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Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today June 2 – 6, 2010

a report submitted to: World Council of Churches

Echos – Commision on Youth in the Ecumenical Movement

contents collated by: Mr Jec Dan S. Borlado

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INTRODUCTION

One hundred years ago in this city,

men and women who were engaged in mission

came together from every part of the globe.

As they told their stories and prayed for each other,

they were surprised by the Spirit with a moment of inspiration,

when they glimpsed a vision of a united church

speaking with one voice the name of Christ,

and saw within grasp a world won for the gospel.

Now in a different age,

where violence and injustice still prevail,

where Christian witness is still fragmented,

and where secular forces mass against the gospel,

we gather to pray for a new moment of vision,

for new energy, fresh inspiration, and new resources

for witnessing to Christ today.

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2010 Global Prayer

God of Grace,

Your love flows in abundance through Your

world.

You have come close, touched our pain,

and fired our hearts with hope.

As now we give You thanks,

and celebrate Your mission

to reconcile, heal and transform,

fill us with your irrepressible Sprit of love

made known among us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Edinburgh 2010 Backgrounder - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - page 6 a. About Edinburgh 2010 b. Edinburgh 2010 Study Process c. Study Themes and Transversals

d. The General Council II. The Common Call - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - page 11 III. Learning and Insight a. Megan O‟Callahan (page 14) b. Anastasia Vassiliadou (page 16)

c. Jose Lopez Vazquez (page 18) d. Aaron Hollander (page 20) e. Andrew Thompson (page 21)

IV. A Selection of Youth Contributions a. The Winning Essay (page 24) b. Book Reviews (page 33) c. A Speech at the Scottish Parliament (page 38)

d. A Speech on Youth, Mission, and Power (page 39) e. A Creative Multimedia Contribution (page 43)

V. Liturgical Resources a. Worship Resources (page 47) b. Foreword: The Stations of the Cross of Globalization (page 51)

VI. Online Links & Resources - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - page 54 a. Edinburgh 2010: Youth Perspectives b. Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today c. Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today – a Facebook Group

d. Twitter: Edinburgh2010 e. Generation 2010: a Post Edinburgh2010 Facebook Group f. WCC Mission and Unity: Edinburgh 2010

g. WCC Echos – Commission on Youth and the Ecumenical Movement h. Luiz Coelho

VII. Youth Delegates - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - page 59 VIII. From the Youth Coordinator - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - page 61 IX. Pictures - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - page 64 X. Acknowledgements - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - page 72

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I. Edinburgh

2010 Backgrounder

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About Edinburgh 20101 The Centenary of the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh

1910, is a suggestive moment for many people seeking direction for

Christian mission in the 21st century. The initial driving force behind

Edinburgh 2010 was the Towards 2010 network under the

leadership of Prof. Ken Ross. Since 2005 an international group has worked collaboratively to develop an intercontinental and multi-

denominational project, now known as Edinburgh 2010. The project is

based at New College and the Church of Scotland offices in Edinburgh,

and headed by an International Director, Dr. Daryl Balia. It is

governed by a 20 member General Council representative of most of

the Christian family.

Edinburgh 2010 Study Process

Essential to the work of the Edinburgh 1910 Conference, and of

abiding value, were the findings of the eight think-tanks or

"commissions". These inspired the idea of a new round of collaborative reflection on Christian mission - but now focused on nine study

themes and seven transversal themes identified as being key to

mission in the 21st century. The study process is polycentric, open-

ended, and as inclusive as possible of the different genders, regions of

the world, and theological and confessional perspectives in today's

church. Follow the link to find out more about the Edinburgh 2010 Study Process.

1 http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/about-edinburgh-2010.html

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Different from 1910 In important ways the celebration of Edinburgh 2010 and the process

leading towards it will be different from the Edinburgh 1910 Conference.

Rather than being centred in Edinburgh, a polycentric

approach is being taken, both for the study process

and for 2010 events which will take place in many

locations around the world including Edinburgh.

Whereas 1910 was confined to mainline

Protestantism, the participants in 2010 are drawn

from the whole range of Christian traditions and

confessions, including Roman Catholic, Orthodox,

Pentecostal, and Independent Churches, and show a

better gender and age balance.

Instead of being confined to the North Atlantic, there

is an intentional bias to the South, recognising that

Christianity's centre of gravity has moved markedly

southwards during the past century. The process aims

to be truly worldwide in its scope.

Intended Outcomes of Edinburgh 2010

Churches will be provided with an opportunity to

celebrate what God has done in the growth of the

Church worldwide over the past century and to

prayerfully commit to God the witness of the churches

in the 21st century.

The biblical call to mission will be affirmed and

articulated within our contemporary contexts with

particular focus on the meaning of evangelization and

relevance of Christian witness today.

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A key conversation on mission will be initiated with

mission leaders from the older mission movements of

the North and the new mission movements from the

South and East, with dialogues held among

representatives of different Christian traditions.

Guidelines will be developed and studies published to

help church and mission leaders evaluate for their own

situation models of mission which are proving effective

elsewhere.

Networks will be mobilized and alliances formed so as

to develop greater strategic collaboration and greater

synergy in fulfilling the mission mandate.

Based on a critical assessment of the status of the

world, a new vision of God's purposes for creation in

Christ and a renewed spirituality and mission ethos will

be developed in the life of the churches worldwide.

Centenary celebrations of witnessing to Christ today

will be held throughout the world - with the Assembly

Hall in Edinburgh, again, being the venue on 6 June

2010 for the historic celebration involving over 1000

delegates.

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Study themes 1. Foundations for mission

2. Christian mission among other faiths

3. Mission and post-modernities

4. Mission and power

5. Forms of missionary engagement

6. Theological education and formation

7. Christian communities in contemporary

contexts

8. Mission and unity - ecclesiology and

mission

9. Mission spirituality and authentic

discipleship

Transversals 1. Women and mission

2. Youth and mission

3. Healing and reconciliation

4. Bible and mission - mission in the Bible

5. Contextualization, inculturation and dialogue

of worldviews

6. Subaltern voices

7. Ecological perspectives on mission

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Members of the Edinburgh 2010 General Council (July 2009)

Dr. Des van der Water, Council for World Mission*

Rev. Canon Edgar Ruddock, Churches Together in Britain and

Ireland

Ms. Jet den Hollander, World Alliance of Reformed Churches

Rev. Roger Schmidt, Lutheran World Federation

Mrs. Rose Dowsett, World Evangelical Alliance*

Dr. Cathy Ross, International Association for Mission Studies

Rev. Blair Carlson, Lausanne Committee for World

Evangelisation*

Ms. Ruth Padilla-De Borst, Latin American Theological Fellowship*

Rev. Andrew Anderson, Church of Scotland*#

Dr. Ganoune Diop, Seventh Day Adventist Church

Dr. Julie Ma, Asian Pentecostal Society*

Ms. Maria Aranzazu Aguado Arrese, Roman Catholic Church

Rev. John Kafwanka, Anglican Communion*

Prof. Petros Vassiliadis, Orthodox Churches

Baptist World Alliance

Ms. Anastasia Vasileiadou , World Council of Churches*

Prof. Joseph Otubu, African Independent Churches

Bishop Heinrich Bolleter, World Methodist Council

Rev. Michael Wallace, World Student Christian Federation*#

Femi Adeleye, International Fellowship of Evangelical Students

* denotes member of the Executive Committee

# denotes Chairpersons

Former members of the Edinburgh 2010 General Council

Bill Slack, Baptist World Alliance

Ms. Nayiri Baljian, World Council of Churches

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II. The Common Call Edinburgh 2010

