Lacy Irvine Moffett (February 10, 1878 – October 2, 1957) was a Presbyterian missionary minister to China beginning in 1904 and he and his family served until 1940. He was a missionary minister, a self-taught expert on the birds of China, and a photographer.
History
Lacy Irvine Moffett was born February 10, 1878, in Churchville, Virginia and destined from birth to become a missionary minister. His father, Rev. Alexander Stuart Moffett, was a Presbyterian minister. All of his Moffett ancestors were Scotch-Irish arriving before the American Revolution, seeking the opportunity to worship freely and govern themselves. All were Presbyterians—many were of the strict Covenanter persuasion. Their commitment to the church led them to take on leadership roles, often serving as ministers and elders. The ancestors of Moffett's mother, Carrie Lena Crawford, also included several prominent Presbyterian ministers.
Few details are recorded of Moffett's boyhood. His family moved several times, from Virginia to Kentucky and Missouri as his father accepted new ministerial assignments. His parents had sought to become missionaries to Brazil, but were prevented from doing so for reasons of health. After this rejection, Lacy's mother, Carrie Lena, wrote in her diary, “I feel that my life work: the work God has given me to do now; is to train my darling children for God and His service; as missionaries; ALL of them if it be his will.”
Six of the couple's eight children eventually served in China. Another son, Harry, became a minister and served as chaplain at Davidson University.
Moffett had a keen eye for photography. He took and developed a large number of traditional photographs that chronicled his family's missionary years in China. In addition to these, he also photographed many of the beautiful landscapes he observed.
Early Ministry
Moffett graduated from Centre College in Kentucky in 1898 and completed his theological training at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia in 1902. He felt the call to missionary work, but saw a greater need to develop support for missions in his home church. To accomplish this, he volunteered to work for the Forward Movement for two years. Forward Movement was primarily a fund-raising effort that had been successfully used by the Northern Presbyterians and other Protestant denominations.
Moffett was joined in his Forward Movement work by John Leighton Stuart, his college roommate, who had also recently graduated from Union Theological Seminary. John Leighton Stuart would later become the first president of Yenching University in Beijing and serve as the United States Ambassador to China. Moffett and Stuart, along with J. Fairman Preston from Princeton, brought the Forward Movement into the Southern Presbyterian Church. The efforts of the three young men met with great success—contributions to missions increased four-fold.
During their Forward Movement travels, Moffett and Stuart met two sisters, Kate and Aileen Rodd, residents of New Orleans. This meeting quickly led to twin romances, one between Moffett and Kate Rodd and the other between Stuart and Aileen Rodd. After a brief courtship, the two couples were married on November 17, 1904. A few days after their wedding in New Orleans, Kate and Lacy Moffett boarded a ship and proceeded to their first missionary assignment in Suzhou, China. In Suzhou, they began the task of learning the language and how to work in China.
In Jiangyin
In September 1908, Kate Rodd and Moffett transferred to the mission in Jiangyin (Kiangyin), China. In Jiangyin, Moffett inherited a largely dysfunctional religious community. Many converts and ministers were “rice Christians,” people who converted to Christianity in order to receive charity or other material advantages. In later years, Moffett recalled, “For the first ten years, we turned more people out of the Church than we took in.”
Moffett was responsible for a circuit of small towns and villages in the district north of Jiangyin. His work included “preaching and teaching the Chinese Christians and Inquirers and visiting in the homes of the people as well as making friends with the merchants, farmers and all wherever he went.” Travel to the country missions required ingenuity and stamina. Moffett normally traveled to the chapels in his district by houseboat. He would typically be gone a week or more. For many years, he spent more Sundays in the field than at home. During these periods, Kate accepted the responsibility for managing the large household and for educating the children.