George Leslie Mackay''s Establishment of the Kap-Tsu-Lan Churches and the Reasons for their Quantity Change(1873-1923)

• Main Authors: Ting-Shiuan Gu, 古庭瑄
• Other Authors: Tzung-Shian
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/91842286064887618243

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 歷史學系碩士班 === 98 === Because of Christ’s command ─“ Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation”, George Leslie Mackay went to Northern Taiwan in the late nineteenth century. In 1873, Mackay began to preach the gospel in Kap-tsu-lan. During 1882~1900, a large amount of Kavalans turned to believe in Jesus Christ. Evangelical missions in Northern Taiwan was very successful. But, after Mackay passed away, Kavalan churches began to fade away. The purpose of this study is to understand Kavalans’ life in the Christian faith and the historical context that they were in and explore the reasons for the decline in the number of churches in Kap-tsu-lan. Findings of this study are summarized as follows： According to statistics, Mackay’s missions in Kavalan can be divided into three periods：They are Dissemination (1873~1882), Increase (1883~1894), and Decline (1895~1900, end in 1923) periods. During these periods, Mackay set up at least 24 churches, and led 2,500 people to Christ. However, since 1895, the number of Kavalan Church gradually decreased. By 1900, it was reduced to 20~22 churches, and continued to reduce and finally disappeared in 1923. . Reasons for the decline of the Kavalan churches are, first, Kavalans’ massive and fast conversion to the Christ made a large number of followers in need of care. Because of Mackay didn’t want to dispatch foreign missionaries, there were not sufficient co-workers for Mackay. It made him busy running around all over Northern Taiwan, and he was too busy to train them. Since Mackay didn’t stay in Kap-tsu-lan for a long period, training and education usually were assumed by local preachers from Taiwan. However, they also lacked the capacity to take care of the Kavalan Christians. On average, per local preacher needed to educate at least one hundred believers. As a result, the believers did not develop strong foundations in faith. Second, the environment in the 19th century for the Kavalan was too fluctuating for churches to develop stably. Because the protective policies of the land that the Qing Dynasty (Manching government) set for the Kavalan have no real protective effect, Kavalans started to move toward Sanxing and Hualien areas from 1840 to 1850. In 1895, the Manching government ceded Taiwan to Japan expedited the change of the Kavalan society. After Taiwanese armed uprisings, natural disasters, and the reformation of land investigation, the economic environment became harsher for Kavalans, there were more and more people moving away from Kap-tsu-lan. The Kavalan churches set by Mackay then became ruins. After Mackay passed away, Presbyterian church leaders decided to set up churches in the Han society. As a result, the Kavalan churches gradually disappeared. The Kavalan Christians were not steeped in their faith. After moving into the Han society, their church-going activity was irregular, and many were married to non-believers which affect their belief. As a consequence, the Kavalan churches disappeared.