June 6, 2010 As we gather for the centenary of the World Missionary Conference of Edinburgh 1910, we believe the church, as a sign and symbol of the reign of God, is called to witness to Christ today by sharing in God‟s mission of love through the

transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

1. Trusting in the Triune God and with a renewed sense of urgency, we are called to incarnate and proclaim the good news of salvation, of forgiveness of sin, of life in abundance, and of liberation for all poor and oppressed. We are

challenged to witness and evangelism in such a way that we are a living demonstration of the love, righteousness and justice that God intends for the whole world.

2. Remembering Christ‟s sacrifice on the Cross and his resurrection for the

world‟s salvation, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are called to authentic dialogue, respectful engagement and humble witness among people of other faiths – and no faith – to the uniqueness of Christ. Our approach is marked with

bold confidence in the gospel message; it builds friendship, seeks reconciliation and practises hospitality.

3. Knowing the Holy Spirit who blows over the world at will, reconnecting creation and bringing authentic life, we are called to become communities of

compassion and healing, where young people are actively participating in mission, and women and men share power and responsibilities fairly, where there is a new zeal for justice, peace and the protection of the environment, and

renewed liturgy reflecting the beauties of the Creator and creation.

4. Disturbed by the asymmetries and imbalances of power that divide and trouble us in church and world, we are called to repentance, to critical reflection on systems of power, and to accountable use of power structures. We are called

to find practical ways to live as members of One Body in full awareness that God resists the proud, Christ welcomes and empowers the poor and afflicted, and the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested in our vulnerability.

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5. Affirming the importance of the biblical foundations of our missional

engagement and valuing the witness of the Apostles and martyrs, we are called to rejoice in the expressions of the gospel in many nations all over the world. We celebrate the renewal experienced through movements of migration and mission

in all directions, the way all are equipped for mission by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and God‟s continual calling of children and young people to further the gospel.

6. Recognising the need to shape a new generation of leaders with authenticity

for mission in a world of diversities in the twenty-first century, we are called to work together in new forms of theological education. Because we are all made in the image of God, these will draw on one another‟s unique charisms, challenge

each other to grow in faith and understanding, share resources equitably worldwide, involve the entire human being and the whole family of God, and respect the wisdom of our elders while also fostering the participation of

children.

7. Hearing the call of Jesus to make disciples of all people – poor, wealthy, marginalised, ignored, powerful, living with disability, young, and old – we are called as communities of faith to mission from everywhere to everywhere. In joy

we hear the call to receive from one another in our witness by word and action, in streets, fields, offices, homes, and schools, offering reconciliation, showing

love, demonstrating grace and speaking out truth. 8. Recalling Christ, the host at the banquet, and committed to that unity for

which he lived and prayed, we are called to ongoing co-operation, to deal with controversial issues and to work towards a common vision. We are challenged to welcome one another in our diversity, affirm our membership through baptism in

the One Body of Christ, and recognise our need for mutuality, partnership, collaboration and networking in mission, so that the world might believe.

9. Remembering Jesus‟ way of witness and service, we believe we are called by God to follow this way joyfully, inspired, anointed, sent and empowered by the

Holy Spirit, and nurtured by Christian disciplines in community. As we look to Christ‟s coming in glory and judgment, we experience his presence with us in the Holy Spirit, and we invite all to join with us as we participate in God‟s

transforming and reconciling mission of love to the whole creation.

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III. Learning

and Insight

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Learning and Insight by Megan O’Callaghan

Reflections on Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today

A Snapshot The Edinburgh 2010 conference was and will remain in my memory as a special moment in my ecumenical journey. It was an honour to be selected as a delegate of the World Council of

Churches to attend this historic event and overall, it was a really positive experience. As with other ecumenical events, the diversity of people at this centenary conference stood out and was to be celebrated. Unlike the 1910 conference – a wide range of cultures, denominations and traditions were present from many countries (including the Catholic church and Pentecostal

movements). While of course we did not all hold the same view of what Christian mission means at this critical point in time, the mere fact that it was possible to come with a “Common Call” itself was a visible reminder that as Christians there is much we are now prepared to say

together about mission. A spirit of celebration undergirded the whole event – from the opening ceremony in the Southall, through the uplifting chants from the small countries of the world led by John Bell from the Iona Community to the closing ceremony in the historic General Assembly

Hall on the Mound in central Edinburgh where Archbishop John Sentamu challenged us to be bold in sharing and living out the Christian message in today‟s world. I was refreshed that amidst the celebrations, there was an honest recognition that to have integrity as witnesses to

Christ, we must recognise our need for God‟s forgiveness of our own weaknesses and failings – the divisions between our congregations, the lack of voices of some parts of the body of Christ (such as women and youth), and missionary practices in the past which have been abusive and

destructive. Plenary sessions

The three plenary sessions were the opportunity for several perspectives on various parts of the theme to be shared. Highlights included Professor Dana Roberts‟ address in the opening plenary “Mission in the Long Perspective” where she looked at key milestones in the ecumenical

movement since 1910, Bishop Coorilos form South India urging us to name our own demons which divide us and cast them out, Tony Kireopoulos lamenting the lack of support for some Christians for those who engage in mission in different ways to and insights from reflectors –

young Greek theologian Anastasia Vassiliadou who emphasised that while we might not quite understand each other at times the important thing is that we are engaged in mission together and Vinoth Ramachandra of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students who urged for

more of an emphasis on the role of laity in mission. Parallel Sessions

I was involved in the parallel sessions for Theme 1: Foundations for Mission, Theme 8: Mission and Unity and Theme 9: Mission Spirituality and Authentic Discipleship. These sessions were designed to build on the study process leading up to Edinburgh 2010 and provided real opportunities to share in small groups and particularly to hear the voices from transversal

perspectives (such as youth, Bible and mission, people with disabilities, indigenous peoples). I particularly enjoyed the session on mission spirituality and authentic discipleship as we

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considered what sustains and motivates us in our faith. As always at these events, the time was short so there wasn‟t too much opportunity to get deeply into the topics but I‟m pleased

there will be more publications coming out which will explore the various themes and hopefully, encourage people to continue in dialogue.

Final thoughts Only time will tell if Edinburgh 2010 will have as significant an impact on Christian mission and the world as the 1910 Conference did. I hope that it will inspire a broader group of Christian

traditions to actively seek more opportunities to share, support and strengthen one another as they participate in God‟s mission in multiple contexts in their own ways. For me, I will take away the snippets of conversations with new friends, the sounds of over 300 people

worshipping together to the rhythm of an African drum, and the memories of Scottish hospitality and dancing at the celidh and a sense of renewed faith that, despite our differences and varied contexts, we as Christians can stand together to be authentic witnesses to Christ today.

