TitleChurch Missionary SocietyAbout this Collection
The Church Missionary Society was founded in England in 1799 and sent missionaries to New Zealand for mission to Māori in 1814 following a visit from Australia by Samuel Marsden. With a well-founded Anglican Church, the CMS gradually withdrew from mission to New Zealand, and this mission was taken up by local Dioceses.
In 1892 the New Zealand Church Missionary Association (NZCMA) was founded in Nelson, with its role to select, train and send out missionaries to other parts of the world.
The association provided workers for the Māori Mission, for the Melanesian Mission, for the CMS Missions in China, Japan, India and Africa, and also for the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, which is the subject of some of the photographs.
In 1893 Miss Marie Louise Pasley, the first missionary candidate was selected and was subsequently sent to Japan.
In 1916 the Association changed its name to the New Zealand Church Missionary Society (NZCMS), and today describes itself as independent of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia, but “nurtured within”.
This Collection holds images and documents mostly from the New Zealand branch of the Church Missionary Society, with more to come.
