SWEDISH MISSIOLOGICAL THEMES SVENSK MISSIONSTIDSKRIFT

498 Tormod Engelsviken
CMS looked upon missionary service as a ministry that required episcopal
ordination. The famous mission leader Henry Venn entertained, however,
the thought of a special ordination for people who were to serve “overseas”
since preaching for people at “a low stage of civilisation” did not require
the social and educational qualifications that clergymen in the British society
needed. The problem was, however, that those who were ordained for
ministry overseas could not be prevented from eventually returning home
to England! 46 Missionary service appealed also to lay people, and it soon
became obvious that lay people could perform many important tasks as
missionaries, even serving as evangelists and teachers if they could not be
pastors. Some of the more Low Church mission societies as the Baptist and
the LMS did not have the same ecclesiastical requirements as the CMS.
Walls argues that three factors “gradually eroded the clerical norm of the
missionary”. 47 The first one was the growth of new professions. The leaders
of the large mission hospitals that were established were most often medical
specialists, and the pastors and evangelists working in the hospital were
serving under the leader of the hospital. Moreover, the number of nurses
and other medical personnel in the employment of the missions increased
compared to those who were working in directly evangelistic or church
planting ministries. Also the educational institutions received increased
independence as they grew bigger, reached a higher level and gained more
prestige. Teachers had for a long time been part of the mission, but then
serving largely under the clerical missionaries. Towards the end of the
nineteenth century a great number of well educated teachers and other
professionals with university education entered the mission fields, not least
as a result of the great mission revival among students.
The second, and even more important factor was the increasing number of
female missionaries. By the end of the nineteenth century the women had
changed completely the face of the mission movement due to their number.
Including the missionary wives the women comprised two thirds of the
total missionary force, and this preponderance of women has lasted until
today. The missions gave opportunities for women that they often lacked
in their own countries and churches. One example may suffice: In 1900,
there were 41 American mission societies for women supporting 1,200
46 Walls 2002:223
47 Walls 2002:228-235