** Megan O'Callaghan is a Lawyer by profession, currently working and residing in London, England. She is from the Anglican Church in Aotearoa – New Zealand and Polynesia. She serves as a commissioner of the World Council of Church Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. She is also a member of Echos - Commission on Youth in the Ecumenical Movement. She attended Edinburgh 2010 as an official delegate of the World Council of Churches.

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Learning and Insight by Anastasia Vasileiadou

Reflection: on the Centenary of Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference We have gathered here in Edinburgh these days to celebrate the 100 years from that first World Missionary Conference, to reflect and to pray together. To rejoice for what has been achieved all these years with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, to repent for things we have done when we failed to listen to the Spirit, and to ask for a renewed energy and look together for a renewed vision of the mission of the Church. We have heard more than once these days that we have come a long way in the last 100 years. And it is true; from Evangelization of the whole world, to witnessing to Christ in humility. What is to be celebrated above all is the uniqueness of this event. And I would like to congratulate and thank the organizers, the stakeholders, the General Council, those who contributed to the Study process in one way or another, the hosting churches and the staff, for believing in this common celebration and working so hard for it, often against all odds. For the first time so many different churches and traditions have come together to help make this mission conference happen. And I see hope in that; I see an opportunity to heal the wounds of the past and hold together the call for mission and the call for unity. Not the one in the expense of the other. Not by softening the disagreements nor by hiding the burning issues, but by listening carefully to each other, engaging in genuine dialogue, disagreeing and challenging each other, but nevertheless staying together. For our witness to be a credible and authentic one, in a world that is suffering from fragmentation, alienation and despair. Being an Orthodox myself and coming originally from the «ecumenical» tradition (that is not a contradiction in terms as some might think!), I found my home in mission (and neither is that!). It was in the light of mission that the search for unity and the search for justice made sense to me. And I cannot imagine mission but through unity and through justice. Liturgy before and after liturgy. My understanding of church can only be a missional one. And by that I mean a church that is not closed to herself but opens up to the world, reaches out to the world, embraces the whole creation giving witness to the Kingdom of God. I do not know to what extend I will feel comfortable in that enlarged constituency. I probably won’t, but that is ok. I shouldn’t! It was when our churches felt comfortable that they failed to listen to the Holy Spirit.

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I personally very often struggle with the notion of evangelism, with the «great commission» as it is often understood by my evangelical brothers and sisters. I might even feel uncomfortable with the spirituality and the mentality of the huge Pentecostal churches in Korea and in China. I might be confused by the practice and the theology of some of the African Instituted Churches. I am sure many of you also struggle, feel uncomfortable and confused by the theology and the practice of the Orthodox church, if you are aware of it! I am at the same time inspired by the zeal, the creativity, the enthusiasm and the deep and authentic faith of many of so many men and women from all over the world and from all spectrums of Christianity. You do not need me to say that only if we remain together, will we learn to appreciate and understand each other better. We will be mutually accountable and will be challenged and changed. But isn’t that part of the new understanding of mission that we are advocating? Risking vulnerability, being humble, receiving the other instead of being powerful, self-sufficient, triumphant and imposing our perspective to the other. Let us make sure that for the next centenary celebrations we will all be there as one to give praise, ask for forgiveness and seek enlightenment for the mission of the church, the mission of God.

** Anastasia Vasileiadou is a member of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches. She has studied theology and is working as a teacher of religious education. She is a member of the Church of Greece (Eastern Orthodox). She delivered this reflection during the Closing Plenary Session of the conference on evening of Saturday, June 5, 2010.

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Learning and Insight

by José López Vázquez

Edinburgh 2010 and History Edinburgh 2010 for me was a moment to reflect about the role of history in our search for new and deep meanings of Mission. I believe that knowing our history – history in general and recent church history in particular – is of essential importance and will help us both in understanding the current Christian reality – our present with all its challenges – and in envisioning our possible future as Christians in Mission. I think, churches owe it to themselves and to the rest of society to take a close look at their past and at what went wrong in the different mission contexts. The word “mission” still evokes a lot of negative feelings and memories in many people and, in my opinion, churches have not paid enough attention to this. History as the key to understand the present. For instance, as Latin Americans, we could find better explanations for the following questions: Why are there so many clashes between Catholics and Evangelicals/Protestants, e.g. in Mexico? Why do Catholics and Evangelicals not see themselves as part of one Christian family? Why wasn’t there a Latin American representative at the mission conference in Edinburgh 1910? Why do evangelical churches in countries like mine, Mexico, almost exclusively have relations with the more conservative U.S. American churches? These and many other realities could be better understood. I’m sure that all Christians in the world could benefit of reflecting on their history – everyone will have their own set of questions according to their context. During the mission conference Edinburgh 2010 (esp. the session “Mission and Power”) participants had the important chance to share and remember some sad experiences of abuse and harm that was done in the name of Mission, situations where local cultures were destroyed and people were physically and psychologically injured. Terry LeBlanc, an indigenous Canadian, presented a very interesting and moving documentary. The film showed the story of indigenous people in Canada whose children were forcibly taken away from them and put into “Residential Schools”. There, the indigenous children were made to give up their original identities and adopt new traditions, a new language – English, and a new religion – Christianity. This happened between 1850 and 1969, but it sounded to me like a story from the colonization of the American Continent in the beginning of the XVI. century. To some participants of the conference the story of this documentary may have seemed like an isolated error, which could be overcome by new evangelism methods. Others, however, felt the pain of this forced Christian mission very strongly, because of what their countries, their families experienced. These experiences have sometimes even been passed on from one generation to the next and is still very much present in the lives of people today. I think, this kind of abuses relate directly to our historical and theological understanding of mission. For the most part, mission in the past meant to bring the Christian faith to other people in the world,

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ignoring their cultures and traditions and imposing on them not only a new religion but also a Western culture. Of course, there are also good memories and traditions in mission that can be celebrated and remembered while at the same time acknowledging the pain and hurt that mission sometimes has caused. Reflecting the history of mission is important to all church members – theologians or parishioners, adults and children, and it should be told from different contextual perspectives. Self-criticism and humility are needed when facing history. Looking at history is not easy but in the long run it will give the churches more credibility, transparency, accountability and the opportunity to learn from the past. I remember a quote by the Spanish-American thinker George Santayana who wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The question for the churches on a global level is: What are the errors that we are not allowed to repeat? I think, participants of Edinburgh 2010, their churches and Christians in general are called to reply to the questions and challenges our history sets before us. Only if we take responsibility for the consequences of history we will be faithful to the love of God and to His Mission. If we ignore history and its effects, Christians will be discussing the same mistakes at the next Mission Conference in 100 years.

