missionary societies

Religious societies established to organize and finance Christian evangelization in the former British Empire. The Anglican Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) was founded in 1698, followed by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in 1701. As the Empire grew, so did the number of societies. The London Missionary Society (LMS) was founded in 1795, followed by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1799, and the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) in 1804. The Anglo-Catholic Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) was founded in 1859 in response to the challenge sent out by David Livingstone. In 1965 it joined with the SPG to become the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). Outside the Church of England, the Methodist Missionary Society dates from 1786 and the Baptist Missionary Society from 1792.