The Colonial Missionary Society was formed in May 1836 as a “distinct society for the Colonies” following the report of a deputation to Canada by representatives of Congregational churches from Britain. Its principal mission effort was directed towards promoting Congregationalist forms of Christianity among “British or other European settlers” rather than indigenous peoples. At first it functioned as part of the Congregational Union, which Andrew Reed, an early honorary secretary, described as ‘a crippled and dependent existence’. In time it became an independent body.
Radical changes in the way Great Britain related to its former colonies after World War II, coupled with the growth of the ecumenical movement led to four changes in the society’s identity during the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. It changed its name to the Commonwealth Missionary Society in 1956, then merged with the London Missionary Society in 1966 to form the Congregational Council for World Mission (CCWM). At the formation of the United Reformed Church in 1972 it underwent another name change, becoming the Council for World Mission (Congregational and Reformed). The CWM (Congregational and Reformed) was again restructured in 1977 to create a more internationalist and global body, the Council for World Mission (CWM).
The records of the Colonial Missionary Society are held at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
Famous quotes containing the words colonial, missionary and/or society:
“In colonial America, the father was the primary parent. . . . Over the past two hundred years, each generation of fathers has had less authority than the last. . . . Masculinity ceased to be defined in terms of domestic involvement, skills at fathering and husbanding, but began to be defined in terms of making money. Men had to leave home to work. They stopped doing all the things they used to do.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other.... Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)