CWM

History of the London Missionary Society

Leaders among the Independent Churches joined forces with Anglican and Presbyterian clergy and laymen to form a Missionary Society in 1795 whose object was "to spread the knowledge of Christ among heathen and other unenlightened nations". In 1818 the Society was renamed "The London Missionary Society" (LMS).

The first field to which the LMS sent missionaries was the South Seas. Artisans as well as ministers were sent in a ship, The Duff, and work was started in Tahiti, Tonga, the Cook Islands and other parts of the South Pacific.

Famous among those early missionaries was John Williams; when marooned on the island of Rarotonga he built in 15 weeks a 60 feet long and 18 feet wide vessel, The Messenger of Peace, with local materials and native help. A whole line of missionary ships was later named after John Williams and supported by children who collected "ship half-pennies" (half-pennies which had a sailing ship on one side).

Missionaries learned the languages, reduced them to writing, translated the Scriptures, and trained and taught island leaders they converted. They went about by ship supervising the work as it developed.

The evangelisation of the islands was carried out largely by the local teachers and pastors, many of whom gave their lives as they sought to share their new faith with other islanders. When missionaries were forced to withdraw for a time from various South Sea islands, China and Madagascar, the local Christians endured great suffering and even martyrdom.

From the beginning the LMS was evangelical, ecumenical and pioneering. Its missionaries were dedicated individualists who worked in many lands - for example, Robert Morrison and Robert Milne in Hong Kong and Malaya, Rev William Ringeltaube in South India, Dr John Vanderkemp, Robert and Mary Moffat and Dr John Philip in South Africa, Dr David Livingstone in central Africa, John Wray and John Smith in British Guiana, the Jones and Bevans in Madagascar and James Gilmour in Mongolia.

The greatest number of LMS missionaries at any one time was about 250. Many single women were appointed as well as married couples where the husband was regarded as the missionary, although wives assisted or were responsible for much of the work. Between 1895 and 1945 LMS appointed around 800 missionaries of whom a little more than 100 were from churches other than Congregational.

From the beginning the LMS was evangelical, ecumenical and pioneering
Likewise, most LMS financial support came from Congregational Churches in Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. In each mission field, especially in the Pacific, the indigenous churches contributed financially to the Society's work as well as providing personnel.

The Second World War, however, marked an end of an era. One by one the British colonies became independent states, as did Madagascar, a former French colony. The devolution from mission also gathered pace. It started in 1927 with the formation of the Church of Christ in China; the unifying of the Church of South India in 1947 was succeeded by many self-governing national churches in the 1960s. The Communist revolution forced missionaries to leave China, the largest of the LMS mission fields, to go elsewhere.

In 1966 the LMS and the Commonwealth Missionary Society combined to form the Congregational Council for World Mission. In 1977, CWM in its present form was inaugurated.

Barrie Scopes