Church Mission Society

Church Missionary Society

Abbreviation	CMS
Formation	12 April 1799
Founder	Clapham Sect
Type	Evangelical Anglicanism Protestant missionary British Empire
Headquarters	Watlington Road Oxford OX4 6BZ United Kingdom
Website	cms-uk.org

The Church Mission Society, also known as the Church Missionary Society (CMS), is a group of evangelistic societies working with the Anglican Communion and Protestant Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission partners during its 200-year history.

History

Foundation

The Society for Missions to Africa and the East (as it was first called) was founded on 12 April 1799 at a meeting of the Eclectic Society, supported by members of the Clapham Sect, a group of activist evangelical Christians. Their number included Henry Thornton, Thomas Babington^[1] and William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was asked to be the first president of the society, but he declined to take on this role and became a vice-president. The founding secretary was the Rev. Thomas Scott, a biblical commentator. Many of the founders were also involved in creating the Sierra Leone Company and the Society for the Education of Africans.^[2]

Development

In 1803 Josiah Pratt was appointed secretary a position he held for 21 years becoming an early driving force. The first missionaries – who came from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemberg and had trained at the Berlin Seminary – went out in 1804. In 1812 the society was renamed The Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East and the first English clergy to work as the society's missionaries went out in 1815.

From 1825 onward, the society concentrated its Mediterranean resources on the Coptic Church and its daughter Ethiopian Church, which included the creation of a translation of the Bible in Amharic at the instigation of William Jowett, as well as the posting of two missionaries to Ethiopia, Samuel Gobat (later the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem) and Christian Kugler, who arrived in that country in 1827.^[3]

From 1813 to 1855 the society published the Missionary Register, "containing an abstract of the principal missionary and bible societies throughout the world". From 1816, "containing the principal transactions of the various institutions for propagating the gospel with the proceedings at large of the Church Missionary Society".^[4]

20th century

During the early twentieth century, the society's theology moved in a more liberal direction under the leadership of Eugene Stock.^[5] There was considerable debate over the possible introduction of a doctrinal test for missionaries, which advocates claimed would restore the society's original evangelical theology. In 1922, the society split, with the liberal evangelicals remaining in control of CMS headquarters, whilst conservative evangelicals established the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (BCMS, now Crosslinks).

Notable general secretaries of the society later in the 20th century were Max Warren and John Vernon Taylor. The first woman president of the CMS, Diana Reader Harris, was instrumental in persuading the society to back the 1980 Brandt Report on bridging the North-South divide. In the 1990s CMS appointed its first non-British general secretary, Michael Nazir-Ali, who later became Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England, and its first women general secretary, Diana Witts. In 1991 CMS was instrumental in bringing together a number of Anglican and, later, some Protestant mission agencies to form Faith2Share, an international network of mission agencies.

At the end of the 20th century there was a significant swing back to the Evangelical position, probably in part due to a review in 1999 at the anniversary and also due to the re-integration of Mid Africa Ministry (formerly the Ruanda Mission). The position of CMS is now that of an ecumenical Evangelical society, heavily influenced by the Charismatic movement.

Present

On 31 January 2010 CMS had 151 mission partners and co-mission partners (workers jointly sent by CMS and another agency) serving in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The 2009–10 Annual Review also lists "Other people in mission: 78"; "Cross-cultural programme participants: 126" and "Projects financially supported: 114". This does not take into account work in Latin America, which came with the integration of CMS and the South American Mission Society on 1 February 2010. In 2009–10, CMS had a budget of £8 million, drawn primarily from donations by individuals and parishes, supplemented by historic investments.^[6]

In June 2007, CMS in Britain moved the administrative office out of London for the first time. It is now based with the new Crowther Centre for Mission Education^[7] in east Oxford.

In 2008, CMS was acknowledged as a mission community by the Advisory Council on the Relations of Bishops and Religious Communities of the Church of England. It currently has approximately 2,500 members who commit to seven promises, aspiring to live a lifestyle shaped by mission.

The Church Mission Society Archive is housed at the University of Birmingham Special Collections.

