Walter Russell Lambuth (November 10, 1854 – September 26, 1921) was a Chinese-born American Christian bishop who worked as a missionary establishing schools and hospitals in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
and
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
in the 1880s.
Birth and family
Born in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
as the eldest son of
James William Lambuth and Mary Isabella McClellan, he was sent to his relatives in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
for his early education. Walter's parents were pioneering missionaries in China. Together they also founded the mission work of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...
in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Walter's grandfather had been a Preacher in the Mississippi
Annual Conference
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...
. Walter's great-grandfather, the Rev. William Lambuth, was a Preacher in the Holston Annual Conference (admitted in 1795).
Education
Walter graduated from
Emory and Henry College
Emory & Henry College (E&H or Emory) is a private liberal arts college in Emory, Virginia. The campus comprises of Washington County, which is part of the Appalachian highlands of Southwest Virginia. Founded in 1836, Emory & Henry College is ...
in 1875, and later received theology and medical degrees from
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
.
Ordination and Ministry
Bishop W. M. Wrightman appointed Walter R. Lambuth as the first pastor of Woodbine United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee in 1875. This was Rev. Lambuth’s first and only pastorate. Lambuth was ordained an elder in the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and returned to China with his wife Daisy Kelly as a medical missionary in 1877. In 1883 with support from the Methodist Church Dr. Lambuth, alongside William Hector Park, founded Soochow Hospital.
He was then dispatched to western Japan where they were founders of Methodist work in Japan. In 1889, he founded what has become one of the most prestigious universities in the
Kansai region
The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...
,
Kwansei Gakuin University
, colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 u ...
in
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
.
Lambuth returned to the United States and took charge of all Methodist missionary work as General Secretary of the Board of Missions of the
American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission was an American Methodist missionary society operated by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South that was involved in training and sending workers to urban centers in the U.S. as well as to other countrie ...
. In 1910, he was elected Bishop by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and was assigned to
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. The following year, he established Methodist work in the
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, alongside
John Wesley Gilbert
John Wesley Gilbert (July 6, 1863 – November 18, 1923) was an American archaeologist, educator, and Methodist missionary to the Congo. Gilbert was the first graduate of Paine College, its first African-American professor, and the first African ...
, a fellow Methodist missionary and the first professional African American archaeologist. Lambuth later traveled to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and established Southern Methodism in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, and
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
. He supervised missionary work worldwide until his death in 1921. He died in
Yokohama, Japan
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
and his ashes were buried in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, China, next to his mother Mary.
Lambuth Day is held October 6 at Pearl River Church in
Madison County, Mississippi
Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 95,203. The county seat is Canton. The county is named for U.S. President James Madison.
Madison County is part of the Jackson, MS ...
.
The former
Lambuth University
Lambuth University was a private Methodist university in Jackson, Tennessee. It was active from 1843 to 2011 and was supported by the Memphis Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The university began as the Memphis Conference Female ...
in
Jackson, Tennessee
Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 68,205 as of the 2020 United States ...
and the Lambuth Inn at
Lake Junaluska, North Carolina
Lake Junaluska is a census-designated place (CDP) in Haywood County, North Carolina, United States, and a manmade lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is part of the Asheville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Lake Junaluska is named after nearby ...
were named in his honor. Lambuth Memorial United Methodist Church in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...
was also named for him. Somesay the name was chosen the day he died in 1921 when the church began.
References
*Leete, Frederick DeLand, Methodist Bishops. Nashville, The Methodist Publishing House, 1948.
See also
*
List of bishops of the United Methodist Church
This is a list of bishops of the United Methodist Church and its predecessor denominations, in order of their election to the episcopacy, both living and dead.
1784–1807
;Founders
* Thomas Coke 1784
* Francis Asbury 1784
* Richard Whatcoat ...
*
Christianity in Japan
Christianity in Japan is among the nation's minority religions in terms of individuals who state an explicit affiliation or faith. Between less than 1 percent and 1.5% of the population claims Christianity, Christian belief or affiliation. Altho ...
*
Christianity in Korea
The practice of Christianity in Korea is marginal in North Korea, but significant in South Korea, where it revolves around two of its largest branches, Protestantism and Catholicism, accounting for 8.6 millionAccording to figures compiled by ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambuth, Walter Russell
Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
American Methodist Episcopal, South bishops
1854 births
1921 deaths
Emory and Henry College alumni
Vanderbilt University alumni
American Methodist missionaries
Methodist missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Methodist missionaries in Brazil
Protestant missionaries in Belgium
Protestant missionaries in Czechoslovakia
Methodist missionaries in Russia
Protestant missionaries in Poland
Methodist missionaries in China
Methodist missionaries in Japan
Burials in Shanghai
American expatriates in Brazil
Christian medical missionaries
American expatriates in the Belgian Congo
American expatriates in Belgium
American expatriates in Czechoslovakia
American expatriates in Russia
American expatriates in Japan
American expatriates in Poland
Methodist missionaries in Europe
University and college founders