Our History

The direct forebears of Church Society were Church Association and National Church League. For over 170 years we have been promoting biblical truth. We have never courted popularity but have sought to be faithful to God in the issues of each generation.

The Society developed the youth network CYFA and Pathfinders and for many years co-ordinated the work of Diocesan Evangelical Unions/Fellowships.   The Society's publishing work was carried out by Church Bookroom Press

Most of the great defenders of protestant Anglicanism in the 19th and 20th centuries were associated with the Society including Bishop Ryle, W.H.Griffith-Thomas, Philip Hughes and Jim Packer.

The original forebear of the Society was the Protestant Association hence the assertion once made by The Times that we are the 'senior evangelical body in the Church of England'.

Church Society family tree.

List of Secretaries of Church Society

Click here for link to various annual reports and journals of the bodies which made up Church Society, in particular the Protestant Association, Church Association and National Church League.                       

Articles relevant to Church Society's History

Churchman article on the first 100 years of Church Society journal Churchman

175 Years. Cross†Way article by David Phillips outlining the history of Church Society's forebears including the Church Association, Church Association Trust, Protestant Churchmen's Alliance, Protestant Association, Ladies League and the National Church League.

175 Years - Part 2. Cross†Way article by David Phillips. History of Church Society's forebears, includes the Prayer Book crises, publishing, Church Society and working with others.

A Sense of History - article on the history of Church Society magazine Cross†Way and its forebears.

Evangelicals, Anglicans and Ritualism in Victorian England. Churchman article by Nigel Scotland outlining the history of ritualism in the Church of England and Evangelical Opposition to it, including the founding of Church Association.

Dean Wace and the House - Outline of the life of Henry Wace whom the Church Society offices are named after. Cross†Way article by Arthur Pollard.

William Joynson-Hicks - Man of Principle. The 1st Viscount Brentford and Church Association laymen who led the opposition in parliament to the Revised Prayer Book of 1928. Cross†Way article by  David Samuel.

The work of the Church Association. Church Association Tract 159 by A. W. Christopher.

Documents

Whilst we still have some historical documents at Dean Wace House many of our old minutes and other papers have been deposited at Lambeth Palace Library.

A list of records held by the Library is available through A2A (Access to Archives).

Church Association Wycliffe Van from a postcard dated March 1907.

                               (Church Society present logo)