Mission in Palestine

The CMS made an important contribution to Protestant Christianity in Palestine as well. Former CMS missionary Samuel Gobat became the second bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem, and in 1855 invited the CMS to make Palestine a mission field, which they did. Over the years many missionaries were sent, including John Zeller, who exercised a great influence on the development of Nazareth and Jerusalem and founded Christ Church, Nazareth, the first Protestant church in the Galilee, which was consecrated by Gobat in 1871.^[8]

Another missionary was Frederick Augustus Klein, who served in Nazareth and Egypt, discovered the Moabite Stone, and assisted with the translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Arabic.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Mission in China

The CMS established a mission in the coastal city of Fuzhou in May 1850 and remained active in Fuzhou until the communist revolution in China in the 1950s.

St Stephen's Anglican Church was one of three churches founded in Hong Kong by the Church Missionary Society. It was led by the Reverend Tsing-Shan Fok (霍靜山, 1851–1918, one of the earliest Chinese clergy in Hong Kong) starting in 1904.^[13]

Mission in Kerala, India

The contribution made by the society in creating and maintaining educational institutions in Kerala, the most literate state in India, is significant. Many colleges and schools in Kerala and Tamil Nadu still have CMS in their names. The CMS College in Kottayam may be one of the pioneers in popularising secondary education in southern India. (Former Indian President K. R. Narayanan is an alumnus.)

Benjamin Bailey was appointed to the Kottayam mission in the Indian state of Kerala. Benjamin Bailey translated the complete Bible to Malayalam language. Also Authored the first printed Malayalam-English dictionary and the first Malayalam-English Dictionary. He is considered as the father of Malayalam Printing.^[14]

New Zealand

Samuel Marsden

A press at "Haven of History", a reconstruction of the CMS mission station in Paihia, with a press in the same style of William Colenso's

History

The Church Missionary Society sent missionaries to settle in New Zealand. The first Christian service conducted in New Zealand waters may have occurred when Father Paul-Antoine Léonard de Villefeix, the Dominican chaplain of the French navigator Jean-François-Marie de Surville celebrated Mass in Doubtless Bay, near Whatuwhiwhi, on Christmas Day in 1769. The Revd Samuel Marsden of the Church Missionary Society (chaplain in New South Wales), officiated at its first service on Christmas Day in 1814, at Oihi Bay in the Bay of Islands. The CMS founded its first mission at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands in 1814 and over the next decade established farms and schools in the area. Thomas Kendall and William Hall were directed, in 1814, to proceed to the Bay of Islands in the Active, a vessel purchased by Marsden for the service of the mission, there to reopen communication with Ruatara, a local chief; an earlier attempt to establish a mission in the Bay of Islands had been delayed as a consequence of the Boyd Massacre in Whangaroa harbour in 1809.^[15] Kendall and Hall left New South Wales on 14 March 1814 on the Active for an exploratory journey to the Bay of Islands. They met rangatira (chiefs) of the Ngāpuhi including Ruatara and the rising war-leader Hongi Hika; Hongi Hika and Ruatara travelled with Kendall when he returned to Australia on 22 August 1814. Kendall, Hall and John King, returned to the Bay of Islands on the Active on 22 December 1814 to establish the mission.^[16]

In 1819 Marsden made his second visit to New Zealand, bringing with him the Revd John Butler as well as Francis Hall and James Kemp as lay settlers. William Puckey, a boatbuilder and carpenter, came with his family, including William Gilbert Puckey to assist in putting up the buildings at Kerikeri.^[15] Butler and Kemp took charge of the Kerikeri mission, but proved unable to develop a harmonious working relationship. In 1820, Marsden paid his third visit, on H.M.S. Dromedary, bringing James Shepherd.^[15] In 1823, Marsden paid his fourth visit, bringing with him the Revd Henry Williams and his wife Marianne as well as Richard Davis, a farmer, and William Fairburn, a carpenter, and their respective families.^[15][17][18] In 1826 Henry's brother William and his wife Jane joined the CMS mission in New Zealand.