** Jose Lopez Vazquez, from Mexico, was a delegate to Edinburgh 2010. He gave an interview and addressed the youth transversal in one of the Parallel Sessions of Track 2 on Theme 5: Forms of Missionary Engagement. He was a previous intern of the World Council of Churches in 2005-2006. He currently resides in Germany and is happily married to Julia Heyde

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Learning and Insight by Aaron T. Hollander

Regarding Point 2 of the Edinburgh 2010 Common Call (and Theme 2: Christian Mission Among Other Faiths): It is heartening to see the care with which the language has been chosen to describe the dialogical task of 21st century mission, insofar as it involves a particular manner of communication between individuals and communities of different religious faith. By emphasizing the “authenticity” of missionaries’ dialogue with religious others, the “respectfulness” of their engagement, and the “humility” of their witness, the Common Call successfully reflects a recurrent theme that I observed firsthand in Edinburgh 2010’s diverse sessions: that we have reached and committed to a point in our history where we recognize those who do not share the images and narratives of our faith as subjects rather than objects. The understanding that the Church conducts its mission among people who have a right to represent themselves no less than we do is, it seems clear, an indispensable hallmark of witness to Christ in the 21st century. Therefore, I propose that we illuminate more explicitly the significance of this human reciprocity for mission. Let our hearts be lifted by this ecumenical milestone and let us make it unambiguous in our public relations that in 2010 and beyond we are ready to bear our witness in the context of the witness of others. Let us be clear that we will not merely endure the testimony of those of other faiths – and no faith – but rather that we are inspired by love to welcome their articulation of themselves and the world, and that we will sincerely contemplate the insights they bring to our lives in relationship. For indeed, to send missionaries to those from whom we are not willing to receive missionaries, or to expect to touch the lives of those whose deep conviction and ways of understanding we are not willing to genuinely hear and consider, would be to fall unacceptably short of Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbors as ourselves and to treat them as we would ourselves be treated. It would be to conduct insincere dialogue, hierarchical engagement, and narcissistic witness. Throughout the conversations of Edinburgh 2010, we have repeatedly and bravely committed ourselves to authentic dialogue, respectful engagement, and humble witness. With God’s help, all three are within our grasp. “Remembering Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross and his resurrection for the world’s salvation, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are called to authentic dialogue, respectful engagement and humble witness among people of other faiths – and no faith – to the uniqueness of Christ. Our approach is marked by bold confidence in the gospel message, as well as by loving enthusiasm to hear and reflect on the committed witness that others would bring us in return. Our approach builds friendship, seeks reconciliation and practices hospitality.”

-- Aaron T. Hollander University of Chicago Anglican Communion

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Learning and Insight Edinburgh 2010: How Far Have We Come?

by Andrew R. H. Thompson The Edinburgh 2010 World Mission Conference is a powerful example of how much mission has

changed in the hundred years since the 1910 conference. It is also a clear reminder of how little progress we’ve made. The changes were clear; a cursory glance around the conference revealed a far different group from the one assembled a hundred years ago. Organizers made a sincere effort to include delegates from groups that had been included only marginally, or not at all, in the first conference: Roman Catholics and Orthodox, indigenous groups, participants from the global south, women, and young people. Worship was designed to be as inclusive and creative as possible (and indeed, under the leadership of the Iona Community’s John Bell, worship was one of the highlights of the experience). Imbalances and abuses of power that have too often characterized missionary activities were acknowledged and lamented. These advances all call for celebration. Many important ideas, both new and well-established (but nonetheless urgent for that), were raised. Among the latter, one of the most significant was the recognition that mission can no longer be viewed as unidirectional, principally from countries in what may be called the “global North” to those in the “global South.” Dr. Fidon Mwombeki reminded delegates, first, that much of the impact of mission in history was due to the local communities’ graceful reception of missionaries, and, second, that, in spite of the general failure to acknowledge it, a great deal of contemporary mission is from, within, and among former mission fields. The distinction between “sending” and “receiving” countries can no longer stand. One of the most urgent issues for contemporary mission is therefore for communities in Europe and North America to recognize their own need and the very real contributions offered by Christians from other continents. Related, and equally significant, discussions emphasized the need for mutuality in mission, for careful attention to context and experience, and for social and environmental justice as central concerns for mission efforts. Some ideas were perhaps more unconventional. In his concluding reflections on the conference, Dr. Vinoth Ramachandra delivered an impassioned call to reconceive mission not solely as the responsibility of appointed missionaries (and much less that of academics and religious professionals), but rather fundamentally as the work of believers everywhere whose lives testify to Christ in the public sphere. This view of mission is multidirectional, in all times and places, and emphasizes the role of laypeople. Thus while the intercultural encounter of international mission remains an invaluable aspect of that engagement, we ought no longer see it as the only, or even the paradigmatic, form of mission. The challenge of mission in the twenty-first century is the challenge of God’s people everywhere witnessing to the world around them. All of these developments notwithstanding, the conference was also a clear reminder that we still have far to go if we are to overcome traditional shortcomings and prejudices. Despite the commendable inclusion of typically marginalized perspectives, the intellectual and institutional character of the conference meant that these voices – young people, non-whites, non-professionals and non-academics, women, and those for whom English was not a first language – often went unheard.

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Dominant voices sadly remained dominant. Attention to past – and in some cases, painfully present – abuses was, in general, not frank enough. Early in the conference Bishop Geevarghese Mor Coorilos urged us to be straightforward about issues of power, race, gender, injustice, and exploitation – to “name the demons” that continue to possess our approaches to mission. Perhaps because of the desire for unity, these demons, though not ignored, were not named clearly enough. If they are ever to be exorcised, we must first address them honestly, however threatening it may be. The 2010 World Mission Conference is a momentous achievement. There is much here for Episcopalians and Anglicans to celebrate and embrace. As an opportunity to meet and engage in serious (and even joyful) sharing with diverse Christians participating in God’s mission all over the world, it was an incredibly enriching experience. At times, the notion of Christian unity in diversity was indeed tangible. Yet for the conference to have real impact, and, more importantly, to be faithful to the divine mission, it must broaden and deepen its scope. For Edinburgh 2010 truly to be counted as a success, its insights will need to be entrusted to, challenged by, and (we may pray) accepted by God’s people everywhere in the world. ** Andrew R. H. Thompson is a doctoral student at Yale University, and served as a missionary in El Salvador with the Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps. He lives in West Hartford, CT, and is volunteer minister of music for Spanish worship at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hartford, where his wife, Leigh Preston, is priest-in-charge. He attended the Edinburgh 2010 World Mission Conference as a delegate after winning a writing competition with his essay “Communities of the Spirit: The Missiology of Roland Allen in the Twenty-First Century.”

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IV. A Selection

of Youth

Contributions

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The Winning Essay by Andrew R. H. Thompson

Communities of the Spirit:

The Missiology of Roland Allen in the Twenty-First Century

“I hate it,” responded one disaffected seminarian. “I hate the word ‘mission.’” The seminarians

were preparing for a trip to El Salvador, and were discussing missiology and its various

implications. All of the students were ambivalent about the idea of mission, and they reflected

on the various possible locutions to describe to others the purpose of their upcoming trip:

“service,” “volunteer,” “study,” “relationship-building.” Anything but “mission.”

