History

Revd George Keith, USPG's first missionary

A quick look at some of the milestones of USPG's 300-year history

1701

The Revd Dr Thomas Bray founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) in 1701. Dr Bray's aim was to send priests to American to provide English colonists with access to the worship of the Church of England. SPG missionaries also sent school teachers and took the gospel to slaves and native Americans.

1702

SPG sent it first missionary, the Revd George Keith, to America in 1702. Since then, over 15,000 men and women have been appointed as missionaries by the Society, venturing into over 50 countries.

1820

SPG sent its first missionaries to India in 1820 and South Africa in 1821. Around this time, work among indigenous people became a higher priority than the care of colonists.

1856

SPG accepted its first single woman as a missionary. Sarah Coombes was a schoolteacher in Borneo. Increasingly, SPG was supporting indigenous missionaries, both men and women.

1858

Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) was formed to pursue evangelistic, medical and educational work in East and Central Africa, making major contributions in the fight against slavery and leprosy. UMCA was later to unite with SPG to create USPG.

1863

The Society began to work in countries outside the British Empire, first in China in 1863, and then in Japan in 1873.

1877

The Cambridge Mission to Delhi (CMD) was founded. CMD worked principally through two institutions: St Stephen's Hospital and St Stephen's College. The latter provided an early example of inspired Indian leadership that was supportive of Indian nationalism, namely S K Rudra, the college principal from 1906-1923.

1947

Following the Second World War and, more significantly, India's independence in 1947, mission agencies were being challenged by a rapidly changing world and decolonisation. New autonomous national churches were developing their own lives, and a gradual decline of interest in mission started among church-goers in Britain and Ireland. However, new concepts of mission were developed which saw the authority of mission agencies replaced by efforts to establish relationships between equal partners.

1965

On 1 January 1965, SPG merged with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) to form the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG).

1968

The Cambridge Mission to Delhi (CMD) joined USPG.