Florence Selina Harriet Young (10 October 1856 – 28 May 1940) was a New Zealand-born

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

who established the Queensland Kanaka Mission in order to convert Kanaka labourers in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. In addition, she conducted missionary work in China and the Solomon Islands.

Life

Young was born in

Motueka Motueka is a town in the South Island of New Zealand, close to the mouth of the Motueka River on the western shore of Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere. It is the second largest in the Tasman Region, with a population of as of The surrounding dis ...

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

, the fifth child of an English farmer. Her parents were both

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

. She was educated at home in addition to two years in a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

in England. She moved to

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

in 1878, and in 1882 to Fairymead, a

sugar plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

near

Bundaberg, Queensland Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the List of places in Queensland by population, tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's Bundaberg Regional Council, regional area has a population of 70,921, and is ...

owned by her brothers Arthur, Horace, and Ernest Young. She started holding

prayer meeting A prayer meeting is a group of lay people getting together for the purpose of prayer as a group. Prayer meetings are typically conducted outside regular services by one or more members of the clergy or other forms of religious leadership, but the ...

s for the families of the planters, which became the Young People's Scriptural Union. Eventually the group attracted 4000 members. Increasingly, she focused on the

kanakas Kanakas were workers (a mix of voluntary and involuntary) from various Pacific Islands employed in British colonies, such as British Columbia (Canada), Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Queensland (Australia) in the 19t ...

(Solomon Islanders), whose "heathen" customs she detested. She began conducting classes in

pidgin English Pidgin English is a non-specific name used to refer to any of the many pidgin languages derived from English. Pidgins that are spoken as first languages become creoles. English-based pidgins that became stable contact languages, and which have ...

, and used pictures and a

chrysalis A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

to illustrate the

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...

. In 1886 she founded the Queensland Kanaka Mission (QKM) at Fairymead as an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. Overview The term has been used in the context of various faiths including Jainism, Baháʼí Fait ...

church. It spread to other plantations and met with considerable approval from plantation owners and officials. In 1889, Government Inspector Caulfield noted that the behaviour of some

South Sea Islanders South Sea Islanders are the Australian descendants of Pacific Islanders from more than 80 islandsincluding the Oceanian archipelagoes of the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Gilbert Islands and New Ireland (island), New Ire ...

had been improved by religious instruction. Stressing "salvation before education or civilization," it aimed to prepare the imported labourers for membership in their local established churches when they returned home. At its height, in 1904–1905, the mission employed 19 paid missionaries, and 118 unpaid "native teachers," and claimed 2,150 conversions. Between 1891 and 1900, she spent six years with the

China Inland Mission OMF International (formerly Overseas Missionary Fellowship and before 1964 the China Inland Mission) is an international and interdenominational Evangelical Christian missionary society with an international centre in Singapore. It was founded i ...

. She suffered a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

, but recognized the work as preparation for the launch of the

South Seas Evangelical Mission The South Sea Evangelical Church (SSEC) is an evangelical, Pentecostal church in Solomon Islands. In total, 17% of the population of Solomon Islands adheres to the church, making it the third most common religious affiliation in the country behind ...

(SSEM), established in 1904 as a branch of the QKM in response to pleas from

Peter Ambuofa Peter Ambuofa was an early convert to Christianity among Solomon Islanders who established a Christian community on Malaita, and a key figure in the history of the South Seas Evangelical Mission (now South Seas Evangelical Church, SSEC). Peter Amb ...

and other repatriated converts who solicited help establishing and teaching their own congregations.Leslie Fugui (with Simeon Butu). "Religion." In ''Ples Blong Iumi: The Solomon Islands, the Past Four Thousand Years''. Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1989. Page 89. In 1904 she led groups of white missionaries to

Malaita Malaita is the primary island of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with a population of 161,832 as of 2021, or more than a third of the entire national population. It is also the se ...

in the Solomon Islands, hoping to nurture the newly established churches of her protégés. Young continued to administer the organization, from Sydney and

Katoomba, New South Wales Katoomba is the chief town of the City of Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia, and the administrative headquarters of Blue Mountains City Council. The council's understanding is that Katoomba is located on the lands of the Dharug and Gu ...

, and made annual trips to the island until 1926. She wrote an autobiography, ''Pearls from the Pacific'', which was published in London in 1925. She died in

Killara, New South Wales Killara is a suburb on the North Shore (Sydney), Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia north-west of the Sydney Central Business District in the Local government areas of New South Wales, local government area ...

and was buried in

Gore Hill Gore Hill is an urban locality on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Gore Hill is located within the southern part of the suburb of Artarmon, and the north-west of the suburb of St Leonards. History It takes its na ...

cemetery with

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

forms.

Notes

References

* Helga M. Griffin
Young, Florence Selina Harriet (1856 - 1940)
''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

'', Volume 12, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp 596–597.

External links

Page
from a descendant, including photograph of Young in China

books page, including PDF of ''Pearls from the Pacific'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Florence New Zealand evangelicals Protestant missionaries in the Solomon Islands Protestant missionaries in China New Zealand emigrants to Australia 1856 births 1940 deaths People from Motueka New Zealand Protestant missionaries Female Christian missionaries New Zealand expatriates in China New Zealand expatriates in the Solomon Islands Protestant missionaries in Australia Burials at Gore Hill Cemetery

Life

Notes

References

Further reading

External links