Council for World Mission

The Council for World Mission is a worldwide partnership of Christian churches, comprising 36 denominations that share resources, people, skills, and insights globally and locally to accomplish and fulfill the Christian mission. The organization includes churches of Reformed and United tradition, many of which historically originated from the work of the London Missionary Society, the Commonwealth Missionary Society, and the Presbyterian Council for Missions.

History

Background

The CWM has its roots in the London Missionary Society, founded in 1795, the Commonwealth Missionary Society founded in 1836, and the Presbyterian Council for Missions, founded in 1847.
These three predecessor missionary organizations were constituted with the goal to evangelize regions such as the South Pacific, Africa, India, and China.
During the 20th century, the churches founded by these missions became autonomous, consolidating local identity and drawing attention to the need for a global missionary partnership based on equality between churches of the Global North and South.

Foundation (1977)

In 1977, the historic missions were reorganized as the Council for World Mission, with the aim of promoting missionary cooperation among partner churches, each considered both agent and recipient of God's mission. The international headquarters is located in Singapore, with regional offices in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Pacific, and Europe.
The member churches are represented by 144 delegates, four from each member church. The delegates elect the Moderator, Treasurer, and all members of the Board of Directors.
The member churches meet annually to approve any amendments to the Memorandum and Articles of Association, appoint the General Secretary and to admit or expel members upon the recommendation of the Board of Directors.

Organization and purpose

The CWM promotes:

Global missionary cooperation;
Strengthening solidarity between churches of the North and South;
Justice, peace, and integrity of creation;
Theological and missionary training in partnership with seminaries and universities.

The organization participates in the World Council of Churches and the meetings of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Although the CWM does not have formal membership status in the WCRC, 30 of its 36 member churches are also members of the WCRC, which is why the Council acts as a missionary partner to several of these denominations.

Members

In 2025, the organization had 36 members:

Programmes

The Council has four permanent programmes - financial sharing, personnel sharing, mission development and education, and communication - which give encouragement, provide training opportunities, share information and give practical help to the churches' mission programs.
Member churches carry out theological education, pastoral ministry, healthcare, counselling and community work. CWM offers training programmes, missiological research and scholarship to its members.
The ‘Partners in Mission’ programme works to share mission personnel between member churches.
The 'Face to Face' program offers theology students overseas placements of up to two months.
In 2008, CWM launched a partnership with St George's College to operate a temporary 'Face to Face' program in Israel. Partner countries for this programme include the US, Fiji, India and Zambia.