Methodist Church of Canada
West China Union University had started in 1910 as a collaboration between the American Mutual Foreign Mission Society, the Friends' Foreign Mission Association of Great Britain and Ireland, the General Board of Missions of the Methodist Church of Canada, (later the United Church of Canada) and the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, USA. After a 2-year hiatus due to political unrest, the University started lectures in 1913 and initiated a program of constructing more than twenty buildings. These plans were particularly ambitious in view of the lengthy travel time from London to Chengtu.