Phungyo Baptist Church ( PBC) at a glance
- recalling the days of Pettigrew -
- Part 2 -

Okluithan Addie Chiphang *

Phungyo Baptist Church (PBC) celebrates 119 years of Christianity at Ukhrul :: Pix - TSE

Rev. William Pettigrew coming to Manipur

Receiving permission from the officiating Political Agent Mr A Porteous (not direct from the Govt.), he arrived in Imphal in January 1894. Upon his arrival at the capital, his knowledge of Bengalee and Manipuri language enabled him to communicate with the local people and thereby he immediately commenced preaching the Gospel in the bazaars.

Eventually through the help of a young Manipuri boy who was taken in as helper, Pettigrew procured at Chingamakha "two houses with ground attached, about 90°X 40° for a reasonable amount (and) one of the two houses 40°X12° was soon made into a decent school room". On 7th May he had the joy of opening a new school there Soon the school was overcrowded because of which he had to draw a line at 50.

Everyday the students came together and recited the Disciples' Prayer, and Sankey's hymn Nos. 25 and 69 were heartily sung in Manipuri; on Sunday mornings they came together for prayer.

In the last week of the same year, when Major Maxwell, the Political Agent returned from Furlough Pettigrew was told that the " Officiating Political Agent's permission was invalid, owing to his not arranging with the Indian government". Therefore he was asked to abandon the work the school was taken out of his hand to be managed by the State Government, and propagation of Christianity was prohibited, Pettigrew however was allowed to remain in the State on the condition that the missionary enterprise was confined to the Tangkhul Nagas only at his own risk.

Opening of the Evangelise in Tangkhul Naga Areas

The main intention of Pettigrew was to evangelise the Manipuri Hindus in the valley is not disputed. But as the Scripture says " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" it was not the Lord's will that Pettigrew should open his mission centre in the valley nor at any other in the State than Ukhrul. It was verified in more ways than one, because in November 1895, i.e. 10 months after his maiden visit to Ukhrul, an ultimatum was served to him by the Government of India which he himself described thus:

"To accept one of the conditions was the ultimatum sent to us from Shillong a year and a half later. Say "yes" to proposal of leaving the valley alone and establishing mission headquarters among the headhunting Naga tribe called the Tangkhul Naga say "No" and leave the State for good".

Perhaps this was a pressure from God revealed through State agency Pettigrew chose the "Yes" and committed to working among the 'very aboriginal tribe' - the headhunting Tangkhul Nagas. He chose Ukhrul as his centre. He then negotiated with the American Baptist Missionary Union to take over the work and to appoint him an agent of the Society. Following his application he was invited to attend the Missionary Conference at Sibsagar, December 14-22, 1895.

On December 16th Pettigrew's application was considered vis-a-vis letters from Secretaries Duncan and Mabie with various other documents. "' Petigrew then made 2 statement before the Conference of his Christian experience, call to the ministry and views of his Christian doctrine and Revs. H.P. Moore, C.E. Burdette and E.P. Haggard were appointed a Committee to present resolution in reference to Pettigrew's case.

On December 19th, Rev, H.P. Moore presented a letter from Sibsagar Baptist church! that Pettigrew was a member of Sibsagar Baptist Church and requested the Conference to sit in council with the Church in regard to advisability of ordaining Mr Pettigrew. Thus after having Pettigrew examined and formalities having been completed, Pettigrew was ordained on December 22nd at Sibsagar Baptist Church and a pand written Ordination Certificate was issued thus:

"This is to certify that in accordance with usages of the Baptist Churches of the United States of America & in answer to the call of The Baptist Church of Sibsagar, Assam, William Pettigrew after an examination as to his Belief, call to the ministry & views of Christian Doctrine, was solemnly set apart to the Gospel Ministry by a Council consisting of the Assam Mission of the American Baptist Missionary Union at Sibsagar, December 229d 1895".
(Signed) C.D. King, Chairman (Signed) E.G. Phillips, Clerk.

The Sibsagar Triennial Conference of 1895 and the Executive Committee at Boston in January 1896 decided to take over the work in Manipur and Pettigrew was officially appointed a Missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union for Ukhrul field on January 27, 1896 and the work was officially taken over by the Union on February 1. Since then this A.B. Mission worker (later with his wife) was confined to Ukhrul from 1896 to 1916 (twenty years) by the State government under pain of dismissal from the State.

