United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

-based

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ...

(registered charity no. 234518). It was first incorporated under

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, b ...

in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) as a

high church The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originate ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

organization of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

and was active in the Thirteen Colonies of North America. The group was renamed in 1965 as the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG) after incorporating the activities of the

Universities' Mission to Central Africa The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of ...

(UMCA). In 1968 the Cambridge Mission to Delhi also joined the organization. From November 2012 until 2016, the name was United Society or Us. In 2016, it was announced that the Society would return to the name USPG, this time standing for United Society Partners in the Gospel, from 25 August 2016. During its more than three hundred years of operations, the Society has supported more than 15,000 men and women in mission roles within the worldwide

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

. Working through local partner churches, the charity's current focus is the support of emergency relief, longer-term development, and Christian leadership training projects. The charity encourages parishes in

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

to participate in Christian mission work through fundraising, prayer, and by setting up links with its projects around the world.

History

Foundation and mission work in North America

In 1700, Henry Compton,

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

(1675–1713), requested the Revd Thomas Bray to report on the state of the

in the

American Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...

. Bray, after extended travels in the region, reported that the Anglican church in America had "little spiritual vitality" and was "in a poor organizational condition". Under Bray's initiative, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was authorised by convocation and incorporated by Royal Charter on 16 June 1701.

King William III William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the ...

issued a charter establishing the SPG as "an organisation able to send priests and schoolteachers to America to help provide the Church's ministry to the colonists". The new society had two main aims: Christian ministry to British people overseas; and evangelization of the non-Christian races of the world. The society's first two missionaries, graduates of the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

, George Keith and Patrick Gordon, sailed from England for

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

on 24 April 1702. By 1710 the Society's charter had expanded to include work among enslaved Africans in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and Native Americans in North America. The SPG funded clergy and schoolmasters, dispatched books, and supported catechists through annual fundraising sermons in London that publicized the work of the mission society. Queen Anne was a noted early supporter, contributing her own funds and authorizing in 1711 the first of many annual Royal Letters requiring local parishes in England to raise a "liberal contribution" for the Society's work overseas. Roger Aitken, Old Burying Ground, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Roger Aitken, Old Burying Ground, Halifax, Nova Scotia

In New England, the Society had to compete with a growing

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

church movement, as the Anglican Church was not established here. With resourceful leadership it made significant inroads in more traditional

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

states such as Connecticut and Massachusetts. The SPG also helped to promote distinctive designs for new churches using local materials, and promoted the addition of steeples. The white church with steeple was copied by other groups and became associated with New England-style churches among the range of Protestant sects. Such designs were also copied by church congregations in the Southern colonies. From 1702 until the end of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

in 1783, the SPG had recruited and employed more than 309 missionaries to the American colonies that came to form the United States. Many of the parishes founded by SPG clergy on the Eastern seaboard of the United States are now listed among the historic parishes of the Episcopal Church. SPG clergy were instructed to live simply, but considerable funds were used on the construction of new church properties. The SPG clergy were ordained, university-educated men, described at one time by

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

as "Anglican Jesuits." They were recruited from across the British Isles and further afield; only one third of the missionaries employed by the Society in the 18th century were English. Included in their number such notable individuals as George Keith, and

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Meth ...

, the founder of Methodism, originally a movement within the Anglican Church.

West Indies

Through a charitable bequest bestowed upon the SPG by Barbadian planter and colonial administrator

Christopher Codrington Christopher Codrington (1668 – 7 April 1710) was a Barbadian-born colonial administrator, planter, book collector and military officer. He is sometimes known as Christopher Codrington the Younger to distinguish him from his father. Codrington ...

, the

Codrington Plantations The Codrington Plantations were two historic sugarcane producing estates on the island of Barbados, established in the 17th Century by Christopher Codrington (c. 1640–1698) and his father of the same name. Sharing the characteristics of many plan ...

(and the slaves working on them) came under the ownership of the Society. With the aim of supplying funding for

Codrington College Codrington College is an Anglican theological college in St. John, Barbados now affiliated with the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill. It is one of the oldest Anglican theological colleges in the Americas. It was affiliated to the Un ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estima ...

, the SPG was the beneficiary of the

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

of thousands of enslaved Africans on the

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Th ...

s. Many of the slaves on the plantations died from such diseases as

dysentery Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...

and

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...

, after being weakened by overwork. The SPG even branded its slaves on the chest with the word SOCIETY to show who they belonged to. The ownership of the Codrington Plantations by the SPG started to come under scrutiny during the late 18th century, as the British abolitionist movement started to emerge. In 1783, Bishop

Beilby Porteus Beilby Porteus (or Porteous; 8 May 1731 – 13 May 1809), successively Bishop of Chester and of London, was a Church of England reformer and a leading abolitionist in England. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously ...

