메리 스크랜튼
| 메리 "플레처 벤튼" 스크랜튼 Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton | |
|---|---|
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| 출생 | 1832년 11월 9일 미국 매사추세츠 벨처타운 |
| 사망 | 1909년 10월 8일(76세) |
| 매장지 | 양화진 선교사 묘지 |
| 고향 | 미국 매사추세츠 벨처타운 |
| 별칭 | 시란돈(施蘭敦) |
| 학력 | 노리치 여학교 졸업 |
| 교파 | 감리교 |
| 소속 | 해외여성선교사회 |
| 수행 성직 | 한국 선교사 (1885년 여름 ~ 1909년 10월) |
| 자녀 | 윌리엄 스크랜튼 |
메리 "플레처 벤튼" 스크랜튼(영어: Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton, 1832년 11월 9일 ~ 1909년 10월 8일)은 미국의 교육자이자 개신교 감리교회 선교사이다. 한국어로는 시란돈(施蘭敦)이라는 이름을 썼다. 이화여자대학교와 이화여자고등학교의 전신인 이화학당과 수원시 위치한 매향여자정보고등학교[1]의 전신인 삼일소학당을 창립하였다. 갑신정변 이후 북아메리카 감리교회에서 파견된 5인의 여자 선교사 중 한 사람으로 한국 최초의 여성 교육기관인 이화학당을 설립하여 한국 여성 교육의 시초가 된 인물이라 평가받는다.
그녀의 아들인 윌리엄 스크랜튼 또한 1884년 예일 대학교를 졸업하고 의학박사 학위를 받은 뒤 한국의 첫 번째 감리교 선교사로 활동하며 한국의 교육을 위해 활동한 바 있다.
생애
미국에서의 생애
미국 매사추세츠주 태생으로 당시 마차를 생산하던 지역 벨처타운에서 목사 집안의 딸로 태어났다.[2] 아버지와 어머니 모두 목사였으며, 스크랜튼은 12세 때 기독교에 입교했다. 그녀는 공립 학교를 졸업하고 코네티컷주에 있는 노리치 여학교에 입학했다.[3] 1853년 제철업자인 윌리엄 스크랜튼과 결혼하여 아들 윌리엄 벤튼 스크랜튼을 낳았고, 1872년 남편과 사별하기 전까지 코네티컷에서 거주했다. 그녀는 남편의 사망 이후 아들 윌리엄 스크랜튼을 따라 오하이오에 정착했으며,[4] 그곳의 교회를 통해 여성해외선교사회(Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, WFMS)에 가입하여 해외 선교 활동을 시작하게 되었다.[5]
1869년 설립된 여성해외선교사회는 매사추세츠에 위치한 도시인 보스턴의 트레몬트가를 중심으로 여성 선교사를 모집하고 있었다.[6] 이 선교사회는 남성 중심의 선교활동에서 벗어나[7] 9가지 교파를 아우르는 수천 명의 후원자를 가진 단체로 성장하여 당시 미국에서 가장 큰 여성선교단체가 되었다.[8] 이는 19세기 초반 매사추세츠를 중심으로 확산된 여성선교 운동이 남북전쟁을 계기로 12개의 여성선교단체가 기존의 미국 내에서만 이뤄졌던 지역적 한계를 극복하기 위해 복음 운동을 국제적으로 확대한 데에 따른 것이었다.[9]
한국 선교사 임명
1884년 아들 윌리엄 스크랜튼이 예일 대학교를 졸업, 의학박사 학위를 받고 한국에서 활동하기 시작하면서 윌리엄은 한국의 첫 번째 감리교 선교사가 되었다. 스크랜튼은 아이들이나 학생들과 가까이 지냈고, 그녀는 아들의 활동에 힘쓰기로 결심했던 것으로 보인다. 이후 여성해외선교사회는 메리 스크랜튼이 한국에서 이 선교사회의 일원으로 활동하는 것을 권하는 의견을 나타내기도 했으나, 그녀는 이 요청에 대해 "제 아들의 요청도 저에게는 또한 하나의 요청입니다."(The call of my son ... was a call to me also.)라고 답신했다.[10]
하지만 여성해외선교사회의 대다수는 메리 스크랜튼의 가족관계와 나이 때문에 그녀를 한국에 적합한 여성선교 활동의 인물로 보지 않았다. 그녀는 남편을 잃은 과부였고, 이것이 해외 선교활동에 있어 20대에서 30대의 미혼의 여성보다 매력적이지 않다고 생각하여 선교사회는 좀 더 젊은 여성을 대표자로 보내는 것이 적합하다고 보았다. 하지만 여성해외선교사회 규정에는 충분한 지적 소양을 갖출 것과 그리스도인의 책임을 맡기에 충분한 능력을 갖출 것을 명시하고 있었으며 그녀는 선교사회에 자신의 계획을 설명했다. 스크랜튼은 그녀가 이전 해왔던 사회 활동들은 그리스도교인으로서의 유능함을 보여주는 예이며, 비록 예상치 못하게 해외선교를 하게 되었을지라도 그녀는 한국에서의 활동에 자신감을 갖고 있다고 밝혔다.[11]
한국에서의 활동