Having chosen Ukhrul as his centre rather than Paoyi, (as having had suggested by Porteous), he spent more of his time in building a temporary mission bungalow, outhouses and the school building with a few hours a day to study the language. October to December was given to going to Calcutta to finish off the printing of John's gospel in Manipuri which was then going through the press and above all to marry Alice Goreham who was Ieft behind in London six years ago when he left for India in 1890. After their marriage on November 13, 1896, at Lower Circular Baptist Church, Calcutta, the couple returned to Ukhrul to resume their work.

The school building at Ukhrul had already been completed then, but the Missionary had to spend quite six weeks in persuading the villagers to send some of their boys to school.

"So it was not until February 19 that the school was opened with 20 of the village boys including the most influential man of the village'? —~Raihao . Another 11 boys from Hundung joined the school later. Unlike the school in the valley, ho objection was made to Christian truth being taught.

The school was open daily With singing and prayer. On Sundays they came together to singing and to listen to thy Gospel stories. The work thus gradually grew and co-workers were asked for, but objected to by the Chief Commissioner.

In September 1901, 15 students confessed to Christ but it was decided that only those who were willing to give up drinking of the village 'Zam' mild or strong be baptised and so on 29th only 12 of them got baptised, and in 1802 a church was organised. The Church grew by and by but in 1908, it was broken up over a tribal feast and only 7 out of the total church members withstood the test, These seven in fact were the nucleus of the Tangkhul Church today.

During World War I, a contingent of labour corps was called for service in France. But the Political Agent, in spite of all his efforts could not raise the volunteers, because no one wanted to leave one's village for an unknown land. He therefore requested Rev. Pettigrew who was at that time temporarily stationed at Gauhati doing the Mission Treasurer's work to come and help him in raising the volunteers.

Rev. & Mrs. Pettigrew returned to Ukhrul and did the job - of the 2000 men who formed the Manipur Labour Corps, 1200 of them were from the Tangkhul tribe. Pettigrew was awarded the Kaisar-I-Hind Silver Medal for his distinguished public service.

He was also a recipient of a War medal for military service as a commissioned officer in the British army and we have a letter to say as to how he should be designated:
(No. 63/5809 (MS3) Military Secretary's Branch Army headquarters, India Shimla 215t/24th July 22 You will be gazetted out as relinquishing your Commission in the IARO from 18t May 1922 with Permission to retain the rank of captain. You Should designate yourself in future as Captain the Rev. W. Pettigrew.

Captain the Rev, W. Pettigrew gave forty-four years of his life to the work, which the Lord laid upon his heart. He endured hardships as a good captain of Christ Jesus and of the State as well.

In 1933 he was compelled to leave Manipur owing to the sickness of his wife, which required a surgical operation. They reached the USA in December and had Christmas with their children Jesse, Douglas, Will and Peggy (Margaret).

Alice Goreham Pettigrew preceded her husband in death on January 10, 1934 following a serious operation. Her funeral services were held in Cornwell, Conn. In the Church where Peggy's husband was the Pastor. Alice's husband Pettigrew remarked at her grave: "This was like coming home, for the cemetery was on a hill at the foothills of the Lichfield hills, a hill like those in Ukhrul ''.

Months after, when Pettigrew was one day studying in the Boston Library, he met Miss Etel A Masssales, a single missionary who had first served at Impur, then at Nowgong and had recently moved to Burma (now Myanmar) to serve at the Girl's High School in Mandalay and was home on furlough.

That was a Love at first sight. Their relationship grew and culminated in their marriage on November 3 1934 after which they sailed to London where they had ten happy years together.

During the Great World war I, Pettigrew again served as a Night-Fire Watcher during the Nazi blitz during which he wrote to his daughter Peggy in USA to " Keep the faith that right would always win" and perhaps that was the last word Peggy heard from her father.Captain the Rev. W., Pettigrew died at Plymouth, England, April 10, 1944 and was buried in the Pinner Cemetery, London.

Concluded....