Kerikeri Mission Station with the Stone Store at left, St James at rear and Mission House on the right

The CMS Mission House in Kerikeri, completed in 1822, ranks as New Zealand's oldest surviving building.^[19]

In the early days the CMS funded its activities largely through trade; Thomas Kendall, like many secular settlers, sold weapons to Māori people, fuelling the Musket Wars (1807–1842). Kendall brought Māori war-chief Hongi Hika to London in 1820, creating a minor sensation. When Henry Williams became the leader of the missionaries at Paihia in 1823, he immediately stopped the trade in muskets.^[20] The mission schools provided religious education as well as English language practical skills. However the evangelical mission of the CMS achieved success only after the baptism of Ngapuhi chief Taiwhanga in 1830. His example influenced others to be baptised into the Christian faith.^[19] In 1833 a mission was established at Kaitaia in Northland as well as a mission at Puriri in the Thames area.^[21] In 1835 missions were established in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions at Tauranga, Matamata and Rotorua and in 1836 a mission was open in the Manakau area.^[16]

The first public notice in New Zealand, printed for Kororarika [sic] by the press of the Church Missionary Society in Paihia, in the Bay of Islands

By 1840 the Rev. William Williams had translated much of the New Testament into the Māori language. After 1844 Robert Maunsell worked with William Williams on the translation of the Bible.^[22] The full translation of the Bible into the Māori language was completed in 1857.^[23]

The concern about the European impact on New Zealand, particularly lawlessness among Europeans and a breakdown in the traditional restraints in Māori society, meant that the CMS welcomed the United Kingdom's annexation of New Zealand in January 1840, with Henry Williams assisting Captain William Hobson by translating the document that became known as the Treaty of Waitangi.^[24] Henry Williams was also involved in explaining the treaty to Māori leaders, firstly at the meetings with William Hobson at Waitangi, but also later when he travelled to Port Nicholson, Queen Charlotte's Sound, Kapiti, Waikanae and Otaki to persuade Māori chiefs to sign the treaty.^[25] His involvement in these debates brought him "into the increasingly uncomfortable role of mediating between two races".^[26]

The CMS reached the height of its influence in New Zealand in the 1840s and 1850s. Missions covered almost the whole of the North Island and many Māori were baptised. Although the missionaries often backed up Māori in their disputes with the Crown, they sided with the government in the New Zealand Wars in the 1840s and again in the 1860s. Negotiations for the CMS's withdrawal from New Zealand began in 1854 and only a handful of new missionaries arrived after this.^[24] The CMS missionaries held the low church beliefs that were common among the 19th century Evangelical members of the Anglican Church. There was often a wide gap between the views of the CMS missionaries and the bishops and other clergy of the high church traditions of the Oxford Movement (also known as the Tractarians) as to the proper form of ritual and religious practice. Bishop Selwyn, who was appointed the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand in 1841, held the high church (Tracharian) views although he appointed CMS missionaries to positions in the Anglican Church of New Zealand including appointing William Williams as the first Bishop of Waiapu.^[27]

In 1892 the New Zealand branch of the Church Missionary Society formed and the first New Zealand missionaries were sent overseas soon after.^[28] Funding from the UK stopped completely in 1903.^[29] In 2000 the NZCMS amalgamated with the South American Missionary Society of New Zealand.^[28] As of 2013 the NZCMS works closely with the Anglican Missions Board, concentrating on mission work outside New Zealand.

Personnel

Members of the mission who arrived before 1840 included:

