When William Carey set off for India in 1793, he started a movement that set UK churches ablaze. One generation after another joined an enterprise aiming to take the Christian Gospel to Africa, India, China and South America. Men and women like David Livingstone, Mary Slessor, Bishop Hannington and Gladys Aylward shouldered what they saw as the white man’s burden. In an explosion of imperialist and commercial expansion they introduced people world-wide to the benefits and duties of the Christian faith.
Within this surge of activity there was from the beginning a coterie of thoughtful people who sought to understand the outlook of the peoples newly encountered. Linguistic experts like Carey himself and Henry Martyn were foremost amongst them. That aspect of global mission has continued. It can be found in the former parish church of St Philip and St James, Oxford. Step inside this building and you will see that the church George Street designed has been given a handsome new interior. It looks like a state-of-the-art college library. It now houses the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies.
In recent decades the word ‘missionary’ with its colonial overtones that was so happily adopted by Victorians has become a dirty word. We have coined the sanitised version ‘missional’, a mealy-mouthed substitute. But the concern to see the gospel of the Kingdom take root in every community, culture, and context is alive and well. Worldwide evangelism, discipleship, and mission are now understood as the calling of the whole church, and the OCMS has a share in promoting that better understanding.
Paul Bendor-Samuel MBE directs OCMS. Trained as a G.P, he spent 12 years in Tunisia, working in development and another 12 years as International Director of Interserve, the mission agency. He came to OCMS in 2016. He is following in the footsteps of a notable protagonist of mission, John Bendor-Samuel, his father, who directed the International work of Wycliffe Bible Translators.
As for the OCMS premises, the parish church has served well but is now bursting at the seams. With 100 Ph.D. Middlesex U. students (part-time with four or so weeks in Oxford once a year) from 40 countries, the global hub in Woodstock Road could do with an extension. This is in hand. Paul Bendor-Samuel is alive to opportunities and is aware that we have a gap to cross, not only between cultures but between academics and those at the coal-face. He is doing something about it.
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