Guide to the American Presbyterian Congo Mission Records

Responding to the call for missionaries to the Congo by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) General Assembly of 1889, Samuel N. Lapsley, a white man from Alabama, and William H. Sheppard, a Black man from Virginia, set sail together in February 1890. They arrived in the Congo in May 1890, and founded the first PCUS mission station at Luebo in 1891. Their attention focused on a number of tribes that spoke the same language, Tshiluba. The two men established Sunday School classes as well as writing and reading classes, and they began to record and learn the native language. After the sudden death of Samuel Lapsley from a fever in 1892, William Sheppard carried on virtually alone until additional missionaries arrived in 1893 and more in 1896.

The arrival of William M. Morrison in 1897 proved to be an important factor in the success of the American Presbyterian Congo Mission (APCM). Morrison formalized Tshiluba language study, developed and organized new educational programs, and expanded evangelistic work. Morrison also took the lead in speaking out against human rights abuses perpetrated by King Leopold’s Free State government. In 1909, Morrison and Sheppard were tried for libel by the government, and their acquittal eventually helped bring about some reforms. Following the transfer of the Congo to Belgian rule, the APCM had new opportunities for expansion. In 1912 a station was founded at Mutoto, located 160 miles from Luebo. Other mission stations opened at Lusambo (1913); Bulape (1915); and Bibanga (1917). The APCM grew rapidly in these years with PCUS missionaries organizing the Morrison Bible School for training native evangelists, the John Leighton Wilson Press, a leprosy colony and hospital, and many schools and homes for children, including the Central School for Missionaries’ Children. By 1919 the APCM was the largest Protestant mission in the Congo with 48 missionaries and nearly 20,000 communicants. By 1944, there were 81 missionaries in the field and a Christian constituency of 122,000. Mission stations were opened at Lubondai (1924); Kasha (1935); Mboi (1937); Moma (1942); Ndesha [Kananga] (1946); Kankinda (1950); Leopoldville (1955); Bakwanga (1956); Katubue (1957); and Tshikaji (1964).

In 1959, the Eglise Presbytérienne au Congo (Presbyterian Church of the Congo) organized as an independent ecclesiastical body, separate from the control of the mission. Intertribal warfare and disorder after national independence disrupted missionary activity during the early 1960s. Conflict also resulted from the changing nature of the mission and the Presbyterian Church of the Congo. In 1969, the APCM was officially dissolved and mission programs integrated into the work of the Presbyterian Church of the Congo.