The Church Missionary Society, 1799–1810

Abstract This chapter describes how the CMS was founded as part of the Evangelical Clapham Sect’s project of transforming English Christianity. The uneven pace of development of its membership and committee structure is linked to the missiological questions discussed in its anniversary sermons and the concept of the Evangelical preacher and missionary as Hero is seen to emerge. It is shown that after initial failures the CMS gradually tackled the problems of missionary recruitment and pre-service training, while in Claudius Buchanan it found a figure who combined powerful preaching with the marshalling of statistical evidence for setting operational policy and priorities. The CMS is contrasted with the SPG, which in the same period pursued existing policies to good effect in Canada.