• Benjamin Y. Ashwell, arrived in 1835, and worked at Otawhao from 1839.^[16]
• The Revd Charles Baker and his wife Hannah, arrived on 9 June 1828, and worked at Kerikeri; then at Kororareka (Russell);^[16] and they were at the Uawa (Tolaga Bay) mission station from 1843 to 1851.^[30]
• The Revd Alfred Nesbit Brown, arrived in October 1829. He was put in charge of the school at Paihia. In 1835 he opened the Matamata mission station and in 1838 he went to Tauranga.^[16]
• The Revd Robert Burrows, arrived in 1840.^[16]
• John Gare Butler, arrived 12 August 1819; ceasing work at the mission in 1822.^[16][31]
• William Colenso arrived in December 1834 to work as a printer and missionary.^[32] William and Elizabeth Colenso worked at the Waitangi (Ahuriri, Napier) mission station from 1844, until William Colenso was dismissed from the CMS in 1852.^[30]
• Thomas Chapman, catechist, arrived in 1830 and established the Rotorua mission station in 1835.^[16]
• George Clarke and his wife Martha arrived 4 April 1824.^[33][34] George was trained as a blacksmith and was appointed to Kerikeri,^[21] then he worked at the Waimate Mission Station.^[35]
• Richard Davis, a farmer, arrived on 7 May 1824.^[21] He established a garden at the Paihia mission. In 1831 he established a farm at the Waimate Mission Station. In 1843 he was ordained and appointed to Kaikohe.^[16]
• William T. Fairburn, a carpenter. The Revd J. Butler's "Journal" mentions his being in the Bay of Islands in January 1821.^[31] In 1823 he was in Sydney and returned on board the Brampton with Rev. Henry Williams and his wife Marianne;^[21] In October 1833 he went with John A. Wilson, James Preece and John Morgan to establish the Puriri mission station in Thames. In 1823 he was in Sydney and returned on board the Brampton with Rev. Henry Williams and his wife Marianne;^[21] In 1833 he went with John A. Wilson, James Preece and John Morgan to establish the Puriri mission station in the Thames area.^[36] His daughter Elizabeth married William Colenso.^[16]
• James Hamlin, flax dresser and weaver, arrived in March 1826 with William and Jane Williams.^[21] He served as a catechist at the Waimate Mission Station and later at the mission stations at Kerikeri and Mangapouri. In 1836 he became the head of the Manukau mission station. In 1844 he was ordained a deacon and sent to Wairoa, Hawkes Bay; in 1863 he was ordained a minister.^[16]
• The Revd Octavius Hadfield, arrived in December 1838 and was ordained a minister at Paihia on 6 January 1839, that year he travelled to Otaki with Henry Williams, where he established a mission station.^[16]
• Francis Hall, arrived 12 August 1819 and remained until 1823.^[16]
• William Hall, a ship-carpenter, arrived on the Active on 22 December 1814,^[21] and left in ill-health in 1824.^[16]
• James and Elizabeth Hamlin worked at the Wairoa mission station from 1844;^[30]
• John King, arrived on the Active on 22 December 1814. Shoemaker by trade, employed as a catechist, teaching the Māori at Rangihoua.^[21] King was also engaged in work to effect improvement in the dressing of Phormium tenax (harakeke in Māori, New Zealand flax).^[37]
• James Kemp, arrived 12 August 1819.^[16] Blacksmith, keeper of the mission stores and catechist, and school teacher at Kerikeri.^[16][21]
• Thomas Kendall arrived on the Active on 22 December 1814; dismissed from the mission in August 1822.^[16]
• George and Margaret Kissling worked at the Kawakawa (Hicks Bay) mission station from 1843 to 1846.^[30]
• Samuel Marsden Knight (a nephew of Samuel Marsden), catechist arrived in June 1835.^[16]
• The Revd John Mason, who arrived in 1840 and established the Wanganui mission station, where he drowned in 1843.^[16]
• Joseph Matthews, arrived in 1832 and established the Kaitaia mission station.^[16]
• Richard Matthews was the brother of Joseph Matthews. Richard arrived in 1835. He married Johanna Blomfield, sister of Mrs Martha Blomfield Clarke who was the wife of George Clarke. He served the CMS in Kaitaia, then was asked to help set up a missionary station at Wanganui.^[38]
• The Revd Robert Maunsell, arrived in 1835 and he was sent to established the Manukau mission station in the same uear.^[16] He later worked with William Williams on the translation of the Bible. Maunsell worked on the Old Testament, portions of which were published in 1840 with the full translation completed in 1857. He became a leading scholar of the Māori language.
• John Morgan, arrived in 1833, and worked with James Preece to establish the Puriri mission station at Thames in 1833, the Mangapouri mission station in 1835 and the Otawhao mission station in 1842.^[16]
• Henry Pilley, catechist and carpenter, arrived in February 1834.^[16]
• James Preece, catechist, arrived in 1830 and worked with John Morgan to establish the Purtiri mission station in 1833.^[16]
• William Puckey, carpenter, arrived on 12 August 1819 with his wife Margery, son William Gilbert, and daughter Elizabeth. He built, and then served as the mate of the Herald; William Puckey was the father of William Gilbert Puckey.
• William Gilbert Puckey joined the mission in 1821. He and Joseph Matthews established the Kaitaia mission station in 1833.^[21] As he had become fluent in the language since arriving as a boy of 14, he was a useful translator for the CMS mission, including collaborating with William Williams on the translation of the New Testament in 1837 and its revision in 1844.^[16]
• James Shepherd, visited with Marsden in 1817 and placed at Rangihoua in 1820.^[16] A skilled gardener, who taught the Māori how to plant vegetables, fruit and trees. He was generally employed among the different tribes, instructing them in the Christian religion, as he understood the Māori language better than any of the other missionaries at that time.^[21] He served at the mission stations at Kaeo, Te Puna on the Purerua Peninsula and Whangaroa.^[16]
• William Spikeman, a herdsman, arrived in 1814.^[39][40]
• James Stack, had been a Wesleyan missionary at Whangaroa; then later joined the CMS and was sent to the Puriri mission at Thames where his son James West Stack was born. In 1839 Stack and his wife Mary joined William Williams at the mission station at Tūranga in Poverty Bay.^[16][30]
• Richard Taylor, arrived in 1839. He succeeded William Williams as principal of the Waimate Boys’ School in September 1839.^[41] and was later to establish a mission station at Wanganui.^[16]
• William Wade, printer, arrived in December 1834 and worked with William Colenso at Paihia. He later established the Tauranga mission station in 1835.^[16]
• John A. Wilson retired from the navy in 1832 and joined the mission as a lay missionary. In 1833 he and James Preece opened the mission station at Puriri, Thames and in 1836 he and W. R. Wade went to Tauranga. In 1840 he established the Opotiki mission station. He was ordained a deacon in 1852.^[16]
• William Yate, arrived in the Bay of Islands on 19 January 1828.^[42] He was appointed to lead the Te Waimate mission, however his personal life became a matter of controversy and he was dismissed from the mission in June 1834.^[43]