These students are not alone in their uncertainty. Conversations like this occur

throughout the church, some with reactions every bit as adverse as that of the student above.

Church groups on short-term visits wonder what it means to call such a thing “mission.” A

group of young adults preparing for their departure into the field struggles with the

connotations of the term “missionary,” most opting for “volunteer,” or “community

development worker.”2 These conversations reflect an understanding of mission primarily as

an encounter between distinct cultures, usually characterized by inequality of wealth or power,

and accordingly they express discomfort with the colonialist or imperialistic connotations and

history of mission so conceived. Likewise, the choice of labels like “service” points to a

recognition that the church must attend to communities’ material needs, and a belief (justified

or not) that mission may not always include such attention. These sentiments are especially

prevalent among young leaders in the church, such as the seminarians and missionaries above,

who see mission as a relic of a less pluralist, less culturally-aware past, and yet struggle to

reconcile this perspective with the mandate to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt

28.19).

Such a narrow view of mission, as primarily one-way, from “developed” or “advanced”

societies to “developing” or “third-world” countries, with all of its attendant implications, is

inadequate to address the contemporary faith of Christians, young and old; it is also

theologically impoverished. Yet it persists in the face of decades of efforts to provide more

appropriate missiological frameworks.3 In my own tradition, leaders of the Anglican

Communion called upon the church to “rethink the whole idea of mission” in terms that reflect

2 These experiences are from my own time as a missionary in El Salvador with the Episcopal Young Adult Service

Corps. 3 David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis books, 1991),

369-393.

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equality, interdependence, and mutual responsibility as early as 1963.4 Nonetheless, the

objections and ambivalence described above suggest a perception that these conceptual

changes have not always translated into notable shifts in practice. Appropriately for this

centenary, a practical missiology that meets these twenty-first century needs is found in the

writings of a missionary from the turn of the previous century, Roland Allen. Allen’s challenge

to the missionary practices of his time, with their dependence on what he called “the modern

Western spirit”, and call for greater trust in the work of the Holy Spirit in mission communities,

are as relevant to our current situation as they were a century ago.

Before turning to Allen’s methods, though, I consider one conception of mission that

addresses some of the contemporary concerns already noted. A more theologically

appropriate missiology views mission as the concrete witness of Christian communities in all

places – “the whole church bringing the whole Gospel to the whole world.”5 The ecclesiology of

John Howard Yoder presents a compelling call for just such a view, one that will subsequently

be clarified by the methods commended by Roland Allen.

I. Proclaiming the Missio Dei

Mission is the concrete witness of Christian communities in the world. Since the middle

of the twentieth century Christians have affirmed that Christian mission is always a

participation in the missio Dei, God’s saving purpose for the world.6 The core of mission, then,

must be the faithful witness of Christians to the missio Dei, our testimony to God’s reconciling

purpose for creation that embraces and subsumes and saves all other goals and acts. Mission is

therefore central to the identity of the church itself, as the faithful community that exists as a

sign, in the world, of God’s mission. Conversely, the primary locus of Christian participation in

God’s mission is the church, or, more specifically, the faithful communities that testify to the

missio Dei; in other words, the church is central to mission. The “sending” to which the

etymology of “mission” refers is not the sending of individuals by one community to another,

but rather the sending of God’s people by God in witness into the world.

John Howard Yoder’s ecclesiology helps clarify the content of this proclamation.7 He

describes the community’s mission as a “modeling mission,” in that, “the church is called to be

now what the world is called to be ultimately.”8 In other words, the example of the church

testifies to God’s purpose for creation – the missio Dei. Specifically, the witnessing community

enacts values of reconciliation, peacefulness, and egalitarianism in the midst of a world that

4 Address by Rt. Rev. Stephen Bayne to Anglican Congress 1963, cited in Ian T. Douglas, “The Exigency of Times and Occasions,” in Beyond Colonial Anglicanism, eds. Ian T. Douglas & Kwok Pui Lan (New York: Church Publishing, 2001), 28. 5 Bosch, 10. 6 Titus Presler, Horizons of Mission (Cambridge, MA: Cowley Press, 2001), 30; Bosch, Transforming Mission, 10, 370; Douglas, “Exigency,” 42. 7 John Howard Yoder, The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press,

1984). 8 Yoder, Priestly Kingdom, 92.

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undermines or rejects those values. Because the God it proclaims is other than and beyond the

world, the church’s ability to carry out this modeling mission depends on its ability to stand

against the wisdom and values of the world when necessary.9 It thereby proclaims by example

God’s desire for human life in community as revealed by Jesus, and works toward some partial

realization of that desire.

The witness of Yoder’s Christian community is theologically founded. Its first and core

commitment is to Christ’s example, most fundamentally His cross. The believers’ cross

mandated in the New Testament is our imitation of Jesus in his disavowal of worldly ways of

relating to others.10 It is our willing acceptance of rejection and suffering as potential

consequences of our testimony. Witnessing to God’s mission of reconciliation and peace

necessarily places believers apart from – yet always in mission to and in service of, never purely

against – the world to which they are sent.

Yet Yoder’s vision is also culturally apt: it acknowledges and addresses contemporary

concerns about pluralism. He argues that gaps between different cultures or beliefs are not

bridged by some universal metalanguage, but rather by our own particular witnesses

proclaimed in the language of pluralism.11 We are called to discern how to proclaim Christ’s

lordship in a way that is meaningful to a pluralist world, the same way the first Christians

discerned how to proclaim it in new and different contexts.12 Yoder refers to this as a

“missionary ethic of incarnation.”13 God became incarnate to call us to a particular way of

participating in the missio Dei, and we can extend that invitation to all. The fact that the truth

has taken on particularity in a particular time and place is the basis for our engagement with

other ways of believing. We proclaim this truth not by seeking to be less specifically Christian,

but rather by working at every commonality and conflict to which our particularity leads us. As

we shall see, Allen’s missionary methods provide some suggestions for our discernment of the

shape of this engagement. The existence of Christian communities testifies to the fact that our

truth, like all truth, is particular, and precisely in this particularity, it can be meaningfully

communicated – universally – to other particular contexts. As Yoder says, “we report an event

that occurred in our listeners’ own world, and ask them to respond to it. What could be more

universal than that?”14

II. Roland Allen: Communities of the Spirit

Roland Allen, an Anglican missionary in China at the turn of the twentieth century,

criticizes the missionary practices of that period. His challenges invite comparison with modern

concerns and suggest methods for realizing Yoder’s notion of a particular communal witness in

9 Yoder, Priestly Kingdom, 91, cf. Bosch 386. 10 John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994), 94-97. 11

Yoder, Priestly Kingdom, 56. 12

Yoder, Priestly Kingdom, 49-54. 13

Yoder, Priestly Kingdom, 44. 14 Yoder, Priestly Kingdom, 59.

