Founded | 1947 1998 (charitable company) | (bible school)
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Founder | Major W. Ian Thomas |
Type | Registered as a British charity and a private company, limited by guarantee with no share capital |
Registration no. | Company number 03573958 Charity number 1073139 |
Location |
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Coordinates | 54°08′37″N2°41′47″W / 54.1436°N 2.6963°W |
Area served | UK / World |
Method | Short-term Bible schools Residential holidays and conferences |
Key people | Julie Burrows (company secretary) Derek Burnside (Bible school principal) Dougie Roy (holiday and events manager) |
Subsidiaries | Capernwray Parkland Farm Ltd (responsible for the running of the farm and estate of Capernwray Hall) |
Revenue | £1.545m (2022) [1] |
Employees | 30 |
Volunteers | 20 to 50 |
Website | www |
The Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers is an autonomous body but is part of a broader fellowship known as Torchbearers International . |
The Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers (CMFOT), is an evangelical Christian educational organisation based at Capernwray Hall in north Lancashire, England. In 1998 the organisation was incorporated as a UK charitable company.
CMFOT was founded by Major W. Ian Thomas in 1947. Other centres have since been established around the world and together form a worldwide fellowship known as Torchbearers International, with headquarters at Ravencrest Chalet, Estes Park, Colorado, USA.
Torchbearers International works by providing a number of Bible schools and Christian conference centres on the world.
CMFOT's founder, Major W. Ian Thomas (1914-2007), was an evangelical teacher and has often been identified with the Keswick Convention ministry. The main thrust of his theology is that of the exchanged life or 'Christ in You'. [2] Major Thomas' sons have continued from their father in the wider organisation. Mark Thomas was the managing director at Capernwray Hall, Chris Thomas was the International Director and Director at Ravencrest, Colorado, United States and Peter Thomas is director at Capernwray New Zealand and Moss Vale, Australia.
Capernwray was first used as a Bible School in Autumn 1947, to meet a demand for Bible teaching from the many new converts from holiday conferences held at the Hall. The school has matured and grown over the years and now has intakes each Winter and Spring, to a capacity of around 190 students, from sometimes as many as 30 different nations. During the Summer, Easter and Christmas breaks the facilities are used for Christian conferences and holidays.
Capernwray initially started off as a Christian holiday centre and this activity continues to be a vital part of the ministry today. The holidays currently on offer cater for a mixed age range of young people, families and a cross-section of adults. Guests come from around the United Kingdom and from overseas, including many from Germany, still maintaining a link that goes back more than 60 years. [3]
The Torchbearers centres, which are now scattered around the world, are international and interdenominational by nature. [4]
The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is an association of evangelical denominations, organizations, schools, churches and individuals, member of the World Evangelical Alliance. The association represents more than 45,000 local churches from about 40 different denominations and serves a constituency of millions. The mission of the NAE is to honor God by connecting and representing evangelicals in the United States.
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Capernwray Hall is a former country house situated 3 miles east-northeast of Carnforth, Lancashire, England, and is currently used as a Christian Bible school and holiday centre. The house is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It stands in grounds included in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade II.
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W. Ian Thomas was an evangelist, Christian evangelical writer, theological teacher and founder of the Torchbearers Bible schools.
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D. Stuart Briscoe was an evangelical Christian author, international speaker and senior pastor of Elmbrook Church, in Brookfield, Wisconsin, United States. Elmbrook is the largest church in Wisconsin, averaging 7,000 in attendance per week, making it one of the 100-largest churches in the United States. Briscoe is credited with transforming Elmbrook from a church of 300 members to one of the largest churches in America.
The Japan Evangelistic Band (JEB), or 'Kyodan Nihon Dendo Tai' (日本伝道隊) in Japanese, is an evangelical Christian group founded in England in 1903 with the original aim to "initiate and sustain evangelistic work among Japanese wherever they are found". Within thirty years the organisation grew to 180 workers from many countries, but most of them from Japan. The JEB's primary field was the Kansai region of South West Japan and the island of Shikoku but missionaries worked among Japanese living on the West Coast of Canada and the USA, and in the UK. In 1999 the organisation in the UK adopted the name Japan Christian Link for their operations in the UK, while work in Japan continue under the name of JEB.
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