- Source: Cameron Farquhar McRae (born 1873)
Cameron Farquhar McRae (February 3, 1873 – January 23, 1954) was an American Episcopalian missionary priest in China. McRae left the United States for China in 1899 and began to work in Shanghai. Outside of his evangelistic work, McRae had been the acting-president of St. John's College, Shanghai, the rector of St. Peter's Church, Shanghai, and the founder of Holy Cross Church, Wuxi, and All Saints Church, Shanghai. In 1942, McRae left China and settled in Virginia, where he died in 1954.
Biography
McRae was born in Warrenton, North Carolina, on February 3, 1873, to Rev. Cameron Farquhar MacRae. His brother was Virginia state delegate William Plummer McRae. He was a member of the 1893 class of the Virginia Military Institute. He received his master's degree from Columbian College (now George Washington University). He also studied at Virginia Theological Seminary and received his bachelor of divinity in 1899. Influenced by the foreign missionaries visiting VTS in the 1890s, which included Francis Pott, president of St. John's College, Shanghai, McRae decided to become a missionary in China and left the United States upon graduation.
McRae started working in Shanghai together with his classmate Benjamin Lucius Ancell. In 1901 he was sent to build a church in Wusih with Zhu Baoyuan (朱葆元). A small chapel was built by 1908, and the Holy Cross Church was completed and consecrated on May 10, 1916.
In Shanghai, McRae first taught at St. John's College, and he had been the acting-president of the college twice. McRae then oversaw the evangelistic work of the Episcopal Church in Shanghai and the training of catechists. Later, he became the rector of St. Peter's Church, Shanghai, where he improved its finances and eventually handed it over to the Chinese clergy and congregation. In 1914, St. Peter's Church became the third financially independent Anglican church in Shanghai. McRae had also worked at St. Luke's Hospital, Shanghai, as the chaplain. By 1923 he was planning the construction of All Saints, Shanghai, which was completed in 1925. Meanwhile, McRae married Sarah Nicoll Woodward on February 17, 1908. They had four daughters and two sons. His wife died in 1937.
After the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, the Japanese troops occupied many churches in Shanghai. In 1942 McRae left the Far East and settled in Virginia. He died on January 23, 1954, in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia.
See also
Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui, Anglican church in China
William Jones Boone (father), first missionary bishop of China and Japan
Frederick Graves, Episcopalian missionary bishop of Shanghai from 1893 to 1937
Huang Xing, Chinese nationalist revolutionary, baptized at St. Peter's Church, Shanghai, in 1913
Notes
References
= Citations
== Newspapers and magazines
="Gen. Woods Sends Message to Corps Through Gen. Nichols Who Returns From Trip Around The World". The Cadet. Vol. XIX. The Corps of Cadets, Virginia Military Institute. September 21, 1925.
Peter Day, ed. (1954-03-07). "Deaths" (PDF). The Living Church. Associated Church Press. p. 23.
Wang, Weiming (2014-03-27). “后生晚辈”却毫不逊色：诸圣堂 科林斯柱拱门后的百年回眸 [All Saints Church: a Latecomer yet Extraordinary]. Youth Daily.
"Mrs. Cameron McRae". The Southern Churchman. 1937-01-16. p. 15.
= Books
=中華聖公會年鑑（一九四九） [Annuals of Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui / Anglican-Episcopal Province of China (1949)] (PDF). Shanghai: 總議會中央辦事處 (Central Executive Office of the General Council).
Editorial Committee (2001). 上海宗教志 [History of Religion in Shanghai]. Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press. ISBN 9787806188255.
Goodwin, Wm. A. R. (1923a). History of The Theological Seminary in Virginia and Its Historical Background (PDF). Vol. I. Rochester, NY: The Du Bois Press.
Goodwin, Wm. A. R. (1923b). History of The Theological Seminary in Virginia and Its Historical Background (PDF). Vol. II. Rochester, NY: The Du Bois Press.
University of Virginia; its history, influence, equipment and characteristics, with biographical sketches and portraits of founders, benefactors, officers and alumni. Vol. 2. Lewis Publishing Company. 1904. p. 62. Retrieved 2024-01-09 – via Archive.org.