Overseas Mission, Voluntary Service and Aid to Africa: Max Warren, the Church Missionary Society and Kenya, 1945–63

Abstract

At the end of the Second World War the Church Missionary Society (CMS) embarked upon a retrenchment programme. Its general secretary, Canon Max Warren, wanted the CMS to adapt to post-war conditions, in Britain and overseas. However, it proved difficult to implement change especially in Kenya: local representatives of Protestant missions and churches were determined to contribute to government plans for African education. Subsequently they also encouraged church and mission participation in official programmes for the 'rehabilitation' of Mau Mau detainees. At the same time those representatives, with their counterparts in the UK, planned and implemented a major fund-raising and aid initiative to support both 'rehabilitation' and detainees' dependants. Warren meanwhile became involved in the founding of Oversea Service, a lay Christian initiative that attracted interest and support within the Colonial Office. With particular reference to contemporary ideas about mission, voluntary service and overseas aid from Britain, this article examines the complex interplay between missions, church and government in an African colony and in the imperial capital, London.In October 1953 a headquarters official of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) summed up the challenges faced by missions in colonial Africa, and particularly in Kenya. Bernard Nicholls was the CMS information officer, broadly responsible for what would now be termed media affairs. Nicholls wrote:To-day Conservatives, Liberals, Labour and Communists, and innumerable associations and pressure groups, including the whole phalanx of international agencies, vie with each other for the reputation of being the biggest and best champions of the interests and true welfare of the under-privileged peoples. Many people's livelihoods and much [sic] vested interests are concerned in this struggle.