Origin from 1799
Twelve years after the Anglican Communion began forming through colonial expansion in 1787, and sixty eight years before the Archbishop of Canterbury convened the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, both already recorded here, evangelical clergy within the Church of England organized to carry their faith beyond it. On 12 April 1799, a group meeting in London, including William Wilberforce, John Venn and the former slave ship captain turned clergyman John Newton, founded the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, renamed the Church Missionary Society in 1812. Unlike the older, high church Society for the Propagation of the Gospel already recorded here, the new society drew its support from the evangelical Clapham Sect and set out deliberately to recruit lay volunteers the Church of England itself had been reluctant to send. Its first missionaries sailed for Sierra Leone in 1804, and the society went on to open Anglican missions across India, Canada, New Zealand and East Africa over the following century, becoming one of the two principal engines, alongside the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, that carried the Church of England's colonial expansion into the worldwide Anglican Communion whose bishops would first gather at Lambeth in 1867.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks evangelical clergy including William Wilberforce, John Venn and John Newton founding the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, renamed the Church Missionary Society in 1812, in London on 12 April 1799, a milestone between the Anglican Communion beginning to form through colonial expansion in 1787, already recorded here, and the Archbishop of Canterbury convening the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Anglican Communion directly: "Twelve years after the Anglican Communion began forming through colonial expansion in 1787, and sixty eight years before the Archbishop of Canterbury convened the first Lambeth Conference in 1867..."
This source names Canada directly: "open Anglican missions across India, Canada, New Zealand and East Africa over the following century, becoming one of the two principal engines, alongside the Society for the Propagation of the..."
This source names John Newton directly: "slave ship captain turned clergyman John Newton, founded the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, renamed the Church Missionary Society in 1812."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a milestone in Anglicanism's missionary expansion between the Anglican Communion beginning to form through colonial expansion in 1787 and the Archbishop of Canterbury convening the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, both already recorded here: evangelical clergy founding the Church Missionary Society in London on 12 April 1799.
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