[6][7] Cecil was first based at the capital Chengdu (Chengtu) and the eastern Sichuanese city Chongqing (Chungking), but he felt drawn towards the people of Tibet.

After helping with mission work in Kalimpong in India in 1896, he moved to Dajianlu (Tatsienlu), a Khams Tibetan city of western Sichuan.

The British explorer Isabella Bird described in her book The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, that the church "is Chinese in style, the chancel windows are 'glazed' with coloured paper to simulate stained glass, and it is seated for two hundred.

[12] When Horsburgh's party first arrived, they were unable to secure or rent any houses in the principal towns of what was to be the occupied area of their future mission; and they dwelt at first with their fellow-workers of the CIM.

Among the leaders of this group was an exceptionally gifted woman, Alice Entwistle, who was largely responsible for the opening of the important town of Mianzhou (Miencheo),[12][13] which later became the headquarters of the CMS Mission.

The missionaries scattered, and the persistent state of turmoil of the countryside with war, banditry and general unrest made the work difficult and dangerous.

[18] Prior to 1895, CMS mission in Sichuan had been under the direction of George Moule, the Bishop of Mid-China, but it was quite impossible for him to give adequate supervision to a region nearly 2,000 miles away from his headquarters, and it was therefore decided to create a new Diocese of Western China (a.k.a.

With the approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Edward White Benson) and the CMS, Cassels was consecrated bishop on St. Luke's Day, 18 October 1895, at Westminster Abbey.

In the capital Chengdu, the property of three Protestant missions and that of the Roman Catholics was destroyed, and in other towns the work of the CMS stations was temporarily disrupted.

The missionaries, however, were able to remain at their posts, and despite opposition and occasional waves of intense anti-foreign sentiment, the work continued to go forward until the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

[20] Upon the completion of the construction, Cassels invited the Bishop of Hankow, Logan H. Roots, to come and preach a series of sermons in connection with the opening of the pro-cathedral.

Two of the women missionaries were particularly upset by the presence of two bishops in their convocation robes, standing posture at the offertory, and flowers in two handsome vases placed within the chancel rails.

It did not seem advisable at the time, but relief was given by the appointments of an archdeacon and of Howard Mowll as assistant bishop in 1922, who was particularly in charge of the CMS district.

He wrote: "With regard to the BCMS coming into the diocese, I must say I am most thankful to think that there is some prospect of them taking up the work in the Kwangan, Yochih and Linshui region, which is now left without any oversight.

"[26] In 1921, members of fanatical bands self-denominated "Divine Soldiers", killed six or seven Christians in Wan County, eastern Sichuan.

The province was also affected by the widespread Anti-Christian Movement in the 1920s, which had its origins in the east and north parts of China, such as Shanghai and Beijing.

I must not stay to allude in detail to the Schools for boys and girls, the Hospitals, the Hostel at Chengtu, the Training College (an institution of the greatest value), nor to the Cathedral, which have all come into being since the formation of the diocese.

A Church hospital was built at Mianzhu, western Sichuan, where Dr. John Howard Lechler had worked for thirty years since 1908.

[30] The Anglicans provided at different times several members of staff for the university, including Dr. H. G. Anderson, who was working at its College of Medicine and Dentistry.

[31] In 1923, during the Anti-Christian Movement, two English clergymen, F. J. Watt and R. A. Whiteside, were shot to death by brigands among the mountains between Mianzhu and Mao County.

[35] During his stay in Hanzhou, he was appointed a member of the West China Border Research Society and a key figure in the discovery of the archaeological site now known as Sanxingdui.

[37] In 1933, Bishop Mowll left to take up his new post as Archbishop of Sydney and John Holden was transferred from the Diocese of Kwangsi-Hunan to succeed him.

Church workers had no choice but to temporarily leave their mission centres due to widespread lawlessness and banditry along the armies' retreat routes.

[40] During this period, Bishop Holden made considerable advances in transferring authority and responsibility to the locals that were still almost held exclusively by the CMS mission conference by the 1930s.

[44] In 2018, the detention of 100 Christians in Sichuan, including their pastor Wang Yi, raised concerns about religious crackdown in China.