The Company of Mission Priests (CMP) is a "dispersed community" of male priests of the Anglican Communion, who want to consecrate themselves wholly to the church's mission, free from the attachments of marriage and family. CMP was founded in 1940 by the initiative of the superiors of the Anglican religious orders of the Community of the Resurrection, the Society of the Sacred Mission and the Society of St John the Evangelist.
CMP follows a Vincentian rule of life. It is not officially classified as an Anglican religious order by the church, but as an "acknowledged community". Members give simple promises, (cf. simple vow) which are renewed annually. The whole community meets in General Chapter once a year, and the Regional Chapters more frequently.
CMP is known for its work in Guyana and Madagascar and for its work in staffing "needy" parishes in England with two, three or more priests, who live together in a clergy house. CMP was one of the founding members of Vincentian Millennium partnership in AD 2000.
The warden from 2005 till 2012 was Father Timothy Pike CMP, who has now been succeeded by Fr Beresford Skelton CMP and the episcopal visitor is the Right Reverend Lindsay Urwin OGS, formerly the Bishop of Horsham, and now the Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Famous quotes containing the words company of, company, mission and/or priests:
“Men with secrets tend to be drawn to each other, not because they want to share what they know but because they need the company of the like-minded, the fellow afflicted.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)
“We’re too unseparate. And going home
From company means coming to our senses.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Every Age has its own peculiar faith.... Any attempt to translate into facts the mission of one Age with the machinery of another, can only end in an indefinite series of abortive efforts. Defeated by the utter want of proportion between the means and the end, such attempts might produce martyrs, but never lead to victory.”
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)
“If the barricades went up in our streets and the poor became masters, I think the priests would escape, I fear the gentlemen would; but I believe the gutters would simply be running with the blood of philanthropists.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)