, an early proponent of

abolitionism Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

, used the occasion of the SPG's annual anniversary sermon to highlight the conditions at the Codrington Plantations and called for the SPG to end its connection with colonial slavery. However, the SPG did not relinquish ownership of its plantations in Barbados until the passage in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. At the February 2006 meeting of the Church of England's

General Synod The General Synod is the title of the governing body of some church organizations. Anglican Communion The General Synod of the Church of England, which was established in 1970 replacing the Church Assembly, is the legislative body of the Church of ...

, attendees commemorated the church's role in helping to pass the

Slave Trade Act of 1807 The Slave Trade Act 1807, officially An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not abolish the practice of slavery, it ...

to abolish Britain's involvement in the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. The attendees also voted unanimously to apologise to the descendants of slaves for the church's involvement in and support of the slave trade and slavery. Tom Butler, the Bishop of Southwark, confirmed in a speech before the vote that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts had owned the Codrington Plantations.

Africa

The Rev. Thomas Thompson, having first served as an SPG missionary in colonial

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, established the Society's first mission outpost at

Cape Coast Castle Cape Coast Castle ( sv, Carolusborg) is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, establish ...

on the Gold Coast in 1752. In 1754 he arranged for three local students to travel to England be trained as missionaries at the Society's expense. Two died from ill health, but the surviving student,

Philip Quaque Philip Quaicoe (1741 – 17 October 1816) was the first African to be ordained as a minister by the Church of England. Biography Born in Cape Coast then known as (Gold Coast) and named Kweku, he was said to be the son of Birempong Cudjo, a c ...

, became the first African to receive ordination in the

. He returned to the Gold Coast in 1765 and worked there in a missionary capacity until his death in 1816. SPG missionary activities in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

began in 1821. The Society's work in the wider region made significant progress under the leadership of Bishop Robert Gray, expanding to Natal in 1850, Zululand in 1859, Swaziland in 1871 and Mozambique in 1894. During the period 1752–1906, the Society employed a total of 668 European and locally recruited missionaries in Africa.

Global expansion

The Society established mission outposts in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

in 1759,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

in 1793, and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

in 1820. It later expanded outside the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

in 1863,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

in 1873, and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

in 1890. By the middle of the 19th century, the Society's work was focused more on the promotion and support of indigenous Anglican churches and the training of local church leadership, than on the supervision and care of colonial and expatriate church congregations. From the mid-1800s until the Second World War, the pattern of mission work remained similar: pastoral, evangelistic, educational and medical work contributing to the growth of the Anglican Church and aiming to improve the lives of local people. During this period, the SPG also supported increasing numbers of indigenous missionaries of both sexes, as well as medical missionary work.

Women's missionary leadership

To a limited degree, the Society was socially progressive from the mid 1800s in its encouragement of women from Britain and Ireland, including single women, to train and work as missionaries in their own right, rather than only as the wives of male missionaries. In 1866, the SPG established the Ladies’ Association for Promoting the Education of Females in India and other Heathen Countries in Connection with the Missions of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1895, this group was updated to the Women's Mission Association for the Promotion of Female Education in the Missions of the SPG. As part of the inclusion of more women in this organization, Marie Elizabeth Hayes was accepted into the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1905. She served as a member of the Cambridge Mission to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

, India, where she is known for her notable work as a Christian Medical Missionary. Her leadership in the medical field promoted more women's leadership in the Society's mission activities. The promotion of women's leadership within the Society's overseas mission activities was championed for many years by Louise Creighton, also an advocate for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. At the peak of SPG missionary activity in India, between 1910 and 1930, more than 60 European women missionaries were at any one time employed in teaching, medical or senior administrative roles in the country. In Japan, Mary Cornwall Legh, working among

Hansen's disease Monster Beverage Corporation is an American beverage company that manufactures energy drinks including Monster Energy, Relentless and Burn. The company was originally founded as Hansen's in 1935 in Southern California, originally selling juice ...

sufferers at Kusatsu, Gunma. She was regarded as one of the most effective Christian missionaries to have served in the

Nippon Sei Ko Kai The ''Nippon Sei Ko Kai'' ( ja, 日本聖公会, translit=Nippon Seikōkai, lit=Japanese Holy Catholic Church), abbreviated as NSKK, sometimes referred to in English as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, is the national Christian church rep ...

. In China, Ethel Margaret Phillips (1876–1951) was an SPG medical missionary who constructed two hospitals, worked with the YWCA, and went on to establish a private practice.

Post-Second World War reorganization

The SPG, alongside the

Church Mission Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

(CMS), continued to be one of the leading agencies for evangelistic mission and relief work for the Churches of England,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and

in the decades following the Second World War. In the context of decolonization in Africa and India's independence in 1947, new models of global mission engagement between the interdependent member provinces of the Anglican Communion were required. In 1965 the SPG merged with the

(UMCA), and in 1968 with the Cambridge Mission to Delhi, to form the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). The Society found a new role in support of clergy training and in the movement of community development specialists, resources and ideas around the world church.

