Kabare to Cambridge: Kings Family CMS Link Letter 16, April 1991
by Graham Kings
Date added: 18/01/2026
Only one of the four candidates was wearing his pyjama trousers in the interviews. They were underneath my suit! I had come from the hottest February in Kenya for 30 years to the coldest in England for four years, and on the day of the interview in Cambridge it snowed.
From January 1992, I will be the Henry Martyn Lecturer in Missiology (ie Mission Studies) in the Cambridge Federation of Theological Colleges. We thank God for this new post, which will involve setting up and teaching a joint course in the Methodist, United Reformed and two Anglican colleges.
The other aspect of the job is pastoral work amongst undergraduates, encouraging them to be involved in overseas mission. This ministry will be based at the Henry Martyn Hall, next to Holy Trinity Church, where I will also be an honorary curate.
Who then was this Henry Martyn? He was a brilliant linguist missionary who died tragically in 1812 at the age of 31 in the middle of Turkey – en route home to England, having translated the New Testament into Urdu, Persian and Arabic. Most of his work was completed in India and his detailed, very personal, journal is a classic of evangelical spirituality, revealing an almost monastic self-discipline, inner questioning and great zeal for God.
In 1881, at the centenary of his birth, senior academics and churchmen in Cambridge, where he had won the top maths prize, set up the Henry Martyn Trust and built the Hall in 1887. In 1981 the Hall was extended with offices and a library, and an overseas advisor, John Cooper, was appointed. Now the trust has set up this new lectureship in mission studies and I will also be working closely with John.
When then do we leave Kabare? Near the end of October this year after seven years here. We will have November in London, with Alison’s parents, and move to Cambridge in December.
Who will replace us here? We thank God for providing Dr Ben Knighton, his wife Glenys and baby daughter, Rachel. They are also CMS Mission Partners and Ben happens to come from Chelmsford Diocese, so that link will continue to be strong. They arrive at the end of April, so we have a long period of handing over. Before their marriage, Ben was a Mission Partner in Uganda and Glenys in Paraguay.
Other items of news:
- Rosalind and Miriam’s school last month celebrated 60 years since its foundation. Ros has learnt to ride a horse.
- Alison’s mother will be visiting us for three weeks after Christmas.
- Building work on the new two-storey library is on schedule and should be complete by October.
- Our Diploma in Theology results last year were very encouraging. We had the top two students in the country.
- Remember to listen to three programmes on the Anglican Communion on Radio 3 during the week 15-19 April. David Edwards, the Provost of Southwark Cathedral and Church Historian, will be introducing the programmes. He was here for five days at the end of February recording interviews and music with BBC producer, Norman Winter.
- My poem, ‘The Image of Her Father’, which was part of our Link Letter 14, was published in the January 1991 edition of the International Review of Mission.
- I have recently had to write a liturgy for the dedication of a British cemetery in Pointe Noire, Congo Brazaville, West Africa: I enclose a copy of some of the prayers.
- In April, I will have two days in the Vatican Archives en route to six days preaching in Reformed Churches in Yugoslavia, before a six-day International Conference of Mission in the same country.
Thank you for your prayers for us and for the Institute. Please also remember the needs of CMS as it seeks to share in God’s mission in a very difficult financial climate. How about increasing your own, and your church’s, giving to mission through CMS? May he who gave all on Good Friday give you his blessing this Easter.
