ABOUT

The Company of Mission Priests came into being in the early days of the Second World War. Sponsored by three Anglican Religious Communities and the Archbishop of Canterbury, its original purpose was to provide priests to care for evacuated populations in places where the usual level of housing and pay could not be made available. 
 
So these Mission Priests would have to be unmarried and willing to share accommodation, income and expenditure.  It was hoped that, after the war, these priests could serve on the great housing estates, where resources were few and the need for pastoral care and mission was great.

This was exactly what happened.  After the war CMP priests both in teams and individually served with distinction in some of most needy areas in Britain, and also overseas in Guyana, Madagascar and elsewhere.

Sadly, in the 1990s a crisis in the Church of England about the ordination of women led to a majority of CMP priests withdrawing from the Company to join the Roman Catholic Church.
 
To the minority remaining in the Church of England it might well have seemed that the Company’s life and work were effectively at an end.  But out of this sad situation came, by God’s grace, a new beginning, new life and growth as the Company adopted St Vincent de Paul as its secondary patron, and has grown into a close relationship with the worldwide Vincentian family of Religious Orders and organisations, deriving inspiration and guidance  from the pioneer work of St Vincent de Paul in mission, evangelism, and pastoral care.