Church Mission Society

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Church Mission Society (CMS) , also known as Church Missionary Society announced (in Australia and New Zealand Church Missionary Society ), is an association of evangelistic companies with the Anglican Church and other Protestant working together Christians worldwide. Since it was founded in 1799, the CMS has drawn over nine thousand men and women into its missionary service.

Church Mission Society, UK

On February 1, 2007, 186 missionaries were serving with the CMS in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The company supported 704 employees, including participants in exchange programs and study partners. Mission projects operate in over 50 countries, with the approximately £ 9 million annual budget raised primarily through donations from individuals and communities, complemented by investments made in the past.

The Society for Missions in Africa and the East , as the organization first called, was constituted on April 12, 1799 during a meeting of the Eclectic Society , which was reinforced by members of the so-called Clapham sect , including Henry Thornton and William Wilberforce . Wilberforce, who refused to take over the chairmanship of the organization, was named vice president. The Bible commentator Thomas Scott became president . He handed his post over to Josiah Pratt in 1803 , who chaired it for the next 21 years and was the driving force from the start. The first missionaries came from the Evangelical Church in Württemberg . They had been trained at the Berlin Theological Seminary and entered service in 1804. In 1812 the society was renamed the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East and the first English clergy moved out in 1815.

From 1825 on, the Mediterranean society focused on the Coptic Church and its daughter, the Ethiopian Church , which included a translation of the Bible into Amharic under the direction of William Jowett . In 1827 the two missionaries Samuel Gobat and Christian Kugler were sent to Ethiopia . As the theological position of society began to move in a liberal direction at the beginning of the 20th century under the leadership of Eugene Stock , there was debate over whether there should be a dogmatic test for missionaries to preserve the original theology of the CMS . In 1922 the company split. The Liberal wing retained control of the headquarters of the CMS, while the Conservative wing established the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (BCMS).

Major leaders of the CMS at the end of the 20th century were Max Warren and John Vernon Taylor . The contribution made by CMS in Kerala, the Indian state with the highest literacy rate, was outstanding . Many colleges and schools in Kerala and Tamil Nadu still have the CMS in their name. The CMS College in Kottayam was one of the pioneer schools in India, higher education to a wider segment of the population made available (the former Indian President KR Narayanan visited, for example, this College).

In June 2007, CMS in Great Britain relocated its headquarters outside London for the first time. She is now in Oxford . The CMS archive is housed in the University of Birmingham .

Church Missionary Society, Australia

The British CMS began its activities in Sydney in 1825 with the aim of preaching the gospel among the Aborigines , the native Australians. The first missionaries arrived on the continent in 1830. They established a mission station in Wellington Valley . Before the CMS ceased operations in 1842, three Aborigines had been baptized. CMS societies were formed across Australia and the first missionary sponsored by Australian CMS traveled to Ceylon in 1888 . The organization now known as CMS Australia was founded in 1916 when several CMS companies merged into a national organization. At the time, the CMS was sending missionaries to many countries including the Republic of China , British India , Palestine, and Iran . Since 1927, the Australian CMS then concentrated on Northern Australia, and Tanganyika (now Tanzania ). Today the CMS-Australia is the largest mission organization in the world, with 160 missionaries working in 33 countries.

Church Missionary Society New Zealand

A printing press in the 'Haven of History', a reconstruction of the Church Missionary Society mission station in Paihia , with a press like the one used by William Colenso .

In 1820 Reverend Samuel Marsden celebrated the first Christmas service in New Zealand, at Ohihi Bay in the Bay of Islands . A year earlier, the CMS missionary Thomas Kendall had brought a Māori war chief , Hongi Hika , to London, which caused a small sensation. The CMS financed its activities through trade, including the trade in rifles, which made a significant contribution to the so-called Musket Wars . The CMS set up its first mission station and farm, the Te Waimate mission , near the traditional whaling site in Kerikeri , but it was not possible to convert a single Maori until Hongi Hika's death in 1830.

Convinced that the Europeans should bring their culture to the Maori, as well as considering the lawless conditions in Kororāreka , as well as the many deaths in the musket wars, the CMS used their influence to achieve an annexation of New Zealand by Great Britain. This was accomplished in 1840 by the Treaty of Waitangi . As a logical consequence, the contract was signed in the CMS Mission House in Kerikeri, the oldest European building in New Zealand.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CMS Annual Review 2007 . (PDF 955 kB) CMS , archived from the original on September 26, 2007 ; accessed on January 13, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  2. ↑ Donald Crummey, Priests and Politicians , 1972, Oxford University Press (Reprint: Hollywood: Tsehai, 2007), pp. 12, 29f.
  3. ^ Crowther Center for Mission Education . CMS , archived from the original on September 26, 2007 ; accessed on January 13, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).