Audio Tapes, Photograph, Video Tape (.06 cu. ft.)
Restrictions
There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.
THERE ARE TYPED TRANSCRIPTS AVAILABLE FOR ALL THE INTERVIEWS IN THIS COLLECTION.
Biography
Reuben Archer Torrey, III, (known as Archer) was the son of Reuben Archer Torrey, Jr., and the grandson of evangelist educator R. A. Torrey, Sr. His parents served as Presbyterian missionaries in China, and Torrey was born and raised in North China. He attended mission schools in both China and Korea. Torrey graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in 1939 and from Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University, which he attended concurrently, in 1942. He served in the Merchant Marines during World War II. After the war, he left the Presbyterian Church and was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1946, after receiving a MTh degree from the University of the South.
Torrey served American parishes in Georgia, Missouri, and Massachusetts for eleven years, before being called to re-establish St. Michael's Theological College for the Anglican Church in Korea. After serving as Rector there for seven years, in 1965 he and his wife, Jane Grey, founded Jesus Abbey, a retreat center in the mountains of Korea. They had three children.
Archer Torrey died on August 6, 2002 at Severance Hospital in Seoul, Korea.
Scope and Content
This collection contains an oral history interview and a video tape of an April 23, 1986, meeting of the Otterbein United Brethren Missionary Convention in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. The video, #V1, begins with an introduction of Torrey by "Brother Cook"; Torrey talks about the work being done at Jesus Abbey and shows slides of the Abbey, the surrounding countryside, and some of the activities of the Abbey, such as prayer groups, singing, making a thatched roof, doing laundry in a stream, making kim chee, woodworking shop, the outdoor chapel designed by Jane Torrey, among others. Many of the slides are photographs of paintings which were done by Jane Torrey. After the slides, the scene shifts to a library where Torrey, Mr. Cook, two other unidentified men, and two unidentified women, sit around the table and Rev. Torrey answers questions about the work at Jesus Abbey.
The oral history interview with Torrey was conducted by Robert D. Shuster on May 14, 1986, at the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College. Time elapsed in minutes and seconds is noted in the margin to the left of the topics discussed. The index is keyed to cassette copies of the interview, not to the reel-to-reel original. The boldfaced entries correspond with the Cross Reference list at the end of this guide, and are intended to highlight the topics covered in the interview.
Tape T1 - Side 1 (Click to link to the transcript of this tape)Tape T1 - Side 2
00:00 Start side two.
00:10 House in rural evangelism area; father interested in economic problems, clinical work,
very practical, science orientation.
01:25 Inherited father's practicality, mother's philosophical side; father head of International
Famine Relief Commission in Shandong, good administrator.
02:30 Example of administration skills in famine time; got along with all missionaries, including
Roman Catholics, peaceful.
04:20 Grandfather, R. A. Torrey, resigned from Moody Bible Institute and Biola rather than
cause conflict; uncompromising but not in conflict, unemotional side appealed to men,
books still printed today.
07:05 Appearance of grandfather described; didn't know him well, awe-inspiring.
09:00 Mother's involvement in mission activity: piano, Bible teaching, women's work,
evangelism to women, child care, practical teaching on hygiene, childbirth, child
rearing.
11:00 Not much contact with Chinese Church.
11:15 North China American School experience; sister Helen miserable there.
13:50 Parents moved them to school in Korea, Pyengyang Foreign School.
15:10 Feeling of repentance to school principal when they left North China.
15:45 New atmosphere at school in Korea, his name respected.
17:35 Being an MK--community to itself, neither American nor Chinese; went to Montreat,
N. C. in summers with other MK's; obligation felt to become missionaries; very artificial
world; real world too scary; provincial internationalism.
19:05 Was a pastor (Episcopal priest) in America for 11 years; no opening in China; didn't
have a heart for the pastorate at first, but attitude improved after six years, through
prayer.
22:00 Asked by Anglican Bishop in Korea to start seminary there.
22:35 Break in sound.
Tape T2 - Side 1 (Click to
link to the transcript of this tape)
00:00 Start tape #2. (sound uneven)
00:25 Anglican Bishop was John Daley; a description of him.
02:40 Teaching theology as a science, to be taught in three labs: individual and God,
individual and Christian community, Christian community and world community.
Students live in community with prayer, repentance, worship; more than lectures and
tests.
5:30 Koreans disliked this way of teaching.
06:00 Loyalty of people to former bishop, Bishop Cooper.
07:55 New Bishop Daley needed interpreter to communicate.
09:00 The interpreter not truthful; loyal to old Bishop so changed wording of what Daley
said. Catholic wing of Anglican Church in Korea.
12:15 Torrey resigned after six years; couldn't back down on issues anymore; stayed one more
year before he left.
14:20 Moved to mountains to start house of prayer for church and nation; now been going for
20 years with 70 full time people; average of 20 guests there always.
15:00 Daily and weekly schedules there.
16:30 How they support themselves; farming, lectures, handcrafts; donations from
Americans and Koreans.
17:30 Presbyterian Church was not flexible and faith oriented enough for what he wanted to
do in missions; Episcopal church did; his feelings about Episcopal Church.
19:15 Greatest change in Korean church; [sound difficulties] founded conservative,
preserve the past; small handfull want to keep up to date, liberation theology.
20:30 Major change: charismatic movement surfaced in Korea, new emphasis on the Holy
Spirit. Assemblies of God Church in Korea.
22:10 Bigness, staleness, greed in Korean church; prophecy about South Korea.
23:30 College and seminary students' response to need for repentance, lay people's response.
24:00 His response to the prophecy.
24:45 Conclusion.
25:05 End of sound.
Provenance
The materials in this collection were received by the Center from R. A. Torrey III in May and October, 1986 and from the Center Administration in 2003.
Accession #86-54, 86-103The following items are located in the AUDIO TAPE FILE:
T1 - Reel-to-reel, 3-3/4 i.p.s., approximately 65 minutes. Interview with Reuben Archer Torrey, III, by Robert D. Shuster, recorded on May 14, 1986. Topics discussed include his childhood in China, imperialism, Korean society, speaking in tongues, rural evangelism, college and seminary training.
T2 - Reel-to-real, 3-3/4 i.p.s., approximately 35 minutes. Continuation of interview with Reuben Archer Torrey, III, by Robert D. Shuster, recorded on May 14, 1986. Topics include the Anglican church in Korea, founding of Jesus Abbey, the Korean church.
*****The following items are located in the VIDEOTAPE FILE:
V1 - VHS cassette; color; April 23, 1986; approximately 75 minutes. Videotaped meeting of the Otterbein United Brethren Missionary Convention in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. It begins with an introduction of Torrey by "Brother Cook"; Torrey talks about the work being done at Jesus Abbey and shows slides of the Abbey, the surrounding countryside, and some of the activities of the Abbey, such as prayer groups, singing, making a thatched roof, doing laundry in a stream, making kim chee, woodworking shop, the outdoor chapel designed by Jane Torrey, among others. Many of the slides are photographs of paintings which were done by Jane Torrey. After the slides, the scene shifts to a library where Torrey, Mr. Cook, two other men, and two women, who are never identified, sit around the table and ask Rev. Torrey questions about the work at Jesus Abbey.