In May 1850, an English ship turned into the Min river on the south China coast some 400 miles north of Hong Kong. She made her way slowly up the river for twenty miles before arriving at Pagoda Anchorage. Passengers and cargo would have to make the final ten miles to Fuh-Chow (
Fuzhou) in junks or sampans. Thus, the Revd W. Welton, a man with medical qualifications, as mentioned in an earlier section, and Revd R. D. Jackson arrived at Fuh-Chow, Fuh-Kien as missionaries of the CMS. American missionaries had preceded them by four years. Five years later Revd F. McCaw and Revd M. Fearnley joined the mission. These early missionaries either died of fever or moved back to England. The Revd George Smith was the next arrival in 1859 yet only a year later the CMS was considering abandoning Fuh-Chow where not a single conversion had been achieved. However, that year yielded baptisms and in 1862 Revd
John Richard Wolfe was appointed as missionary minister in Fuh-Chow. Smith died in 1863 leaving Wolfe alone until Revd A. W. Cribb joined him in late 1864. A small number of other clergy and their wives followed including Revd J. E. Mahood in 1868. Wolfe, himself, came to be described as "the chief instrument in the remarkable ingathering in the Fuh-Kien Province" and he remained the senior and longest serving missionary until his death in 1915 having given 53 years to the missionary cause in Fuh-Kien. He was known among the Christian Chinese as the "Fukien Moses." In an article in the CM Gleaner in 1893, he wrote of the bleak outlook for the Mission in 1862. He further describes the progress such that by 1893 the Mission had extended its operations into five of the largest prefectures or provinces of Fuh-Kien which covered an area half the size of England. Across this area there were 170 churches or places of worship in 17 large counties with nearly 11,000 adherents. Since 1862, 15 Chinese clergy had been ordained. There were also 125 trained catechists and 38 theological students in training. Over all the counties, 106 Chinese schoolmasters were teaching in elementary schools with two or three boarding schools for boys in country stations as well as a high school for advanced students in Fuh-Chow in which young men were training for entrance to the theological college to become future pastors and teachers. The Mission had four boarding schools for girls and three schools for training the wives of catechists, students and other women for Christian work whether as voluntary or as paid Bible women. Also, by 1893, two medical missions were in operation in the prefectures of Fu Ning and Kieng-ning carried out by Dr. B. Van Someren Taylor and Dr. Rigg. They were assisted by Chinese men who they were training. Dr. Wilkinson was in charge, assisted by his wife Amy Oxley/Wilkinson who opened a blind school for boys in which much was achieved through her efforts and for which she was awarded the very rare Chinese Government
Order of the Golden Grain in 1917. with wife, Mary, and daughters, Minnie, Annie and Amy Wolfe also reported in 1893 of the women missionaries of the CMS, in the
Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMA) and the Female Education Society (FES), working all over the Mission among women. At that date, five women were evangelising Chinese women in schools and congregations. Miss E. S. Goldie had arrived in 1887, Miss M. D. Boileau, 1889, and sisters Misses J. C. and J. E. Clarke together with Miss Minnie E. Wolfe are listed in 1892. Miss Bushell and Miss Lambert lead the Girls' Boarding School in Fuh-Chow which was to produce Christian wives, teachers, nurses and doctors over many decades. By 1900 sixteen English clergy, eleven Chinese clergy and 34 CMS women missionaries as well as approximately the same number of CEZMS women were serving in Fuh-Chow and in other prefectures. Among them were eight women who arrived in 1896 undeterred by the
Kucheng massacre the year before. The Revd Robert Stewart, his wife, a child and six women missionaries were killed. The dangers and hazards of missionary life were considerable and included health risks arising from insanitary conditions and anti-European feelings expressed in hostile actions towards people and their buildings. The Kucheng massacre was by far the largest of the latter. Missionaries did not cease their preaching and teaching in the area. And among these women were three Wolfe sisters, Annie and Amy having joined Minnie. In 1910 Archdeacon Wolfe was honoured by the CMS making him a Vice President of the Society the first and only Vice President not to be a bishop. He was further honoured at the eighth Synod of Fuh-Kien held in 1917 when money was pledged by European and Chinese delegates to build a cathedral in his memory. Christ Church Cathedral was consecrated on 13 November 1927. On the right hand side of the main entrance an inscription in Chinese characters marked in stone reads in translation as "with the ancient moon shining upon modern men we commemorate Archdeacon Wolfe who ministered here." (John Wolfe's name in Chinese sounded very like the English sounds in ancient moon and became his longstanding nickname.) The church still stands and a Christian congregation worships regularly. ==From Mission to Diocese==