Church's Ministry Among Jewish People
The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) (formerly the London Jews' Society and the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews) is an
History
The society began in the early 19th century, when leading
Abbreviated forms such as the London Jews' Society or simply The Jews' Society were adopted for general use. The original agenda of the society was:[2]
- Declaring the Messiahship of Jesus to the Jew first and also to the non-Jew
- Endeavouring to teach the Church its Jewish roots
- Encouraging the physical restoration of the Jewish people to Eretz Israel - the Land of Israel
- Encouraging the Hebrew Christian/Messianic Jewish movement
The society's work began among the poor Jewish immigrants in the
The London Jews Society was the first such society to work on a global basis.[1] In 1836, two missionaries were sent to Jerusalem: Dr. Albert Gerstmann, a physician, and Melville Bergheim, a pharmacist, who opened a clinic that provided free medical services. By 1844, it had become a 24-bed hospital.[8]
In its heyday, the society had over 250 missionaries.
In 1863, the society purchased property outside the walls of the
In 1914, the society was described as
...the oldest, largest, richest, most enterprising, and best organized of its type, and has auxiliary societies throughout the British Isles and Canada. The society, whose income in 1900-01 was £46,338, with an expenditure of £36,910, employed at 52 missionary stations 199 workers, among them 25 clergymen, 19 physicians, 34 female missionaries, 20 lay missionaries, 35 colporteurs, 58 teachers, and 8 apothecaries. Of these, 82 were converts from Judaism. Of the 52 stations 18 are in England, 3 in Austria, 1 in France, 4 in Germany, 2 in the Netherlands, 1 in Italy, 4 in Rumania, 1 in Russia, 1 in Constantinople; in Asia there are 10 stations, among them Jerusalem with 27 workers; in Africa there are 7 stations. About 5,000 Jews have been baptized by the society since its foundation. Its principal organs are the Jewish Missionary Intelligence and the Jewish Missionary Advocate.[12]
In response to changing attitudes towards outreach and the Jewish people, the society has changed its name several times over the years, first to Church Missions to Jews, then The Church's Mission to the Jews, followed by The Church's Ministry Among the Jews, and finally to the current name of The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People, which was adopted in 1995.
The society's historic archives are stored by the Bodleian Library in Oxford and University College London.[13][14] Histories of the society were published in 1908 and 1991.[15][16]
Current activities
The organisation is one of the ten official mission agencies of the Church of England.[17] It currently has branches in the United Kingdom, Israel, Ireland, France, the US, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong and Australia.[18]
The organisation marked its bicentenary in 2009 with four special church services around the United Kingdom.[19]
Current issues
The missionary focus of CMJ attracts criticism from the Jewish community who regard such activities as highly detrimental to
In 1992, George Carey became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 150 years to decline to be the Patron of CMJ, a decision that was praised by Jewish leaders and reported as the front-page headline in The Jewish Chronicle.[21] Subsequent reports confirmed that the Archbishop, the most senior figure in the Anglican Church, did not wish to endorse the organisation's missionary work, which he felt was damaging to interfaith relations.[22][23][24]
In addition, CMJ has often adopted a
A further source of tension has been the unusual situation whereby the
See also
- Christian Restorationism
- Christian Zionism
- Christian Zionism in the United Kingdom
- Christianity and Judaism
- Christianity in the 19th century
- Evangelism
- Evangelicalism
- Hebrew Christian Movement
- Jewish Christians
- Mission (Christian)
- Percy Charles Edward d'Erf Wheeler
References
- ^ a b "CMJ-USA -". www.cmj-usa.org.
- ISBN 978-0-340-55805-8, p. 3
- ^ a b "CMJ UK - The Church's Ministry among Jewish People". www.cmj.org.uk.
- ^ "Bethnal Green - Cambridge Heath | A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11 (pp. 109-112)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ "AIM25 collection description". Aim25.ac.uk. 1930-04-01. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ "Catalogue". Moving Here. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ Cohn-Sherbok, Dan (2000). Messianic Judaism. Continuum. p. 16.
- ISBN 9781580461221– via Google Books.
- ^ Crombie, Kelvin (2006) A Jewish Bishop in Jerusalem: the life story of Michael Solomon Alexander. Jerusalem: Nicholayson's
- ^ "> CMJ Ministries > Christ Church > Overview". CMJ Israel. Archived from the original on 2010-02-26. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ "Anglican International School, Jerusalem". Archived from the original on 2009-05-24. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
- ^ Schaff, Philip (1914). The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. p. 177.
- ^ "Bodleian Library | Home". Bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ UCL library. "London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews".
- ^ W. T. Gidney (1908). The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.
- ISBN 978-0-340-55805-8.
- ^ "Mission Agencies working with the Church of England". Churchofengland.org. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ "CMJ UK : Partners". Cmj.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2013-10-23. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ [1] Archived April 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Levitt, Lee (1992-02-21). "Ex-Soviet Jews face missionary 'danger'". The Jewish Chronicle. London. p. 5.
..."The CMJ should be disbanded" he (Rabbi Shmiel Arkush) said.
- ^
Rocker, Simon (1992-03-13). "Carey is praised for cutting links with missionaries". The Jewish Chronicle. London. p. 1.
In a significant advance in Jewish-Christian relations, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, has defied the tradition of his predecessors by declining to become patron of the missionary Church's Ministry Among the Jews (CMJ). ... Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks called the move "a significant moment in the important challenge of encouraging trust between all the faith communities."
- ^ "Sharing one hope?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 June 2006.
- ^ "Huw Spanner - Interviews". Spannermedia.com. 1997-10-16. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^
Rocker, Simon (2002-04-26). "Carey rebuts claim of endorsement for missionary group". The Jewish Chronicle. London. p. 17.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, this week distanced himself from an advertisement placed by the Church's Ministry among Jewish People which suggested he approved of its missionary work. ... a Lambeth Palace spokesman made it clear that Dr Carey - who refused to become patron of the CMJ upon taking office - had not endorsed the organisation's missionary work.
- ISBN 9781107631960.
- ^ "Christian Zionism Defined". Cc-vw.org. Archived from the original on 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
- ^ a b Higton, Rev Tony. "A Response to Stephen Sizer's criticisms of CMJ and ITAC". Church's Ministry Among Jewish People. Archived from the original on 2006-03-07. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
Bibliography
- Gidney, W. T., Joseph Wolff, (Biographies of eminent Hebrew Christians), London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, 1903
- Perry, Yaron (2003). British Mission to the Jews in Nineteenth-Century Palestine. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-8385-X
- Lewis, Donald M. The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury and Evangelical Support for a Jewish Homeland, Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-521-51518-4
- Villani, Stefano, “Christianus Lazarus Lauria e l’attività della London Society for the Propagation of Christianity among the Jews in Italia,” Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi 34/1 (2017), pp. 199-228
External links
- CMJ UK website
- CMJ Israel website
- CMJ Ireland website
- CMJ USA website
- CMJ Canada website
- CMJ South Africa (Messiah's People) website
- CMJ Australia, New Zealand, and India website
- CMJ France website
- CMJ Hong Kong website
- Report on activities of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews, 1844
- Bookplate of the library of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (Rare Books of the Shimeon Brisman Collection in Jewish Studies, Washington University)