Church Mission Society

Abstract

Abstract The Church Mission Society (CMS) is an e vangelical, Anglican missionary society founded in 1799 at Clapham by evangelical lay Christians of the Church of England as “the Society for Missions in Africa and the East.” In 1812 it adopted the name “The Church Missionary Society” and in 1995 modified it to the present one. The circumstances of its evolving from the popular religious awakening of 18th century England shaped its vision and threatened its legitimacy. It informed its vision to plant overseas indigenous churches that were evangelical and so distinct from the high church model being planted by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) established in 1701. The established church viewed the society with suspicion, but under the leadership of its clerical secretaries Josiah Pratt (1802–1824) and Henry Venn (1841–1872), it gained the confidence of the church.