The church has had strong links to overseas Christian mission, with Rev. Henry Wright beginning an enduring link with the Church Missionary Society, donations to missionary societies forming the largest item of expenditure annually from the earliest church records (1872) until World War I, and various ministers involved in overseas missionary work, including Douglas Butcher (1957–1960, was Honorary Canon of Cairo cathedral and later returned to the Middle East), Douglas Paterson (1962–1965, later joined the Ruanda Mission) and Kenneth Howell (1972–1979, earlier first Bishop of Chile, Bolivia and Peru).
