The Church of England and Messianics

The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, is the true start point for Messianic "Judaism." In the 1800's, the Church of England was trying to convert Jews to Christianity. The problem is that even when Jews converted, they still would not attend church. So, the Church of England wanted a way to convert Jews and make it more likely they would attend church. They created a movement called Hebrew Christianity and a movement organization called the Hebrew-Christian Alliance and Prayer Union. Today, the Hebrew Christianity movement is now generally known as Messianic "Judaism."

The Church of England started it's modern Jewish evangelism when it started the London Society for Promotion of Christianity Amongst the Jews in 1809. The London Society later changed it's name to Church's Ministry Among the Jewish People (CMJ). The Church of England has never stopped it's activities in converting Jews and continues it's activities in the Messianic movement as a method of converting Jews to Christianity.

Currently, there are CMJ branches in the UK, Ireland, USA, South Africa, Australia and Israel. As an example of their Messianic work, CMJ branches are very involved in Israel. They sponsor the Christ Church Ministry Centre in Jerusalem which houses a Messianic congregation. Also in Jerusalem, they sponsor the Anglican International School which runs three Messianic schools. Beit Immanuel Ministry Centre is the CMJ Tel Aviv Messianic congregation. CMJ Israel also runs the Emmanuel Bookshop, which has plenty of Messianic wares. CMJ Ireland advertises that it has church planter training in Poland and the Ukraine, with the hopes that the trainees will run congregations for them.

To get an idea of just how much the Church of England wants to convert Jews, let us look at the financials of the UK branch of CMJ. CMJ UK spent £968,576, which is equivalent to more than $1.6 million (£1 = $1.6586), in 2007. They also have more than $2.6 million in assets. That is an incredible amount of money to convert the Jews, particularly when you consider that this is just the UK branch of CMJ, not all branches of CMJ.

Overall, The Church of England is the founder of the Messianic movement and one of it's principal sponsors, particularly in Israel.