Henry Writes Letter To Friends
While in Peking Henry wrote many letters to his friends and family and many of those letters are now in the Wesleyan University Collection1. Below is a letter that Henry wrote to some of his friends on December 16, 1920. He begins the letter discussing the upcoming Christmas play saying that the church is choosing not to introduce the western idea of Santa Claus in China. This letter is one of the few representations in the Fenn Archive of Henry’s connection with missionizing work later in his life. The intention of this play is to spread Christmas ideals and Christianity. He then discusses how there are “native Chritians”, referring to Chinese individuals who have converted to Christianity, and how they are going to go to Yunnan for “home missionizing”. Although Henry was not a missionary himself, he was continually tied into missionary work for his whole life. The rest of the letter is dedicated to discussing the political climate in China at the time.
References:
Fenn Collection. College of East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University.