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a pluralist context. Allen argues that the “modern Western spirit,” suffers from a lack of trust in

the presence of the Holy Spirit in mission communities, creates utter dependence on the

missionary, and is inconsistent with the practices modeled by the most successful missionary in

the history of the faith, St. Paul, who was able to establish viable Christian communities in four

provinces of the Roman Empire in the ten years between 47 and 57 C.E.15

Allen elaborates St. Paul’s methods, addressing his administration of the communities

(including leadership and finances), his preaching, and his use of miracles.16 First, in contrast to

the administrative methods of his modern-day successors, the key to Paul’s success is “that he

founded churches whilst we found missions.”17 That is, Allen’s contemporaries gather

dependent communities around a single missionary, usually sent and supported by an

elaborate foreign organization, who administers the sacraments and delivers the teachings of

the faith. Paul, on the other hand, incorporated the local leadership, introduced the

fundamental elements of the Gospel and Old Testament and basic sacraments, and, usually

after five or six months, left behind a viable church in the care of local elders.18 He taught in a

context of mutual instruction, allowing “local prophets” to speak, then withdrew from the

community to enable local leadership. Of course, Paul maintained communication with the

churches through his letters. Nonetheless, according to Allen, Paul consistently emphasized the

importance of their freedom.19 Paul’s financial practices also supported this: he did not

establish financially dependent communities. Rather, financial matters were always means to

strengthen the unity of the Body of Christ.20

Allen surveys the accounts of St. Paul’s preaching, and discerns a characteristic

recognition and understanding of the particular “condition” of his listeners as regards their

current beliefs, and a corresponding effort to address their own peculiar challenges to

accepting the Gospel.21 Underlying this approach is a frank acknowledgment of the general

difficulty of such acceptance, as well as respect for the hearers’ understanding and confidence

in the message itself. These aspects portray a style of teaching that gave careful attention to

the specific circumstances of the communities. Finally, according to Allen, Paul’s working of

miracles and teachings on charity (such as 1 Corinthians 13.1-3) illustrate Christian concern for

“doing good,” a perspective that saw, “in every case of trouble or disease…an opportunity for

15 Roland Allen, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1962), 6. 16 Specifically, Allen discusses miracles (chapter 5), finance (chapter 6), preaching (chapter 7) and teaching (chapter 8). I have chosen to treat his accounts of Paul’s teaching and use of finances together (based on a common emphasis on local autonomy) as “administration,” and to change the order. 17 Allen, Missionary Methods, 83. 18 Allen, Missionary Methods, 84-90. 19

Allen, Missionary Methods, 91. Allen cites the ambiguous example of Paul’s letter to the Galatians; problems with this reading will be noted below. 20

Allen, Missionary Methods, 51-2. 21 Allen, Missionary Methods, 62-64ff.

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the revelation of grace and loving-kindness.”22 Miracles and service manifested the Spirit and

character of the new religion.

This latter point deserves more consideration than Allen gives it. God’s desire for

creation is more comprehensive than material well-being; our participation in the missio Dei

therefore cannot be reduced to social or economic development programs. On the other hand,

neither can it ignore the concrete realities of those to whom it is addressed. Indeed, one aspect

of modern dissatisfaction with the idea of mission is based on a perception, noted above, that

missions have neglected these realities in the past. Both Jesus and St. Paul consistently

attended to the material care of those with whom they shared the Gospel, in the form of

miracles and, in Paul’s case, the collection for the poor in Jerusalem; we, as their successors,

must do so as well. Nor does it suffice simply to assert that teaching of the faith must be

accompanied by care for material well-being, as two distinct parts of the church’s mission.

There is an intrinsic relation between the two. The Gospel is the “good news to the poor” (Luke

4.18). With its message of hope and liberation, the Christian faith has concrete consequences

in the life of the community.

These concrete implications are not strictly “economic development” in the way it is sometimes

understood, with wealthier communities aiding those less fortunate (though they do not

exclude this), any more than mission is necessarily a sending from more advanced societies to

more marginal ones. They are, rather, a central aspect of the concrete discernment of the

Gospel in communities of all kinds; spiritual transformation and material change go hand in

hand. Allen recognizes this: “the activities of the Christians as individuals and as a body, the

church in the place, should be the most clear revelation of the spirit… *W+hen *people+ see a

change in the lives of their neighbours…*t+hen the people are face to face with the Holy

Ghost.”23 If Christians have at times neglected the integral nature of this connection, it is

nonetheless true that it has had real manifestations throughout the world. Christian faith has

been an integral (rather than incidental) force in efforts at education, community development,

advocacy, and revolution (two examples are considered below). Christian communities

proclaim and participate in God’s mission not simply or primarily in their words, but in their

very lives.

The missiology that I propose, then, builds on Allen’s insistence that the church follow

the example of St. Paul in focusing on the communities in which mission takes place. It is a

matter of nurturing and developing communities whose lives reveal God’s reconciling purpose,

albeit incompletely, to the world around them. To do this the church must address its Christian

formation to the actual social and material situations of communities themselves and empower

these communities to advance this formation themselves; that is, it must discern the truth of

22

Allen, Missionary Methods, 45. 23

Roland Allen, The Ministry of the Spirit: Selected Writings of Roland Allen, ed. David M. Patton (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1960), 100.

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the Gospel in those specific contexts. Discernment does not relativize or undermine the

Gospel. Rather, as Yoder argues, it is precisely the particularity of the Gospel, of Christ’s

lordship, that is professed in all new contexts, spoken in the language of pluralism. And in all

contexts, appropriate humility and dependence on God’s self-communication lead us to

acknowledge that God is already present in all places and communities, waiting not to be

revealed to them, but rather in them. This realization and the attendant goal of empowering

communities themselves to witness to the Gospel in their own particular contexts together

constitute the heart of Christian mission.

Mission so understood, as the proclamation of God’s reconciling mission in the concrete

lives of communities everywhere, does not take place exclusively, or even essentially, across

national or cultural boundaries. Rather, it occurs wherever the life and ministry of the church

constitutes a genuine testimony to the kind of reconciled, loving relationships that God desires

for God’s creatures. Nonetheless, encounters across various kinds of boundaries – which are

often much closer than we imagine – can call us to understand just how radical and risky this

reconciliation is, and are therefore a necessary component of our participation in mission.

Further, they can remind us that the boundaries between the witnessing community and the

world to whom it addresses its witness may be fluid and shifting.

