ABSTRACT
Modern Christian missionary work in non-European regions was characterized by various processes of communication and interaction in which two groups of actors, the European missionaries and the local workers, each with their own social, religious and ethnic backgrounds, were linked in their daily work and dependent on one another. The fundamental goals and the methods of work of a mission society were generally laid down at its foundation in the form of statutes and regulations. The missionaries also organized special training programmes for the local employees in different spheres of work. The Danish governor Peter Anker expressly asked the missionaries for suggestions on the organization of this sphere. 'The missionaries, and those they use to run the Mission, can best judge what constitutes depravity and how such people are to be punished or prevented, since they are the best-informed about the conditions, needs and necessary rules of a mission.'.
