Crosslinks is an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exp ...

Anglican missionary society, drawing its support mainly from parishes in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

and

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second l ...

. It was known as the Bible Churchmen's Missionary Society (BCMS) until 1992. The BCMS was created as the result of a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

split from the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

Foundation

BCMS was founded on 27 October 1922 as a result of a split in the

(CMS). A number of CMS missionaries and supporters had become unhappy at its drift towards theological

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for ...

. BCMS was intended as a continuation of CMS's original theological and missionary principles. The Society was quickly established under the forceful leadership of Daniel Bartlett, who dominated its first 25 years. Another significant early supporter was Dean Wace. While the parting was less than amicable, Bartlett ruled that all BCMS missionaries should transfer to areas where the CMS had not previously operated, in an attempt to restore

charitable The practice of charity is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. There are a number of philosophies about charity, often associated with religion. Etymology The word ''charity'' ori ...

relations. Another priority was the establishment of a training college (1925) in line with BCMS's theology, which later became

Trinity College, Bristol Trinity College, Bristol is an evangelical Anglican theological college located in Stoke Bishop, Bristol, England. It offers a range of full-time and part-time taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses which are validated by the University ...

. The ecclesiastical historian

Adrian Hastings Adrian Hastings (23 June 1929 – 30 May 2001) was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and author. He wrote a book about the " Wiriyamu Massacre" during the Mozambican War of Independence and became an influential scholar of Christian history i ...

has argued that this is one of the few English parallels to the

Fundamentalism Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...

controversy in the US. He notes that BCMS differed from CMS by "only one word" – Bible. However, it is noteworthy that in contrast to US examples, BCMS remained committed to the

and the

, despite their theological diversity. 27 October anniversary has become part of Crosslinks' traditions, and is commemorated by enthusiasts as ''Crosslinks Day''.

History

The first BCMS missionary was 84-year-old Archdeacon A. W. Mackay of

Saskatchewan, Canada Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

. He worked among the

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, ...

of Canada. In 1923, work began in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, followed by China and

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. In 1927, officials in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

invited BCMS to begin work there, but it was not until 1929 that BCMS's first missionaries to Africa arrived in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

. The same year saw a specific request to begin work in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

. The worldwide turmoil around the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

led to the Society's withdrawal from a number of countries: Ethiopia ( 1937 war), Burma ( 1942 invasion), and China ( 1949–51 expulsion). The late 1940s also saw Bartlett finally relinquish leadership to

A. T. Houghton A is the first letter of the Latin and English alphabet. A may also refer to: Science and technology Quantities and units * ''a'', a measure for the attraction between particles in the Van der Waals equation * ''A'' value, a measure o ...

. The following decades saw an increasing focus on East Africa, particularly the

Karamoja Karamoja sub-region, commonly known as Karamoja, is a region in Uganda. It covers an area of 27,528km and comprises Kotido District, Kaabong District, Karenga District, Nabilatuk District Abim District, Moroto District, Napak District, A ...

area of

,Ben Knighton ''The Vitality of Karamojong Religion: Dying Tradition or Living Faith?''. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005, pp. 70–74 (via Google Book Search)
/ref> and the Diocese of Karamoja retains a strong Crosslinks connection. In the second half of the twentieth century, the tide of

decolonisation Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence m ...

led to the scaling down and rethinking of activities in Africa and India. BCMS/Crosslinks has participated in two trends common to most Western missionary societies: * Missionaries are as likely to come from the

Global South The concept of Global North and Global South (or North–South divide in a global context) is used to describe a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political characteristics. The Global South is a term often used to identify regio ...

as to go there. Given the distribution of Anglicans, this has tended to mean African mission partners joining Crosslinks. * The West is now seen as a mission field. Crosslinks brings African pastors to England and Ireland, it has an environmental protection programme in Western Europe (

A Rocha A Rocha is an international network of environmental organizations with Christian ethos. A Rocha, which means "the rock" in Portuguese (see entry '' Rocha''), was founded in Portugal in 1983. Organisation The organization network is constitute ...

) and starts new churches in urban England as it traditionally did in rural Africa. The Crosslinks name emphasises the society's principle that Mission is from everywhere to everywhere. The name also helps to make possible work in some of the 60 or so countries where Bible,

Church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Ch ...

and

Missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

are not acceptable. Since 2000, the CEO and mission director of Crosslinks has been

Andy Lines Andrew John Lines (born 1960) is a British Anglican bishop. Since June 2017, he has been the Missionary Bishop to Europe of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), a province outside the Anglican Communion. In 2020, he became the first pre ...

Notes

References

* *. *{{Citation , last =Russell , first =Stanley Farrant , author-link = , last2 = , first2 = , author2-link = , publication-date = , date =1972 , title =Full Fifty Years: the BCMS story , edition = , volume = , publication-place =London , place = , publisher =Patmos Press , id = , isbn = , doi = , oclc = , url = , accessdate = .

External links

Crosslinks – God's Word to God's World
This is the official Crosslinks web site, and is frequently updated with news from mission partners. Publications are also available on-line. An RSS feed for site additions is available.
List of BCMS/Crosslinks archives at Birmingham University, including list of missionaries
Church of England missions Church of England missionary societies Church of Ireland Evangelical Anglicanism Evangelicalism in the Church of England Christian organizations established in 1922

Foundation

History

See also

Notes

References

External links