Notable churches and educational institutions

The list of SPG- and USPG-founded and sponsored church and educational institutions is geographically diverse. In some cases direct funding was supplied by the Society; in others SPG and USPG mission staff played prominent roles as founding ordained clergy, fundraisers, academic and administrative staff. Barbados *

, St. John (1745) Canada * St. Paul's Church (Halifax),

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

(1749) United States * Christ Church, Dover, Delaware (1704) *

Christ's Church, Rye Christ's Church, Rye (formerly Grace Church), is an Episcopal church in the Diocese of New York, located next to the Boston Post Road ( U.S. Route 1) in Rye in Westchester County, New York. Established in 1695, the parish is one of the oldest i ...

, New York (originally Grace Church) (1705) * St. Paul's Church (now known as

Old Narragansett Church Old Narragansett Church (also known as Old St. Paul's Church and St. Paul's Episcopal Church) is a historic Episcopal church located at 60 Church Lane in Wickford, Rhode Island, believed to be the oldest Episcopal church building in the Northe ...

Wickford, Rhode Island Wickford is a small village in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, which is named after Wickford in Essex, England. Wickford is located on the west side of Narragansett Bay, just about a 20-minute drive across two bridges f ...

(1706) *

Trinity Church on the Green Trinity Church on the Green or Trinity on the Green is a historic, culturally and community-active parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut in New Haven, Connecticut, of the Episcopal Church. It is one of three historic churches on the Ne ...

, New Haven, Connecticut (1723) New Zealand *

St John's College, Auckland The College of St John the Evangelist or St Johns Theological College, is the residential theological college of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The site at Meadowbank in Auckland is the base for theological educatio ...

(1843) Australia *

Trinity Church, Adelaide Trinity Church Adelaide, formerly known as Holy Trinity Church and later Trinity City, is an Australian evangelical Anglican church located at 88 North Terrace in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1836, it is one of the ...

(1836) South Africa *

Grahamstown Cathedral The Cathedral of St Michael and St George is the home of the Anglican Diocese of Grahamstown in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Grahamstown. The cathedral is located on Church ...

(1824) *

Diocesan College The Diocesan College (commonly known as Bishops) is a private, English medium, boarding and day high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The school was established on ...

, Cape Town (1849) Myanmar * St. John's College, Yangon (1863) Japan * St. Andrew's Cathedral, Tokyo (1879) * Shoin Junior & Senior High School, Kobe (1892) India *

Bishop's College, Calcutta Bishop's College, Calcutta is an Anglican educational establishment founded on 15th December 1820 at Sibpur by Thomas Fanshawe Middleton the first bishop of the Anglican diocese of Calcutta. The College was started in Shibpur, on the west ban ...

(1824) *

Holy Trinity Church, Idaiyangudi, Tamilnadu Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

(1880) *

St. Stephen's College, Delhi St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi, widely regarded as one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges for arts and sciences in India. It was established in 1881 by the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. The college ...

(1881) * St. John's Cathedral church,

Nazareth, Tamil Nadu Nazareth is a town in the Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Geography Nazareth is situated near the southern tip of the country. It was named by early Christian missionaries in memory of the city of Nazareth Israel, whe ...

* St. Michael and All Angels church, Mudalur, Tamil Nadu China * St. Faith's School, Beijing (1890) Ghana * Adisadel College (1910)

Current activities

The modern charity's work is devoted to increasing local churches' capacity to be agents of positive change in the communities that they serve. The United Society "seeks to advance Christian religion," but also to leverage and support local

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

church partners in their mission activities in a local community context. Project work includes community based health care provision for expectant mothers and for those suffering from HIV and

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

, as well as education and work skills training programs. The charity is also involved in the training and development of

lay and ordained church leaders and localized social advocacy on a diverse range of issues from gender based violence to climate change. The modern charity retains its strong funding and governance links with the

, the

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...

being the President of the charity. Projects in Africa still attract the largest percentage of the United Society's funding due to historic links and established endowments. In the financial year 2013, the charity supported church based initiatives in poverty relief, health, education and church leadership training in 20 different countries.

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

*
A collection of SPG-related missionary narrativesA Vocation to Mission - article on SPG by Canon Noel Titus (Churches Together in Britain and Ireland)

Records of the Society covering the years 1667-1803 are held at Lambeth Palace Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Uspg USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) Church of England missionary societies Christian charities based in the United Kingdom Development charities based in the United Kingdom Religious organizations established in 1701 Christian organizations established in the 18th century 1701 establishments in England