Our participation in God’s mission ultimately requires us to approach mission with an

attitude of faith in the power of God in the Holy Spirit. It was this faith, according to Allen, that

enabled St. Paul to entrust the formation and guidance of the early church to the communities

themselves. Such trust is risky, and a more critical reading of Paul than Allen’s suggests that the

Apostle’s example may be insufficient here. The trust and freedom that Allen finds so evident

in Paul’s dealings with the communities are firmly – and at times aggressively – circumscribed

by Paul’s insistence on the purity of the Gospel (this is perhaps most apparent in Galatians, the

very text Allen cites as exemplary of Paul’s emphasis on freedom!). Elsewhere, Allen attends to

this concern for purity as he sees it in the missionary practices of his time.24 He believes that

such fear for proper doctrine expresses a lack of faith in the Holy Spirit, in the ability of others

to receive the Gospel, and in the doctrine itself. The truths of Christian faith, he argues, are not

primarily intellectual assertions, but are encountered in our experience. Thus the diverse

experiences of faithful communities enrich, rather than threaten, doctrine.25

Allen urges us, therefore, to learn from the faith that grounded Paul’s ministry. He argues that

throughout his career Paul “believed in the Holy Ghost, not merely vaguely as a spiritual Power,

but as a Person indwelling his converts. He believed therefore in his converts. He could trust

them. He believed that Christ was able and willing to keep that which he had committed to

24

Roland Allen, The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder It (London: World Dominion Press, 1927), 57-79. 25 Allen, Spontaneous Expansion, 66-67.

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Him.”26 While affirming the example of Paul’s faith for contemporary mission, I would add the

need to deepen it in the way described above, balancing concern for purity with trust in the

Spirit’s ability to express the Gospel in new and diverse ways. God is active and revealing

Godself in communities everywhere. The church is blessed with the opportunity to witness to

and participate in this missio Dei, and to commend all of its efforts to God, trusting that God

and God’s people will together bring it closer and closer to fruition.

III. Examples of Missionary Community

As a missionary of the Episcopal Church, I worked in Sitio de los Nejapa, a poor community in

rural El Salvador. It is a place of great need, and its residents have been grateful recipients of a

small number of charity and development programs. Yet when the few community leaders try

to mobilize support for their own efforts, or to encourage new leaders, they are met with

indifference. Many community members, particularly women with little formal education,

attribute this apparent indifference to, among other things, feelings of inadequacy or lack of

ability. They do not advocate on their own behalf, they say, because they are looked down on

or ignored by local officials; they cannot be leaders because they lack the skills.

In weekly Bible studies, however, these women are able to encourage one another to

value their own voices. In reflecting on passages such as Matthew 11.25 (“I thank you,

Father…because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have

revealed them to infants”) they begin to overcome their self-doubt and recognize their ability

to speak for themselves. This new self-awareness, in turn, empowers them to collaborate with

leaders of the church and community to develop other programs, such as a weekly sewing

class.27

The story of the women of Sitio de Los Nejapa is an example of discernment of the truth

of the Gospel in a specific context. The consequent changes, however slight, in the life of the

community testify to more reconciled, equal relationships. Another, perhaps more striking,

example can be seen in the well-documented, real impact of Christian base communities in

Latin America. Don Pablito, a Salvadoran in the town of Cinquera, recounts how regular Bible

studies initiated by local priests empowered community improvement: drunks stopped

drinking, men stopped beating their wives, and workers began to advocate on behalf of their

rights.28 Again, discernment of the concrete implications of the Gospel creates a powerful

witness to reconciled relations.

In both these examples, the material and social life of the community is one with its reflection

on the truths of the Gospel, and constitutes its witness to the world. Here, in Allen’s words,

“the activities of the Christians as individuals and as a body, the church in the place, *are+ the

26 Allen, Missionary Methods, 149. 27

The mission in Sitio de los Nejapa is still relatively young, too young to point to more dramatic outcomes. The sewing class has, at the time of this writing, come to an end, and the community members are working with the new missionary (a Salvadoran) to discern new possibilities for community engagement. 28 Interview with Don Pablito in Cinquera, El Salvador, November, 2007.

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most clear revelation of the spirit.” In some cases, this witness relies on the work of

missionaries of some kind, persons whose work is to build up each community. Yet more

fundamentally, the mission involved is the witness of the communities themselves, as their

formation empowers them to proclaim to the world, through their shared life, the missio Dei.

IV. Conclusion

At its heart, Christian mission is participation in God’s loving mission for all of creation.

This participation is enacted in the lives of Christian communities everywhere, lives that bear

witness to the divine purpose. In following Christ’s example and testifying to ways of relating

other than those that dominate society, believers are set apart from the world, as Christ was, in

mission to it. This mission is integral to the identity of the church. The life of the church

witnessing to the world: this is the foundation of mission, “the whole church bringing the whole

Gospel to the whole world.”

The character of that proclamation will be determined by the practices we use to shape

our communities. Roland Allen’s methods, focusing on the formation of viable communities,

leadership from within, teaching that addresses particular, concrete contexts, and trust in the

communities themselves and the Spirit working in them, offer some initial suggestions. Mission

so understood provides a theologically compelling corrective to the impoverished conception

that still leads some Christians, especially younger ones, to question the relevance of mission or

reject it altogether. Christian mission is not intrinsically colonialist or hegemonic, but is rather

the proclamation of God’s presence in particular communities everywhere. This is good news

in a world that sorely needs it.

** Andrew R. H. Thompson is a doctoral student at Yale University, and served as a missionary in El

Salvador with the Episcopal Young Adult Service Corps. He lives in West Hartford, CT, and is volunteer

minister of music for Spanish worship at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hartford, where his wife, Leigh

Preston, is priest-in-charge.

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Bibliography: Allen, Roland. Ministry of the Spirit: Selected Writings of Roland Allen. Edited by

David M. Patton. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1960.

Allen, Roland. Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B.

Eerdmans, 1962.

Allen, Roland. The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder

It. London: World Dominion Press, 1927.

Bosch, David. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.

Maryknoll, NY: Orbis books, 1991.

Douglas, Ian T. “The Exigency of Times and Occasions.” In Beyond Colonial

Anglicanism. Edited by Ian T. Douglas & Kwok Pui Lan. New York: Church

Publishing, 2001.

Presler, Titus. Horizons of Mission. Cambridge, MA: Cowley Press, 2001.

Yoder, John Howard. Politics of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994.

Yoder, John Howard. Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel. Notre Dame:

University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.

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Book Reviews by Aaron T. Hollander

The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910, Brian Stanley

(Grand Rapids, MI: Wm Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), paperback, 324. ISBN: 9780802863607

Edinburgh 2010: Mission Then and Now, ed. David A. Kerr and Kenneth R.

Ross (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2009), paperback, 317. ISBN: 9781870345736 To reflect today on the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, 1910, is to approach an

event that has acquired all the mythology and ambiguity of other world-historical transitions. It is common to conceive of the conference either as having “given birth” to Christian ecumenism in a direct and linear way, or else as being a fork in the road of global Christianity at which the evangelical and ecumenical communities began to diverge. But as we approach the centenary of the conference – an event which is being approached with a similar combination of sobriety and preemptive canonization – it is valuable to return to the source and gain a clear view of the proceedings, content, and immediate aftermath of Edinburgh 1910.

Towards this purpose, the two texts reviewed here have been recommended as reference

material by the study process committee of Edinburgh 2010. Brian Stanley splits his work between “a close account of the [1910] World Missionary Conference as an event in itself and…a synthetic interpretation of the western Protestant missionary movement as it reached the apex of its size and influence” (p. xx). The book is first a narrative of the history, and then a reflection on the ideas, of Edinburgh 1910. David Kerr and Kenneth Ross take a different approach by bringing together diverse modern voices to consider the eight “commissions” of the 1910 conference and their distance or proximity to missionary concerns today.

