New ACWC and FLC 'gold'

Recently, I attended the Asian Church and Ecumenical Leaders’ International Consultation on “Ecumenism in Asia: Emerging Ecclesial Landscapes and Ecumenical Paradigms” organized and hosted by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA). It was a very worthwhile event, and the sessions were held at the Payap Christian University in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

After the consultation, I was able to spend time tracking down possible early records of both the Asian Church Women’s Conference and the Fellowship of the Least Coin in the archives of the ecumenical Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT). I began at the CCT Women’s Department because I knew that the second assembly of the ACWC in 1962 was held at Petburi, Thailand. Mrs Jannuan Suriyakham of the CCT was the first ACWC Secretary from November 1958–November 1962 and, therefore, she and an American missionary to Thailand, Jeanne Bellerjeau from the Presbyterian Church USA, attended that 1962 assembly. Both women were prominent in the CCT’s national organization for church women, and they had also attended the very first ACWC Assembly held in Hong Kong in 1958. Because Jannuan was elected Chairwoman of the ACWC at the second assembly, they then attended the third assembly as well in Japan. Today, photographs of these two women grace the walls of the CCT Women’s Department in Chiang Mai.

I had hoped that there would be some records at the CCT in English that had been generated by Jeanne Bellerjeau, however, I was informed that any records were no longer held at the CCT building. Two years earlier those records were relocated to the Archives of the Payap Christian University. Two days later, when the director of the CCT Women’s Department returned from visiting women’s groups in the far north of Thailand, she made contact with the University Archivist and told her that I would visit the next day.

The University Archivist was the most delightful and hospitable woman, and she had printed out a finding aid in English for the Jeanne Bellerjeau holdings. I was shocked to discover that there were 20 archive boxes of Jeanne Bellerjeau’s records, so I decided to begin with her family correspondence in the 1960s. I felt sure that she would have written to her family about all her activities, and this proved to be correct.

As I worked my way through the correspondence and became more and more excited about the snippets of information that I was finding, I explained their significance to the archivist. She began thinking laterally and linking this information to other CCT records for the women in the 1960s, and this yielded ACWC and FLC ‘gold’. Never did I expect to see original program booklets in those archives for the second and third ACWC assemblies, as these do not exist in the sparse records of the ACWC office.

There were also many letters to and from Jannuan Suriyakham, all in English. I soon realised that Jeanne and Jannuan were close colleagues who had become good friends through their shared work.

The FLC item that caught my attention was in the program for the third ACWC assembly, which also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the FLC. At the closing dedication service of that gathering on 26 July 1966 in Tokyo, Japan, Shanti Solomon presented a brief history of the early years of the FLC. Her presentation was printed in the program, and I have reproduced it below with no alterations to the original text.

Fellowship of the Least Coin

Closing Presentation by Shanti Solomon

Dear Sisters in Christ, I come before you in great humility and adoration to God. For it is a miracle how God has blessed this simple idea expressed ten years ago in hopes of establishing a worldwide fellowship of Christian women. I firmly believed that this was God’s plan and He used an ordinary person like me to carry it out.

I really do not deserve all the honour and glory you are so graciously bestowing upon me. The credit should be shared with some other countries who helped in starting this fellowship.

First, I would mention the Presbyterian women of America, who made it possible for an international team to come out to Asia under the able leadership of Dr. Margaret Shannon. Through their leadership and resources the idea of the Fellowship of the Least Coin was born.

The Philippines is next in the list of founders. In 1956 when I could not go to Korea with the rest of the team due to political reasons, I was disappointed, but the common saying came true that my disappointment was God’s appointment. I went to the Philippines instead and it was there when God put this idea into my head. For the first time when I shared this idea with a group of Church women in Laong City, everyone liked it and I was adopted by one old woman of that group as you saw in the slide last night. This gave me assurance to share the idea with the women of other countries.

While I was enjoying the warm fellowship with the Filipino women, Mrs. Carmen Armonio went to Korea in my place with a message of reconciliation. This once again assured me for the need of such a fellowship.

Hongkong came next in the picture. Mrs. Rayann Ma from Hongkong joined the team in Japan to maintain the international balance. The women of Hongkong whole-heartedly supported the idea. They prepared the first devotional book on the Fellowship of the Least Coin, called “Circle of Prayer”.

After our visit to Hongkong, the team dispersed and I stopped in Bangkok on my way to India. The peace-loving women of Thailand at once joined their hands with the others in promoting this Fellowship. In 1957 the first offerings from seven countries amounted to $4,075 U.S.

This inspired the Presbyterian women in the States to use their Thank Offering to enable the Asian women to get together and think of ways and means of promoting this Fellowship.* This resulted in the First Asian Church Women’s Conference. The women from nine Asian countries enjoyed the rich fellowship with each other, but all the delegates were from the United Churches in the countries. The delegates strongly felt that they did not want to promote the Fellowship among the women of one denomination only. Hence a committee was appointed to form rules for the use of the Least Coin offerings, and we recognized a great need for the women to come together in fellowship once in four years. It should be an interdenominational group.

Today it is a joy to see an interdenominational gathering of women from nineteen countries. It is no more a gathering of Asian women alone. This time we have women from Africa and America to enrich our fellowship.

We do not know what it will develop into, but we all can say that the fellowship of the Least Coin is born and in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, it can bear much fruit.

I thank the Planning Committee of this Conference for this unique opportunity to be with you and see for myself what wonderful things God can do.

My heart is filled with joy and gratitude to God, who can transform our simple offerings to something so amazing and so divine. Join with me in praising the Lord and saying,

“How great Thou art

How great Thou art.”

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* When the Asian women gathered together in 1958 in the USA for a nearly four-month program of orientation, speaking engagements, fellowship and networking, and church and conference experience they did discuss the FLC and how to promote this prayer movement, but their agenda was far broader than the FLC. Shanti did not attend this program, so it was probably much simpler to very briefly mention the gathering and its relevance to the FLC in her limited presentation. See https://www.acw.org.au/post/come-see-go-quickly-and-tell