The Rt. Rev. Philip Lindel Tsen (, January 7, 1885 – June 6, 1954) was a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

in China (

Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui (CHSKH, zh, t=中華聖公會), known in English as the Holy Catholic Church in China or Anglican-Episcopal Province of China, was the name of the Anglican Church in China from 1912 until about 1958. History The Chung ...

; ). Tsen was the first Chinese Presiding Bishop of the Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui and was succeeded by Bishop Robin Chen of the Diocese of Anhui province.

Early life and ministry

Born in impoverished circumstances in

Wuhu Wuhu () is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Anhui province, China. Sitting on the southeast bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei city to the northwest, Ma'anshan ...

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

Province in 1885. Homeless at the age of 14, Tsen was taken in by the Rev. Francis E. Lund of the American Church Mission. One of the few Chinese confirmed by James Addison Ingle during his brief tenure as Bishop of Hankow. A student at St. James High School in

thereafter Boone College in

Wuchang Wuchang forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. It is the oldest of the three cities that merged into modern-day Wuhan, and stood on the ri ...

where he graduated from Boone Divinity School in 1909.

Ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

as a deacon in 1909 in St. Paul's Cathedral,

Hankow Hankou, alternately romanized as Hankow (), was one of the three towns (the other two were Wuchang and Hanyang) merged to become modern-day Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province, China. It stands north of the Han and Yangtze Rivers whe ...

by Bishop Logan Roots and as an Anglican priest by Bishop Huntingdon in 1912. In 1923 Tsen went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

for a year of study at

Virginia Theological Seminary Virginia Theological Seminary (VTS), formally called the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia, located at 3737 Seminary Road in Alexandria, Virginia is the largest and second oldest accredited Episcopal seminary in the Unit ...

followed by another year at the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. He also studied at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, where he received an MA in Sociology in 1926.

Role as bishop

Tsen was consecrated as

assistant bishop An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop. Church of England In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...

of Honan on 23 February 1929, becoming the second Chinese diocesan bishop in an established

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

diocese after Assistant Bishop Sing of Chekiang in 1919. In the Summer of 1930 Tsen was also the first Chinese bishop to attend the

Lambeth Conference The Lambeth Conference is a decennial assembly of bishops of the Anglican Communion convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The first such conference took place at Lambeth in 1867. As the Anglican Communion is an international association ...

. When Bishop White retired in 1935, Tsen was elevated by the House of Bishops to serve as the next Bishop of Honan. In 1937 Tsen visited Canada with Bishop

Paul Shinji Sasaki Paul Shinji Sasaki (パウロ佐々木鎮次)、(March 11, 1885 – December 21, 1946) was an Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Mid-Japan and later of Tokyo, in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Province of the Anglican Communion in Japan. Early l ...

of the

Nippon Sei Ko Kai The ''Nippon Sei Ko Kai'' ( ja, 日本聖公会, translit=Nippon Seikōkai, lit=Japanese Holy Catholic Church), abbreviated as NSKK, sometimes referred to in English as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, is the national Christian church repr ...

to bear witness to the unity of Chinese and Japanese Christians, despite the war between the two nations. At the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Tsen attended the

of 1948, but was placed under house arrest immediately on his return. For his courage and leadership of the Chinese Anglican community during the

, the

Calendar of saints (Anglican Church of Canada) Prior to the revision of the Anglican Church of Canada's (ACC) Book of Common Prayer (BCP) in 1962, the national church followed the liturgical calendar of the 1918 Canadian Book of Common Prayer. Throughout most of the twentieth century, the situat ...

remembers Bishop Tsen annually on February 24 (along with Bishop

of Japan).

Notes

University of Pennsylvania alumni Anglican missionary bishops in China Virginia Theological Seminary alumni 1885 births 1954 deaths 20th-century Anglican bishops in China Anglican bishops of Honan {{Anglican-bishop-stub