See also

• C.M.S. College
• Crosslinks
• Frank Lake
• History of Christian missions
• J. Spencer Trimingham
• List of Protestant missionaries in China
• Protestant missionary societies in China during the 19th Century

Notes

Bibliography

CMS in New Zealand:

• Carlton, Hugh (1874). "The Life of Henry Williams, Volumes 1 & 2". Early New Zealand Books (ENZB), University of Auckland Library. Retrieved 18 April 2015. 
• (English) Fitzgerald, Caroline (2004) – Letters from the Bay of Islands, Sutton Publishing Limited, United Kingdom; ISBN 0-7509-3696-7 (Hardcover). Penguin Books, New Zealand, (Paperback) ISBN 0-14-301929-5
• (English) Fitzgerald, Caroline (2011) - Te Wiremu – Henry Williams: Early Years in the North, Huia Press, New Zealand, (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-86969-439-5

CMS – general:

• Hewitt, Gordon, The Problems of Success, A History of the Church Missionary Society 1910–1942, Vol I (1971) In Tropical Africa. The Middle East. At Home ISBN 0-334-00252-4; Vol II (1977)Asia Overseas Partners ISBN 0-334-01313-5
• McGregor, A. W. (1904). English–Kikuyu Vocabulary. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
• Murray, Jocelyn (1985). Proclaim the Good News. A Short History of the Church Missionary Society. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-34501-2. .
• Stock, Eugene (1899–1916). "The History of the Church Missionary Society: Its Environment, Its Men, and Its Work" 1–4. London: CMS .
• Stock, Eugene (1923). "The Recent Controversy in the C.M.S." (Reprinted from the Church Missionary Review ed.). London: CMS. .
• Missionary Register; containing an abstract of the principal missionary and bible societies throughout the world. From 1816, containing the principal transactions of the various institutions for propagating the gospel with the proceedings at large of the Church Missionary Society.

Published from 1813–1855 by L. B. Seeley & Sons, London

Some are online readable and downloadable at Google Books:

• • 1814
  • 1815
  • 1822
  • 1823
  • 1826
  • 1828
  • 1829
  • 1831
  • 1834
  • 1846

External links

• CMS Britain
• CMS Australia
• New Zealand CMS
• CMS Ireland
• World Mission News from CMS
• CMS mission videos

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