CMS and Africa to help Revive Britain

The Church Mission Society (CMS) is joining with one of the world's largest Pentecostal churches to call more of Britain's Africans to missions.

CMS is a mission agency that works together with churches in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It was established in 1799, and they proclaim their Society's goal remains to spread the Gospel to every part of the world.

CMS's Chairman, Rt Revd David Urquhart, who was converted in Africa, gave testimony on the main stage at the Festival of Life in Docklands recently, which was been billed as 'the biggest prayer gathering in Europe'.

Seventeen thousand people gathered at the ExCel venue in Docklands for a night of prayer and testimony. The line-up also included Mike Pilavachi of Soul Survivor and Jeremy Jennings of Holy Trinity Brompton.

The General Overseer Pastor Enoch Adeboye, who led the worship, explains: "Anglicans brought Christianity to us (in Africa) and now it is time to reap what they sowed."

"We believe God wants us to come and bring about a major revival in Britain. That may sound a bit funny, saying that we are coming from Africa to bring revival to Europe, but I believe it is God's way of bringing back to Britain what they sowed. This is a love harvest."

Adeboye became leader of the church in 1980, and the church now boasts 6,000 parishes in over 90 countries. A doctor of mathematics, Adeboye had been a member of the church for just two years, when the founder had a vision about who his successor would be.

The church will now boast perhaps the largest single Christian gathering on the planet, when two million people meet at 'the Holy Ghost Congress' outside Lagos to pray and seek God.

"In Nigeria, tobacco companies are closing down. Breweries say they make more money from soft drinks than from alcohol," says Adeboye as testimony to the revival he believes can also be brought to Britain.

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1. Furah Bay College founded in 1827 by CMS. It was the first sub-saharan African university.

2. Furah Bay College founded in 1827 by CMS. It was the first sub-saharan African university.

3. Libyan-trained insurgents manipulated illiterate village boys with drugs and guns and nearly destroyed Sierra Leone. Now rebuilt with help of CMS, churches and church-run schools offer an alternative future based on forgiveness and hope.