Innerst, J. Stuart, 1894-1975

Sinologist who began his work with China and its people while serving as a missionary with the China Mission of United Brethen in Christ, located in Canton, China. Innerst left China with his wife in 1927, returning to a position as chaplain at Otterbein College in Ohio and minister of the Fairview Church in Dayton, Ohio. In 1943, Innerst became a Quaker and soon accepted a position as pastor of the First Friends Church in Pasadena, Calif. During the 1960s, Innerst worked enthusiastically to change the policies of the United States toward China. He is the author of A NEW CHINA POLICY: SOME QUAKER PROPOSALS (1965), and he served as editor of UNDERSTANDING CHINA NEWSLETTER from 1965 to 1970.

From the description of Papers, 1916-1975. (University of California, San Diego). WorldCat record id: 20293737

Biography

J. Stuart Innerst was born in Dallastown, Pennsylvania, in 1894. He graduated from Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania, in 1916 and received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Bonebrake Theological Seminary, now the United Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 1919. He married Marion Reachard after graduation from college.

Innerst began his experience and involvement with China as a missionary. On January 20, 1920, the Innersts entered China with the China Mission of United Brethren in Christ in Canton. They lived and worked in the small, rural town of Siulam where they became increasingly disturbed by the attitudes and actions of foreigners toward Chinese people. The Innersts experienced China in its transition to a modern state dominated by foreign imperialist powers. In the spring of 1927, the Innersts left China in protest of the "unequal treaties" imposed by foreign governments.

Innerst returned to Ohio to become the chaplain at Otterbein College from 1927 to 1939, when he became the minister of Fairview Church in Dayton, Ohio. In 1943, Innerst left the ministry to become a Quaker and later served as pastor of the First Friends Church in Pasadena, California.

During the 1960s, Innerst actively sought to change United States policy toward China. Between 1960-1961, he served as director of the Quaker's "Friend in Washington Program," and for thirteen months he lobbied and interviewed members of Congress regarding disarmament, peace, and improved relations with China. Concern for his wife's health forced his departure from Washington, but he returned briefly in 1963 and again in 1965.

In 1965, Innerst coauthored the book A NEW CHINA POLICY: SOME QUAKER PROPOSALS, which argued for normalizing relations with China through the removal of restrictions and recognition of the communist government. Between 1965 and 1970, he edited the UNDERSTANDING CHINA NEWSLETTER published by the American Friends Service Committee. In 1968, Innerst travelled to the Far East, including Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore to meet with Quaker groups concerning the situation in China. Innerst influenced public opinion through community lectures, correspondence, and letters to newspaper editors.

Innerst's service in the interest of world peace included participation in the American Friends Service Committee, the Peace Board of the California Yearly Meeting of Friends, and the Board of Peace and Social Concerns of the Five Years Meeting. He attended four conferences of the World Peace Council in Europe in the early 1960s and helped plan the 1962 Moscow World Congress on Disarmament and Peace.

Innerst returned to China in May 1972 as a guest of the Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. As the first American missionary to be granted a visa to reenter China, Innerst spent five weeks visiting cities, historical sites, schools, hospitals, factories, and rural communes, focusing on the social changes achieved by the communist regime.

After the death of Marion Innerst in October 1964, Stuart Innerst married Gladis Barber Voorhees and settled in La Jolla, California. From his home, he produced the CHINA SPECTATOR PAPERS (1971-1973), a newsletter which, after 1972, became an occasionally issued narrative which contrasted his China trip with recollections and insights from the 1920s. The last ten issues formed the basis of the book CHINA GREY, CHINA GREEN (1983), edited by family members and published posthumously.

J. Stuart Innerst died at his home in La Jolla, California, on August 30, 1975.

From the guide to the J. Stuart Innerst Papers, 1916 - 1975, (University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.)