found there than in any other parts of the island, and better medical assistance. In Lapithos there will be no other foreigners but our mission-family. All our groceries, clothes and remittance of money must therefore come from Larnaca.”
In August 1839, Rev. Pease contracted a fever and died three weeks later. He was only thirty years old. His body is buried in a small cemetery next to Ayios Lazaros church in Larnaca alongside his two infant children who had died the previous year. Mrs Pease stayed on in Larnaca for two years before returning to America in 1841. The mission and the schools were closed in 1842.
Almost fifty years later, in 1887, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America sent Reverend Henry Easson and his wife to Cyprus. Rev. Easson opened a school in Larnaca in 1891 and later secured the services of a Lebanese teacher named Daoud Saada who could speak Arabic, Turkish, English and Greek. Assisting Rev. Easson was another American missionary, Rev. James R. W. Stevenson, and his wife Jennie. Rev. Stevenson had earned a reputation of preaching the word of God to the town’s beggars before handing them some bread to eat. Rev. Stevenson also conducted night classes to anyone who wished to learn English by studying the bible.
In February, 1892, some land was purchased by the Mission in Larnaca for the construction of an iron chapel. Apparently the iron framework and foundations for this building were shipped from England. A month later, Rev. Stevenson was also struck down with fever. Tragically, he died after being poisoned ‘accidently’ by the medicine he was taking.
Many of Rev. Easson’s students were Armenian who had fled to Cyprus from Asia Minor. Apart from teaching the locals how to read and write through the study of the Bible, Rev Easson and Daoud Saada were kept busy distributing bibles, cards and religious leaflets and trying to convert as many Cypriots as they could towards their religion. The locals however, were wary and not easily swayed. One Greek Cypriot who did convert, was Mr. Demetrius S. Demetriades, who together with Antonios Vamvois and Athanassios Zacharakis (Greek recruits from Smyrna) helped the American missionaries to translate and spread the Good Word. They were even requested to teach at times.
In 1901, Rev. Easson was obliged to return to America due to illness and Dr. William Milroy Moore and Rev C. A. Dodds took over the work of the mission in Cyprus.
It seemed that the American missionaries were more than happy to be sent abroad (often accompanied by their wives and children). Apart from Cyprus, they set up missions in countries such as China, Syria, Asia Minor and Greece. According to the ‘Olive Trees’ journal, the missionaries who came to Cyprus were highly educated. Some were trained doctors who set up small clinics in places such as Nicosia, Lapithos and Larnaca where they were able to treat patients and preach their gospel in equal measure. Other missionaries were trained teachers who through translators were able to teach English by way of religious sermons and Bible studies.
From what I can deduct from my research, the American missionaries struggled to establish a foothold in Cyprus. The Greek Orthodox church became their greatest opponent and obstacle. In their quest to recruit and convert locals, they achieved greater success with the Armenians who had settled in Cyprus after fleeing from Asia Minor.
By the start of the twentieth century, the missionaries managed to set up small schools in the main towns on the island along with their medical clinics. In this way, they were able to treat the sick and improve education on the island. By now, Cyprus was in the hands of the British authorities who seemed to support the American missionaries in a much greater way than the Ottoman rulers ever did. In places like Nicosia and Larnaca, a mass was often conducted every Sunday in three languages. In one report, written by Dr. W. M. Moore, he states that in 1901, over two and a half thousand locals had attended these masses.
Before leaving Cyprus, Rev. Easson brought Apostolos Aegyptiades from Smyrna (Asia Minor) to lead his school in Larnaca. Mr. Aegyptiades, who was converted at the age of sixteen was one of the first preachers of Christianity among the Greeks in Cyprus and worked for nearly twenty years in Larnaca. He died aged ninety-seven in 1925. His wife Eleni was also a prominent figure in Larnaca, especially when she was in charge of the American Academy for Girls.
Public support and favour soon diminished for the American evangelists and distrust grew quickly. In April 1901 the chapel in Larnaca was burned to the ground, and the evangelists found the going more difficult. The chapel was eventually rebuilt (in stone this time) and inaugurated in July 1902.
In a letter dated March 1901, Dr. James McKinnis Balph who was visiting the island writes: “We visited the school for boys, which is conducted down in the town. It has an attendance of seventeen and Greek, Turkish and English are taught. There is also a night school for those who cannot attend during the day, in which both Mr. Easson and Dr. Moore do some teaching. We spent one morning at Dr. Moore’s clinic, at which there was an attendance of about fifty. Half an hour was devoted to religious services, after which the doctor examined and dispensed medicines to his patients.”
When Dr. Moore left Cyprus in April of 1903 there were no American missionaries left on the island until Rev. Walter McCarroll arrived with his family from Australia (Geelong) in late November of that year.
After surveying the situation, Rev. McCarroll decided that the mission should concentrate its efforts on establishing a high quality school. In 1905-06 the church received seven new members, one of whom was a rich industrialist named Peponiades. Much to his family’s surprise, Peponiades left two thirds of his estate to the mission in Larnaca and also land and $1000 to build a chapel in Nicosia. It was reported at that time that the school had grown to include 57 pupils comprising of 22 Greeks, 18 Armenians, 14 Turks and 3 Jews.
