GOODELL AMONG THE ARMENIANS
By Vahe H. Apelian, OH, USA, 11 October 2013
During family discussions in my formative years, I would hear the
elders of the family say that the American missionaries, failing
to evangelize a single Turk, resorted to evangelizing the Christian
Armenians.
Recently I came across the memoirs of Rev. William Goodell who played
a prominent role in establishing the Protestant community in the
Ottoman Empire. The book, titled “Forty Years in the Turkish Empire
or Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell D.D, Late Missionary of A.B.C.F.M
at Constantinople”, was edited by his son-in-law, E. D. G. Prime. It
was published by Robert Carter and Brothers (New York). Its fifth
edition, posted on line by Google, is dated 1878. The below quotes
are from the on-line book.
Rev. William Goodell left the United States and embarked on his
overseas mission in 1822. After a long sojourn in Malta, Lebanon,
and Syria, he arrived to Constantinople, as Istanbul was known
then. He had embarked on his mission on behalf of the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (A.B.C.F.M.), which was the
first U.S. missionary organization.
I was surprised to read that Rev. Goodell’s primary, if not sole,
mission was evangelizing the Armenians. I quote “When Mr. Goodell went
to Constantinople, his mission was to the Armenians”. Mr. Goodell was
entrusted with the mission to Turkey proper because of his knowledge
of Armenian and Turkish he had mastered while in Malta, Syria and
Lebanon. He was also fluent in Arabic, Greek and Italian. He translated
the Bible into “Armeno-Turkish”, that is to say a Bible that reads
Turkish but is in Armenian characters. It was a twenty-year endeavor.
This assertion was a revelation to me but it made sense. Sultan’s
Sublime Porte would have never allowed American missionaries free rein
to evangelize Turks. It caved in to the Western powers and allowed
Americans to do missionary work in the Ottoman Empire as long as their
evangelism was carried among the Christian subjects of the empire. In
all probability, the missionaries and their organizations, if not also
their governments, were warmed of dire consequences should they attempt
evangelize the Turks. No wonder then not a single Turk was evangelized.
Why would A.B.C.F.M embark on its mission, I wondered, singling
Armenians when there were other Christian communities in the empire?
Reading the memoirs presented an interesting picture of a way of life
that did not have a natural evolution for reasons we all know too well.
Rev. William Goodell arrived in Constantinople on June 9, 1831. In
a letter to a friend in the United States, he noted: “My family is
said to be the first who has ever visited this place.” There were
other American ladies with the Goodells.
Constantinople, where the Goodells established their residency,
presented the following demographics. I quote: “The city of
Constantinople contained, including the suburbs, a population of about
1,000,000 of various nationalities and religions. The Turks and other
Mohammedans comprised more than half; the Greeks and Armenians each
numbered 150,000, the former being the more numerous, there were about
50,000 Jews; the remainder was made of Franks and people from almost
every part of the world”. Istanbul’s demography was much different
than it is now and the difference did not come about through natural
evolution.
These distinct ethnic communities naturally intermingled but “for
the most part occupied different quarters of the city with the Turks
having almost exclusive possession of the city proper.”
The ‘Millet’ system that constituted the core of the Ottoman Empire
appeared odd to this western visitor who found it to be an “anomalous
form of government, the Sublime Porte, as the Sultan’s government is
called, being supreme, while each separate nation has its own head.”
In the case of the Armenians, it was the Patriarch of Constantinople
who was also the civil head of the Armenian community (Millet).
The A.B.C.F.M. board and Rev. Goodell knew well that the Armenians
“were descendents of the ancient inhabitants of Armenia. The nation
embraced Christianity about the commencement of the fourth century”.
The zealous missionary and the organization that supported his mission
apparently had already determined, even before the missionary arrived
into the fold of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, that the Armenian
Church needed to embrace the “truth”. According to Rev.
Goodell, the Armenian Church “has almost wholly given up to
superstition and to idolatrous worship of saints, including Virgin
Mary, pictures, etc.”
There appears to be a more pragmatic and practical, if not a strategic
reason, for A.B.C;F.M and Rev. Goodell to single out the Armenians for
their mission. I quote: ” The Armenians were an enterprising people,
and the great wealth of the bankers, who were nearly all Armenians,
made them very influential throughout the empire, even with the
Turkish officials, who were largely dependent upon them for pecuniary
advances and assistance. The various connections of this people with
different parts of the country, and the influence which they were in
a position to exert, in promoting the spread of the Gospel in Turkey,
made it exceedingly desirable that they should embrace the truth.”
Mr. Goodell’s arrival in Constantinople coincided with a reformation
movement within the Armenian Church. Fifteen years later, and after
much agony and ecstasy, on July 1, 1846, “Forty persons, of whom
three were women, voluntarily entered onto covenant with God and with
each other, and we, in the name of all the evangelical churches of
Christendom, rose and formally recognized and acknowledged them as a
true church of Christ.” The assembly on that day became the foundation
of The Evangelical Church of Armenia–“Hayasdaniatz Avedaranagan
Yegeghetsi”. In time, its adherents would continue to render much
service to the Armenian nation, enriching it way more than one would
have expected from the meager demographic constituency of its faithful.
On November 15, 1847, “the grand vizier issued a firman, declaring
that the Christian subjects of the Ottoman government professing
Protestantism should constitutes a separate community…This firman
was so worded that converts form among the Greeks and Jews who joined
the Protestants might enjoy the same immunities”. On Nov. 27, 1850,
Sultan Abdul Mejid ratified the edict that became the “Magna Carta” of
the Protestant community that stands, to this day, in the Middle East.
The Armenian Evangelicals are part and parcel of the Protestant
community.
Having lived through this turbulent period for over 30 years, Rev.
Goodell left Constantinople on June 27, 1865, some 40 years after
leaving his homeland. Through those over four decades, he had visited
his country only once. Before taking leave for good, he addressed
his brethren in the Evangelical Churches in Turkey and said, “When
we first came among you, your were not a distinct people, nor did we
expect you ever would be; for we had not sectarian object in view, it
being no part of our plan to meddle with ecclesiastical affairs. Our
sole desire was to preach Christ and Him crucified.” By then the
Armenian Evangelical Church was firmly entrenched among the Armenians.
After his return to the United States, Rev. Goodell visited friends
and gave sermons. He lived with son and namesake in Philadelphia
where he passed away on Feb. 16, 1867.
http://www.keghart.com/Apelian-Goodell