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The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa. It now forms part of the Council for World Mission (CWM). ==Origins== As early as 1793, Edward Williams, then minister at Carr's Lane, Birmingham, had written a letter to the churches of the Midlands, expressing the need for world evangelization and foreign missions.〔Wadsworth KW, ''Yorkshire United Independent College -Two Hundred Years of Training for Christian Ministry by the Congregational Churches of Yorkshire'' Independent Press, London, 1954〕 It was an effective letter; Williams began to play an active part in the plans for a missionary society. Williams left Birmingham in 1795, becoming pastor at Masbrough, Rotherham, and tutor of the newly formed Masbrough academy.〔The LMS and the academy at Masbrough both date from the year 1795.〕 He continued his involvement with the Society and, in July 1796, it was he who gave the charge to the first missionaries sent out by the Society.〔〔Morison, John ''Fathers and Founders of the London Missionary Society - a Jubilee Memorial'' pages 427-443 chapter titled ''Memoir of the Late Edward Williams'' London: Fisher 1844 This publication may be viewed online at https://archive.org/stream/fathersfounderslmso00mori#page426/mode/2up〕 Proposals for the ''Missionary Society'' began in 1794 after a Baptist minister, John Ryland, received word from William Carey, the pioneer British Baptist missionary who had recently moved to Calcutta, about the need to spread Christianity. Carey suggested that Ryland join forces with others along the non-denominational lines of the Anti-Slavery Society to design a society that could prevail against the difficulties that evangelicals often faced when spreading the Word. This aimed to overcome the difficulties that establishment of overseas missions had faced. It had frequently proved hard to raise the finance because evangelicals belonged to many denominations and churches; all too often their missions would only reach a small group of people and be hard to sustain. The society aimed to be more successful by creating a forum where evangelicals could work together, giving overseas missions more lines of financial support and better co-ordination, including firm support against their fierce opponents who wanted unrestricted commercial and military relations with native peoples throughout the world. The aim was to enable longer-term and more successful missions to be established. After Ryland showed Carey’s letter to H.O. Wills, an anti-slavery campaigner in Bristol, he quickly gained support. Scottish ministers in the London area, David Bogue and James Steven, as well as other evangelicals such as John Hey, joined forces to organize a new society. Bogue wrote an appeal in the ''Evangelical Magazine'': Its editor, Rev. John Eyre of Hackney, responded by inviting a leading and influential evangelical, Rev. Thomas Haweis, to write a response to Bogue's appeal. The Cornishman sided firmly with Bogue, and immediately identified two donors, one of £500, and one of £100. From this start, a campaign developed to raise money for the proposed society, and its first meeting was organised at Baker’s Coffee House on Change Alley in the City of London. Eighteen supporters showed up and helped agree the aims of the proposed missionary society – ''to spread the knowledge of Christ among heathen and other unenlightened nations''. By Christmas over thirty men were committed to forming the society. In the following year, 1795, Spa Fields Chapel was approached for permission to preach a sermon to the various ministers and others by now keenly associated with the plan to send missionaries abroad. This was organised for Tuesday 22 September 1795, the host chapel insisting that no collection for the proposed society must be made during the founding event which would be more solemn, and formally mark the origin of the ''Missionary Society''. Hundreds of evangelicals attended, and the newly launched society quickly began receiving letters of financial support, and interest from prospective missionaries. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「London Missionary Society」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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