On the 8th February 1906, an angry mob of around two thousand locals went on a rampage in Famagusta attacking the premises of anyone connected to the American evangelists.
A letter written by Rev. Walter McCarroll, describes the event.
“On Thursday evening, a mob of nearly two thousand people gathered outside the house of Mr. Kassilian. Some speeches were made by advocates and other leading citizens, to the effect that no one in that town could become an evangelical. The mob then began to stone the house. The doors were broken in, the chairs, table, desk, etc., were broken into splinters, and about forty Bibles and Testaments, were torn to shreds. The frenzied mob then rushed to the shop of a confectioner (Philippos), who was one of our members and wrecked it utterly, damaging it to the extent of about fifty pounds sterling. The stoning of Mr. Kassilian’s house continued incessantly for more than three hours. The police were utterly unable to control the mob. The mounted constabulary were finally called out, only to be assailed by stones, sticks and tin cans from the roofs of the adjoining buildings. The mob forced the Greek school teacher Fitikides to recant his conversion at gunpoint, then a parade was held to announce his recantation. All members of the mission were forced to leave Famagusta. The Bishop of Kitium (Larnaca) publicly called for the expulsion of the mission from the island.”
Public protests continued in other parts of the island. In 1907, an unruly mob interrupted church services in the new chapel in Nicosia. After restoring order, the British wrote to the mission with a plea to ‘stop offending the Greek Orthodox Church.’
In 1908, Rev. Walter McCarroll received approval from the Mission Board in America for him to build a proper school in Larnaca. The school that McCarroll envisioned had two goals: Firstly, to evangelize the students, especially the boarders, so that they would become members and workers in the church, and secondly, to provide an English language education to prepare students to become teachers or to move into the world of business.
The school grew rapidly, from thirty-five students in 1908, sixty in 1911 and two hundred in 1920. A new building was erected. Eight teaching missionaries were sent from America between 1909 and 1920, and twenty more between 1921 and 1935. There were never enough missionaries to staff the school, so non-Protestant teachers had to be hired. In 1922 the Mission began a Girls School in Nicosia. Miss Blanche McCrea took it over in 1925 until she retired in 1967. It too prospered.
The mission resumed medical work in these years, with Dr. Calvin McCarroll (brother of Walter) practicing in Nicosia. Neither medical work nor schools produced the desired conversions. Walter McCarroll wrote in 1916 that, ‘the results in conversions and changed character have been disappointingly small.’ Medical work also showed little in terms of conversions, even though a Greek evangelist often worked alongside the Protestant Doctor, (as Dr. McCarroll was known). The school and medical work conducted by the American missionaries did eventually achieve a good reputation as each offered the local population a useful and wanted service.
In 1919 Walter McCarroll returned to the United States and Dr. William W. Weir succeeded him as principal of the American Academy in Larnaca. Dr. Weir was a visionary and deeply interested in Christian education. He designed a full school program, making intelligent use of contemporary American education theory. The school published its own newspaper, introduced interschool sports, a chorus, put on plays, sponsored service clubs, and took school trips on and off the island. Interestingly, Weir described his school ‘as an effective and lively place of learning’, and soon students from other countries were attracted to the American Academy. With so many applicants, the school could now afford to turn away the weaker students. Even during the Depression enrolment stayed strong. Graduates later found employment in every business and government department on the island.
Although the American missionaries had established one of the most important schools in Cyprus, their primary goal to convert the locals to their religion had failed. Greek Cypriots, in particular, who already called themselves Christian were reluctant to change ranks. What the missionaries failed to realise was that the Orthodox Church had for centuries maintained a faithful flock; first against the Roman Catholic Church when the French and Venetians ruled the island, and later against the Ottoman Turks. The missionaries failed to realise that every Greek Cypriot is taught from a very young age, that it is a ‘sin’ to change your religion.
In the early 1930’s, The Reformed Presbyterian Church, concluded that their schools in Cyprus which were less fruitful than the schools in the other countries. In countries such as China, the mission was working with only one nationality whereas in Cyprus there were Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Maronites and Latins. Things did not go well. Soon their established schools in Cyprus attracted less and less American teachers.
During the 1950s the American Academy was placed in an awkward position during the four year guerrilla war that erupted on the island against British rule. The school authorities had to deal with nationalist sentiment that was growing among its Greek students. The teachers themselves had differing political sympathies: some preferred continued British rule; while others sympathized with either Greek or Turkish aspirations.
In 1960, after British granted the island its independence, the American mission in Cyprus came to an end. Clark Copeland left Cyprus in 1960, and Dr. Weir retired in 1961.
I would love to hear your stories about the American Academy in Larnaca, especially from anyone who attended the school, say before 1950. Perhaps, your parents or grandparents went there. I would also encourage you to post any old school photos you might have. I would dearly love to one day create a proper archive for future generations to access and enjoy.