한국에 대한 애정이 각별해 한국에 도착하기도 전에 "일본에서의 생활은 즐거우며 선교사들의 생활 조건도 훌륭하나 나는 내 민족(한국인)에게 가서 그들 속에서 살고 싶다"라고 하기도 하였다. 1886년 메리 스크랜튼은 이화여자대학교의 전신인 이화학당을 세웠으나 학생을 구할 수 없어서 어려움을 겪었다. 당시 한국 여성들의 대부분은 집안일을 배우며 교육의 기회를 박탈당하거나, 하층민의 딸인 경우 매매의 대상이 되었기 때문이다. 또 남녀내외법도 스크랜튼의 큰 고민거리였다. 설교하거나 가르치는 사람은 대부분 남성이었는데 이들은 여학생들과는 얼굴을 맞댈 수 없었다. 이화학당에서 남자 선생이 있다는 소문을 들은 부모들이 딸을 교육시키지 않겠다고 항의함에 따라 스크랜튼은 교사와 학생들 사이에 휘장을 치고 서로 그 모습을 바라보지 않게 하는 방법을 이용하였다.
그 후 1905년 내한한 프레이에게 학교 일을 맡기고 계속 이화학당의 일을 도우며 삼일소학당, 공옥여학교, 매일여학교를 세웠으며, 또 진명, 숙명, 중앙여학교들의 설립을 도우고 동대문, 상동, 애오개 병원과 교회를 도왔다. 그리고 수원, 여주, 이천, 천안, 홍성 등에서 선교와 교육활동을 하다가 1909년 10월 8일 한국에서 세상을 떠났다. 스크랜튼은 유언에 따라 한국에 묻혔는데 그녀의 묘지는 양화진 선교사 묘지에 위치해 있다.
각주
- 인천 영화여자 정보산업고등학교
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton was born on December 9, 1832, in Belchertown, Massachusetts, a small manufacturing town known chiefly in the mid-nineteenth century for its production of carriages and wagons."
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "her father, brother, and nephew were all ordained ministers—and became a Christian herself at the age of twelve.2 As a young girl, Mary attended public schools and later entered the Norwich Female Academy in neighboring Connecticut."
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "In 1853 she married an iron manufacturer named William Scranton, and together they had one son, William Benton Scranton, before the elder William died in 1872. Thus widowed at forty, Mary eventually followed her son westward and settled in Ohio."
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "she served as a conference secretary for the New York and New England branches of the Methodist Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS)."
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "The WFMS had been founded in 1869, when a group of women gathered at the Tremont Street Church in Boston to organize a female mission agency."
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "the WFMS sought to establish an organization that would function independently from the male-run, parent Methodist board."
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "with nine regional branches, several thousand auxiliaries, and more than ninety thousand in membership, the WFMS was on its way to becoming the most prominent US women’s mission society of its time."
