BMS World Mission, officially Baptist Missionary Society, is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. The headquarters is in Didcot, England.
 | |
| Abbreviation | BMS |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1792 |
| Type | Missionary Society |
| Headquarters | Didcot, Great Britain |
General Director | Kang San-Tan |
| Website | Official website |
History
editThe BMS was formed in 1792 as the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen at a meeting in Kettering, England, where twelve Particular Baptist ministers signed an agreement.[1][2] They were; Thomas Blundel, Joshua Burton, John Eayres, Andrew Fuller, Abraham Greenwood, William Heighton, Reynold Hogg, Samuel Pearce, John Ryland, Edward Sherman, John Sutcliff, Joseph Timms.[3] William Staughton, present at the meeting, did not sign since he was not a minister.[4] The first missionaries, William Carey and John Thomas, were sent to Bengal, India in 1793.[5][6] They were followed by many co-workers, firstly to India, and subsequently to other countries in Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and South America. BMS opened missions in China in 1860. It began operating in China's Shanxi province in 1877, despite local hostility toward “foreign devils.” In the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 all its missionaries there were killed, along with all 120 converts .[7] Timothy Richard is one of the most well-known Baptist missionaries to China.
Francis Augustus Cox wrote a history of the Baptist Missionary Society from its formation until 1842.[6] Brian Stanley was commissioned to write a history of the society for its bicentenary (1992).[8]
It is also known as BMS World Mission since 2000.[9]
List of missionaries
edit- Rev. Samuel Pearce (1792)
- William Carey (1793)
- John Thomas (1793)
- Dr. William Yates (1814)
- Joseph Jackson Fuller (1825-1908) Jamaican missionary to Cameroon
- Jeremiah Phillips (1836)
- George Grenfell (1849-1906), explorer and BMS missionary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Dr Clement Clapton Chesterman (1920-1936), the first to implement successfully mass chemotherapy for Trypanosomiasis. He worked at Yakusu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Dr Ernest W Price (1907-1990), the discoverer of Podoconiosis.[10] He worked at Pimu and IME Kimpese in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Dr Stanley George Browne (1907-1986), "Mister Leprosy". He succeeded Dr Chesterman at Yakusu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Charlotte White (1782-1863), American, first single woman appointed as a missionary; wife of BMS missionary Joshua Rowe, worked in Digha, India from 1816 to 1826.
- Dr David Hedley Wilson (1928-2015), the first President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.[11] He succeeded Dr Price at Pimu and IME Kimpese in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Programmes
editBMS works in many ways around the world, including church planting, development, disaster relief, education, health, and media and advocacy. Mission personnel can go long-term, mid-term, short-term or as part of a team.[citation needed]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 99
- ^ J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann, Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2010, p. 292
- ^ George Smith (30 June 2011). The Life of William Carey, D.D: Shoemaker and Missionary. Cambridge University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-108-02918-6.
- ^ Alan Betteridge (1 August 2010). Deep Roots, Living Branches: A History of Baptists in the English Western Midlands. Troubador Publishing Ltd. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-84876-277-0.
- ^ Jonathan M. Yeager, Early Evangelicalism: A Reader, OUP USA, USA, 2013, p. 357
- ^ a b History of the Baptist Missionary Society, from 1792 to 1842, Francis Augustus Cox, 1842, accessed April 2009
- ^ R. G. Tiedemann, Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (2009) p. 125.
- ^ Stanley, Brian (1992). The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792-1992. London: T.& T.Clark Ltd. ISBN 0567096149.
- ^ R. G. Tiedemann, Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth, Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames, 2016, p. 125
- ^ Vernon, Gervase (2019). "Dr E W Price, the discoverer of podoconiosis". Journal of Medical Biography. 30 (1). Sage Journals: 2–5. doi:10.1177/0967772019888406. PMID 31735101. S2CID 208142196.
- ^ Obituary . (2016). "David Hedley Wilson". BMJ. Retrieved 18 December 2019.