Our history

Manchester City Mission was founded in April 1837. The first Chairman, Isaac Crewdson, gathered a group of Christian men from the Manchester area to form an evangelical organisation based on the newly-founded ‘City Missions’ which were flourishing in other major cities.

The purpose of Manchester City Mission was to unite all Christians within the city with the end aim of proclaiming the good news. The need was great. The population of the Manchester area was growing rapidly due to the industrial revolution. Families struggled with poor quality housing and were poorly fed. The daily grind of work and poverty left little desire for God.

By the end of its first year, MCM had received gifts of £1,800 and had engaged 29 missionaries to visit ‘districts’ of 400 families each, to present the Gospel once a month, and offer spiritual, physical and material support from a ‘Poor Fund’. Like today, the missionaries met with people at the point of their need. By 1860 MCM had 88 missionaries, including Deaconesses, whose task it was to ‘advance the domestic welfare and spiritual instruction of the most degraded and destitute, especially women’

In the late 1800s there was an emphasis on developing ‘house’ or ‘cottage’ meetings which naturally led to the building of Mission Halls, unfortunately much of the history of MCM was lost when the Deansgate headquarters were destroyed in the Blitz of 1940/41. Following the war MCM flourished, and the missionaries and Mission Halls provided much spiritual guidance and support for many families. ‘Telephone Church’ was developed providing Christian messages over the phone and some of the Mission Halls opened ‘Coffee Bars’ to reach out to their neighbours.

As the local authorities committed to slum clearance through the 1960s-1980s, many MCM properties were demolished and rebuilt, consolidation of some halls took place and led to the building of The Windsor Christian Centre in Salford, as the headquarters of Manchester City Mission. Some halls went on to become independent and with time some closed.

The 1980s saw town centre evangelism develop and in 1993 the then executive of MCM felt that God was calling them back to its roots to ‘engage in front line evangelism in ways that are relevant and effective for the age in which we live.’ MCM took the Gospel to Prisons, Market stalls, Docklands, and doorsteps.

The 21^st century has seen current MCM Director, Terry Durose, introduce the concept of three basic values for all MCM projects. Incarnation, Compassion and Proclamation which underpins our work as we deliver the message of the gospel through various projects working with: homeless people, the street population, prison inmates, the impoverished, the inadequately housed, the hungry and more recently supporting local churches to reach their Muslim community. MCM has also become a Digital Inclusion Hub and advocate for ACTS 435.

Over the last few years a number of projects have come and gone, however, Manchester City Mission remains agile and true to its core values, serving our city with Compassion, Incarnation and Proclamation.

Please visit our News and Projects tabs to read about our recent work, current projects, testimonies and news!