- Kwon 2017, 163쪽 "In the decades following the Civil War (1861–65), however, their presence reached unprecedented heights. Dozens of new female mission agencies were established by the turn of the century, as women created extensive networks buttressed by activities at the local level. Such growth reflected the broader momentum foreign missions were gaining in the post–Civil War years, but women also saw themselves as bearing a special burden for the evangelization of women around the world."
- Kwon 2017, 164쪽 " In the fall of 1884 Mary’s son, a graduate of Yale College and a medical doctor, was appointed as the Methodist Church’s first missionary to Korea. Mary was close to her only child, and after learning of his assignment, she decided to accompany him as a family member. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the WFMS then invited her to go to Korea as one of its own agents. She later said of her acceptance of the request, “The call of my son . . . was a call to me also.”"
- Kwon 2017, 164쪽 "In one major respect, however, Scranton differed from the more typical WFMS missionary candidate: her age. At fifty-one years, Scranton fell outside the WFMS’s standard window, which was between twenty-two and thirty, and bore a closer resemblance to the organization’s often married leaders at home than to the single, younger representatives sent abroad. Even so, the age rule could be suspended if the candidate possessed such characteristics as “a thorough intellectual training” and “a remarkable ability for Christian work”; to the WFMS, Scranton indeed proved a worthy exception. Her prior involvement in the society displayed examples of “Christian usefulness,” and though her commitment to the foreign missionary life had come in an unexpected way, she was confident of a personal calling to the work."
참고 자료
- Kwon, Andrea (2017년 4월 11일). “The Legacy of Mary Scranton” (영어). 《International Bulletin of Mission Research》 (SAGE Publisher ltd) 42 (2).
같이 보기
| 전임 (신설) | 제1대 이화여자대학교 총장 1886년 5월 ~ 1890년 5월 | 후임 루이자 C. 로드와일러 |
Mary F. Scranton
Mary Scranton | |
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| Born | Mary Fletcher Benton December 9, 1832 Belchertown, Massachusetts, US |
| Died | October 8, 1909 (aged 76) |
| Occupation | Woman Missionary to Korea |
| Known for | Founding Ewha Girls School |
Mary Fletcher Benton Scranton (December 9, 1832 – October 8, 1909) was an American Methodist Episcopal Church missionary. She was the first Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church representative to Korea[1] and the founder of the Ewha Girls School (Pear Blossom Academy) under Emperor Gojong. Today, the Ewha Girls School is the Ewha Womans University, one of the most prestigious women's schools in Asia.[2] Scranton also founded the Tal Syeng Day School for Women in Seoul and the Training School for Bible Women.[3]
Early life
Mary Fletcher was born on December 9, 1832, in Belchertown, Massachusetts. Her father was Rev. Erastus Benton, a Methodist Episcopal minister. She married William T. Scranton; they had a son named William B. Scranton. After the death of her husband, she moved to Ohio, where her son lived. There, she became active in the First Methodist Episcopal Church on Erie and Euclid and in the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS). When Scranton's son was appointed to the Methodist Medical Mission in Korea in 1884, the WFMS asked Scranton to become the first female missionary in Korea.[4]
Life in Korea
Though limited by lack of language skills, Scranton began work to provide Christian education to women and children. Requesting financial assistance from WFMS to purchase some land and huts, construction began in February 1886.[5] Though unfinished, the school opened in May 1886.[6] The first student was Kim, a high-ranking official's concubine, but she left three months later.[7] The first permanent student was a girl (Kkon-nim) from the street whose mother had typhus; and her second student was an orphan.[8] In 1887, King Gojong named the school "Ewha Haktang" or "pear blossom." In the evenings, the school was the boarding home for the children and on Sundays, the children went to church in nearby Jeongdong Methodist Church.[5]
Scranton and her co-workers experienced great difficulties because Koreans generally distrusted foreigners. They generally worked things out on their own, limiting the possibility of their learning the language. Even as she advanced in age, Scranton and her companions persisted, teaching the children English. Later, their curriculum would include Korean Language, English and classical Chinese.[9] Later, a middle school and a primary school were established, employing Korean women as teachers. Keller somewhat criticized the early missionary group for giving their Korean students Korean English names, instead of calling them by their Korean names.[10] However, Kim mentions that in the 1886 Korean society, "Women were not even recognized with their own names, only as someone's daughter, sister, or mother. They did not have names of their own."[2] Their English names were probably the only name they went by as individual women.
