History

11 Sep 1837

The American missionary Lorenzo Warriner Pease, having spent enough money on schools in Larnaca, felt he had to come to a permanent arrangement on the matter with the appropriate persons

The American missionary Lorenzo Warriner Pease, having spent enough money on schools in Larnaca, felt he had to come to a permanent arrangement on the matter with the appropriate persons:

Today, Mr Thompson, Luke and I called on Mr. P. Vondiziano and told him that we could no longer pay for the schools on the secret plan, that it was not proper, subjected us to suspicion, could not be approved by our society etc. that I had visited the schools, had examined them and intended to do so, as long as they remained in our buildings. He received it all very politely and assented to what I had said. He said that he had in his hands some money from the Priests Fund, which would enable them to carry on with the school for the next 6 months or so, and that then they must be closed, as the subscribers will do nothing. I told him that we would not ask of them to give the schools into our hands, but they must be either theirs or ours. I also told him how we had been asked by the Archbishop, the late bishop, the demogerontes of the island and many citizens had asked us to go on, and yet they had taken the schools from us, when they could find no fault with our books, could not show that either we, or any other missionary of our Society, had engaged in proselytism. He promised to meet the committee and give me an answer as to the future course.