Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
Reverend Thomas Bray founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts (SPG) in 1701 as a missionary organization active in the British Atlantic in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries.
The SPG supported over four hundred overseas agents and focused on providing maintenance to orthodox clergy in the plantation & colonies.
The society was also instrumental in the long-term institutional development of the Church of England.
During the eighteenth century, the society's focus shifted to the Christianization
of Indigenous Peoples, as well as enslaved and free Africans and Black Americans.
Due to this “Christianization,” the society was responsible for converting many of
these individuals.
With the founding of the Church Missionary Society in 1799, the society's activities were, somewhat, limited from their original influence and
presence. However, the society, to this day, remains active worldwide. After 1965, it operated as the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG), and
it again rebranded in 2012 as the United Society.