Chapter Four

THE CHURCH MISSION SOCIETY AND REVERSE MISSION: FROM COLONIAL SENDING TO POSTCOLONIAL PARTNERSHIP AND RECEPTION

Rebecca Catto

Introduction

Much of the existing related literature has focused on reverse mission in Pentecostal and independent churches.1 This chapter offers a different perspective on ‘reverse mission’ and aims to illuminate it further through the study of a particular example, the Church Mission Society (CMS).2 is difficult to define. The term retains a sense from the original Latin of being sent and implies boundary crossing, be it a national, class, cultural and/or ethnic boundary. Rosalind Hackett has rec- ommended referring to proselytization rather than proselytism in order to decouple the activity from the outcome and place greater emphasis on the process by which members of religious groups endeavour to propagate their faith.3 This approach informs my contention that though mission can incorporate things beyond evangelization such as material and spiri- tual support for others, an intention to grow a faith remains foundational to it, even if this is not always the result.4 Such ambiguity over definition inevitably carries over to discussion of ‘reverse mission.’ Girish Daswani has employed “reverse missionization”

1 See, for example, Adogame, Afe, “A Home Away from Home: The Proliferation of Celestial Church of Christ in Diaspora—Europe,” Exchange, 27:2, 1998, 141–160; ter Haar, Gerrie, Halfway to Paradise: African Christians in Europe, Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998, van Dijk, Rijk, “Ghanaian Churches in the Netherlands: Religion Mediating a Tense Relationship,” in Merchants, and Migrants: 300 Years of Dutch-Ghanaian Rela- tions ed. by Ineke van Kessel, Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2002, 89–97. 2 Great thanks go to CMS staff, especially the mission partners who spoke to me, for their cooperation in this research. 3 Hackett, Rosalind (ed.), “Revisiting Proselytization in the Twenty-first Century,” in Proselytization Revisted: Rights Talk, Free Markets and Culture Wars, London; Oakville: Equinox Publishing, 2008, 1–33. 4 Catto, Rebecca, From the Rest to the West: Exploring Reversal in Christian Mission in Twenty-first Century Britain, Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Exeter, 2008. 82 rebecca catto in preference to ‘reverse mission’ for similar reasons to Hackett’s. He applies the term to a Ghanaian church establishing itself in .5 This application supports the point that ‘reverse mission’ is associated with the relationship between Western former Christian mission-sending centres and former colonial mission fields. As demonstrated in this volume, the term can be and is applied to other religions and shifts in the direction of mission.6 Nonetheless, its ori- gins are within postcolonial .7 ‘Reverse mission’ is an acknowl- edged, but contested term with colonial connotations involving ministry, proselytization and an inversion of previous relations. Having briefly and partially clarified the broad subject matter, the more specific focus: the Church Mission Society is now introduced and its story of change considered.

The Church Mission Society

The Church Mission Society (CMS) is a mission society originally asso- ciated with the sending of missionaries during the Colonial Era.8 It was founded within by Evangelicals and intended to be less ‘high church’ than the pre-existing Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). CMS was thus initially treated with caution by the

5 Daswani, Girish, Social change and religious transformation in a Pentecostal Church in Ghana and London, Unpublished PhD Thesis, London School of Economics, 2007. 6 Marten, Michael, Attempting to Bring the Gospel Home: Scottish Missions to Palestine 1839–1917, International Library of Colonial History 3, London; New York: Tauris Academic Studies, 2006. 7 British and Irish Association for Mission Studies (BIAMS) Day Conference 2008 “Mis- sion in reverse” Abstract and Booking Form, BIAMS, 2008; Kennel-Shank, Celeste, “Revers- ing Historic Model, from Global South Evangelizes West,” Religion News Service, 22nd February, 2005, 1–2; Ojo, Matthews, ‘ “Reverse Mission,” in Encyclopedia of Mission and Missionaries, ed. by Jonathan Bonk, London; New York: Routledge, 2007, 380–382. 8 The Church Mission Society (CMS) has received much previous scholarly attention, mainly historical in approach and often focused upon Africa. See, for example, Beidel- man, Thomas O., “Contradictions between the Sacred and the Secular Life: The Church Missionary Society in Ukaguru, , , 1876–1914,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23:1, 1981, 73–95; Kolapo, Femi J., “CMS Missionaries of African Origin and Extra-Religious Encounters at the -Benue Confluence, 1858–1880,” African Stud- ies Review, 43:2, 2000, 87–115; Sharkey, Heather J., “Christians among Muslims: The Church Missionary Society in the Northern Sudan,” The Journal of African History, 43:1, 2002, 51–75; Wariboko, Waibinte E., “I Really Cannot Make Africa My Home: West Indian Missionaries as ‘Outsiders’ in the Church Missionary Society Civilizing Mission to Southern , 1898–1925,” The Journal of African History, 45:2, 2004, 221–236.