In 1895, Scranton left Ewha. She founded the Tal Syeng Day School in Seoul and worked with Jung-Dong Methodist Episcopal Church, Tal-Syeng Methodist Episcopal Church, and Baldwin Chapel and travelled to small towns though it was very dangerous. She also trained women in evangelizing through the Training School for Bible Women.[3] Slowly, the WFMS established churches, Sunday Schools, hospitals and dispensaries and so on, and Korea slowly began to accept foreign missionaries.
Scranton died in Korea in 1909. Scranton Memorial Hall in Ewha High School was named in her honor.[11] During the presidency of President Moohyun Roh, the university was threatened to be shut down, but the president himself decreed that it was a historical university and signed a treaty for it to remain standing.[citation needed]
Legacy
Scranton Women's Leadership Center, founded in 2007 under the historic American Methodist Korean Women's Mission Foundation, through which United Methodist Women predecessor organizations undertook extensive assistance in the education of Korean girls in Korea and which remains a partner in mission. The center has close ties to United Methodist Women, as the Women's Division's property committee selects the foundation's board of directors.
The American Methodist Korean Women's Mission Foundation was founded in 1924 during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The Women's Foreign Missionary Societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South established many schools, churches and hospitals in Korea since 1886, but in 1924 they were all incorporated to become one foundation. The mission of the American Methodist Korean Women's Mission Foundation was to empower Korean women to become whole persons in Jesus Christ through evangelism, education, medical care and social services.
During the 20th century, the Methodist churches in the United States went through several mergers. Accordingly, women's mission organizations also merged. The Women's Foreign Missionary Societies eventually became the United Methodist Women, and it became its national office.
In the 1970s, most of the property and management of schools, churches, hospitals and community centers that Women's Division used to own were transferred to Korean leadership and Korean institutions. Today, the Board of Directors of the Foundation is all Korean. With Korea's significant economic growth and its contributions to the global mission field, the Women's Division decided to extend the mission of the American Methodist Korean Women's Mission Foundation to other parts of Asia and to the world.
In 2007, Scranton Women's Leadership Center was established as the program office of the Foundation to carry on the heritage of Mrs. Scranton and the founding mothers of United Methodist Women worldwide. The North American alumni of Ewha Girls' High School decided to raise funds for scholarships in honor of Mrs. Mary F. Scranton. In 2009, they donated a significant amount of scholarship funds to the Scranton Women's Leadership Center, so that women in developing countries could go to school just as what Mrs. Scranton did for Korean women.
The Scranton Women's Leadership Center was founded with the aim creating educational opportunities for women in developing countries and train women leaders for church and society.[12]
References
- Keller, 185-90.
- Kim, 26.
- Keller, 188.
- Keller, 186.
- Ewha Woman's University Archive, 25.
- Keller, 186-87.
- Ewha Woman's University Archive, 24.
- Clark, 21.
- Kim, 28.
- Keller, 187.
- Keller, 190.
- "Home". scrantoncenter.org. https://scrantoncenter.org/download/A%20History%20of%20the%20American%20Methodist%20Korean%20Women%E2%80%99s%20Mission%20Foundation.pdf
Works cited
- Clark, Donald N. "Preface". In Heather Willoughby, ed. (2007). Footsteps Across the Frontier. Ewha Womans University Press. ISBN 978-89-7300-717-2.
- Ewha Woman's University Archive, ed. (2005). Ewha Old and New: 110 Years of History 1886-1996. Ehwa Womans University Press. ISBN 89-7300-655-X.
- Keller, Rosemary Skinner, ed. (1993). Spirituality & Social Responsibility. Abingdon Press. ISBN 978-0-687-39236-0.
- Kim, Eun Mee. "First Footsteps Across the Frontier". In Heather Willoughby, ed. (2007). Footsteps Across the Frontier. Ewha Womans University Press. ISBN 978-89-7300-717-2.
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