BICKERS TETH, Edward

[s. 109] : Died August 5, 1897. M. A. Fellow Pembroke College, Cambridge. Ordained deacon in 1873; ordained priest in 1874. Chief station, Delhi, India, from 1877-81. Transferred to Japan in 1886. Consecrated in St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1886, second English Bishop in Japan. Son of E. H. Bickers teth, Bishop of Exeter, and grandson of a former Sec- He was moved by the misretary of the CMS. sionary Bishop French of Lahore to devote his life to a mi ionary career; and, influenced by French, he planned a brotherhood of Cambridge men, which should form a strong and concentrated mi ion at some central station, in affiliation with one of the established societies. Bickers teth’s hereditary a ociations naturally led him to approach the CMS, but, difficulties arising, he concluded matters with the SPG, and Delhi was chosen for the new “Cambridge Mi ion.” Bishop Bickers teth arrived in Japan April 16, 1886, and at his request he was allowed to make his residence at Tokio. His great achievement is spoken of as the formation of the Nippon Sei-kokwai or “Japan Catholic Church”. He felt that the peculiarly independent spirit of the Japanese and the tendency toward a latitudinarian development of Christianity among them, rendered it important that the ecclesiastical organization, with its doctrines and forms, should be positively recognized. He soon felt the value and importance of woman’s work in Japan; and wrote to the Society these urgent words: “I feel strongly that the policy of working through clergy only, without the a istance of lady mi ionaries, has in the past crippled our Mi ions.” And since then, Japan has always claimed and received a good share of SPG women. In 1887 Bishop Bickers teth, accompanied by Bishop Scott, of North China, visited Korea, and their appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury resulted in the establishment of the SPG Mi ion in this important field. In 1892 the Bishop set himself to visit every station and outstation of the Anglican Mi ions in Japan, and his study Blnsbain of this large diocese, with its extremities 2,000 miles apart, led him to the conviction that Japan now needed more His suggestions bishops. were accepted and acted upon. Bishop Bickers teth did much toward consolidating the Japanese Church under American, English and Canadian Episcopal Mi ions into the Nippon Seikokwai with its complete synodical organization, and his name will also be remembered as the founder of tlie two community mi ions of St. Andrew and St. Hilda, the former of which (for men) renewed its connection with the SPG in 1900. The Bickers teth Hall, in Delhi, India (built in 1891) affords a splendid opportunity for preaching the Gospel in the very heart of the Mohammedan quarter, and the Bickers teth Memorial Studentships for the maintenance of students studying for the ministry at St. Andrew’s Divinity School, Tokio, supply a felt need. BIHE. See Angola. 109