Florence Young
Florence Selina Harriet Young (10 October 1856 – 28 May 1940) was a New Zealand-born
Queensland Kanaka Mission in order to convert Kanaka labourers in Queensland
, Australia. In addition, she conducted missionary work in China and the Solomon Islands.
Life
Young was born in Motueka, South Island, the fifth child of an English farmer. Her parents were both Plymouth Brethren. She was educated at home in addition to two years in a boarding school in England.
She moved to
chrysalis to illustrate the resurrection
.
In 1886 she founded the
non-denominational church. It spread to other plantations and met with considerable approval from plantation owners and officials. In 1889, Government Inspector Caulfield noted that the behaviour of some South Sea Islanders had been improved by religious instruction.[1]
Stressing "salvation before education or civilization," it aimed to prepare the imported labourers for membership in their local established churches when they returned home. At its height, in 1904–1905, the mission employed 19 paid missionaries, and 118 unpaid "native teachers," and claimed 2,150 conversions.
Between 1891 and 1900, she spent six years with the
South Seas Evangelical Mission (SSEM), established in 1904 as a branch of the QKM in response to pleas from Peter Ambuofa and other repatriated converts who solicited help establishing and teaching their own congregations.[2] In 1904 she led groups of white missionaries to Malaita
in the Solomon Islands, hoping to nurture the newly established churches of her protégés.
Young continued to administer the organization, from Sydney and
Presbyterian
forms.
Notes
- ^ a b Queensland Cultural Heritage Registry. "South Sea Islander Church and Hall". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2007.
- ^ Leslie Fugui (with Simeon Butu). "Religion." In Ples Blong Iumi: The Solomon Islands, the Past Four Thousand Years. Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1989. Page 89.
References
- Helga M. Griffin, Young, Florence Selina Harriet (1856 - 1940), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp 596–597.
Further reading
- Janet and Geoff Benge. Florence Young: Mission Accomplished. ISBN 1-57658-313-9
External links
- Page from a descendant, including photograph of Young in China
- Christian History Research Australia books page, including PDF of Pearls from the Pacific
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