| Activity | In 1951 work in mainland China was closed and in 1957 CMS amalgamated with the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (working mainly in India). As a result, the work-load of the East and West Asia Secretaries was so uneven that it was decided to merge the two committees. From September 1957 there was one Asia Committee served by a Secretary for Asia and Egypt.
The two committees, Africa and Asia, continued to be responsible for the administration of the overseas work of the Society until 1973. A working group to examine the committee structure of CMS was set up in 1969 and its proposals for re-organisation were approved by General Committee and brought into effect in September 1972. Under that re-organisation a new committee, the Mission Operations Committee (from 1980 Mission Overseas Committee) was charged with the overall direction of the Society's work overseas.
In 1981-1983 the Society re-organised the entire pattern of committees, changing from a hierarchical to a grid system. The Mission Overseas Committee met for the last time in May 1981 and its work was replaced by Regional Groups each of which supported a Regional Secretary. |