Within the tremendous detail and methodical structure of Stanley’s text is one running theme of

particular importance. From his first chapter, he calls attention to the discrepancy between the conveners’ expectations for Edinburgh 1910 and the legacy that modern scholars ascribe to the conference. Part of this variance is due to the limited horizon of the conference’s time and place – but to an equal or greater extent, Stanley argues, contemporary retrievals of Edinburgh 1910 as a great dawn of ecumenism tend to misread the trajectory on which the conference lies. Notably, he demonstrates that it was the inauguration of neither inter-denominational collaboration on mission, nor of the “ecumenical movement” per se. The former can be traced back much further – an inter-denominational mission conference, for instance, was held in 1810 at Capetown. Nor can the ecumenical movement, in Stanley’s analysis, be said to have properly begun at Edinburgh 1910, due to the conference’s almost unanimously evangelical Protestant orientation and studious evasion of most theological and ecclesiological questions. Certainly now this character does not reflect the meaning of “ecumenical,” but more strikingly, neither did it meet the criteria then! The term “ecumenical” was in fact dropped from the original name of the conference (“The Third Ecumenical Mission Conference”) and replaced by the term “World,” to reflect the horizon, rather than the perspective, of the assembly (p. 19).

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But where unique groundwork for the ecumenical movement was laid at Edinburgh was in the conveners’ careful attention, before the conference even began, to the potential meltdown that could be caused by any suggestion that Protestant missionaries were justified to evangelize in Roman Catholic or Orthodox communities around the world. Stanley emphasizes the tension that built as it was being deliberated whether to include the voices of Protestant missionaries in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and he discusses at length the final decision not to do so (although some delegates represented societies with other members in such countries – p. 303). Although the decision was largely, at the time, a point of compromise to secure Anglo-Catholic participation in the conference, it had ramifications beyond the subtle addition of “Non-Christian” to the conference’s original mantra: “the evangelization of the whole [non-Christian+ world in this generation.” Throughout his text, Stanley turns a spotlight on Edinburgh 1910’s recognition of non-Protestants as legitimately Christian, which, however tacit, was indeed a keystone for later expansion of ecumenical relations.

There was a price to rejecting Christian proselytism in this way, one that we can see clearly in

hindsight: an ever-more-pronounced binary between “Christian” and “non-Christian” lands, which Stanley describes as “the division of humanity into two along lines that were not strictly confessional, but primarily geographic” (p. 72). This binary, however, bore the weight of what fragile ecumenical consensus existed going into the conference – and while the binary of Christian and Non-Christian territory had begun to erode within two decades of the conference (p. 305), the ecumenical groundwork on which confessional difference could be overcome in solidarity remains essential to this day.

Brian Stanley’s text can be dry and circumambulating, but it is exhaustively researched and

annotated, making it an important reference text. The level of detail provided in every aspect of the conference – from the tensions between American and British convening assemblies (p. 31), to the particular timing structure of the delegates’ presentation of and responses to each commission (Chapter Four), to the particular questions asked of each committee’s contacts in “the field” (various chapters’ appendices), straight down to the delegates’ various lunch options (p. 84!) – is well above satisfactory for those seeking to review the proceedings chronologically and with scholarly distance from contemporary chilliness towards the Edinburgh 1910’s more imperialistic or naïve ambitions. Indeed, Stanley has written an excellent work of history.

However, when it comes to our full appreciation of the content of the Edinburgh 1910

commissions in the present day, such a strict historical approach has its limitations. Although Stanley is justified in stressing the extent of the delegates’ ideological homogeneity (whose extreme fringe – absurdly so today – was occupied by the Anglo-Catholics and the few Asian Protestants present), if the 1910 conference is to provide value as we articulate the inheritance and horizon of 21st century mission, it will need to be addressed by more than one, historical-critical voice. We will need more polycentric, polyglottal, multidisciplinary reflections.

And here is the value of Edinburgh 2010: Mission Then and Now, edited by David Kerr and

Kenneth Ross. In this collection of 17 essays, with introductions and commentary by the editors, each of Edinburgh 1910’s eight commissions is addressed from perspectives that confront head on the impact that the 1910 conference had on the theological and ecclesiological history of the subsequent century.

Kerr & Ross introduce their text in a similar way as Stanley does his: while less cautionary than

Stanley, they do remind the reader that Edinburgh 1910 was neither without precedent nor in and of itself ecumenically significant without the reflection we bring to it (p. 4). But they too emphasize the elements of the conference’s organization and content that were inaugural in various ways. Of particular

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import: the conference was a milestone in Protestant theology of religions – indeed, this was the only theology examined closely by the delegates (p. 13), as a “safe” question that did not appear to have controversial ecclesiological implications. Perhaps it is because these implications were avoided that Visser’t Hooft essentially passes over Edinburgh 1910 in his account of the genesis of the WCC (p. 17). But the question of whether the conference is or is not a turning point in the overall history of ecumenism comes back to the “true sense” of the term, and who is defining it. Was Edinburgh 1910 “proto-ecumenical” or genuinely ecumenical – just in the narrowest, intra-Protestant, pre-expanded sense? This question hits home for us in 2010 as we consider the ways in which ecumenism has pushed its horizons outward over the last century, coming to encompass not only a far broader spectrum of Christian witness but inter-religious solidarity on behalf of the shared “household of life” (cf. Konrad Raiser, Ecumenism in Transition, 1989). The extent to which this expansion is legitimate and of consequence for inter-religious relations, whether missionary or otherwise, is likely to be a concern of Edinburgh 2010.

As noted above, the wrestling reflection on Protestant mission in Roman Catholic and Orthodox

countries was inspiration for both the stripping of “ecumenical” from the conference’s name and for the formulation of the final version of that name: “World Missionary Conference: to Consider Missionary Problems in Relation to the Non-Christian World” (p. 17). It is in this light that Commission One – “Carrying the Gospel to all the Non-Christian World” – can be considered, though perhaps not in retrospect the “most important,” certainly the “flagship” commission of the conference itself.

Commission One’s depiction of the “Non-Christian World” is at the heart of the missionary

discussion both in 1910 and 2010. In the Kerr/Ross text specifically, the two authors writing on this commission agree that this depiction took for granted a fully evangelized home base – in other words, a clear binary in territory, not only in identity. And both agree, unremarkably, that this classification is obsolete. But there is some disagreement between the respondents, Andrew Walls and Kosuke Koyama, which for me exemplifies the importance of such a plural perspective in interpreting Edinburgh 1910 and its legacy. Walls argues that the most striking rejoinder to Commission One (and indeed to Commission Two, “The Church in the Mission Field”) is that today the binary has inverted – 2010’s representative Christians are African, Asian, Latin American, while it is Europe that could be described as the “non-Christian culture” (p. 37) in need of missionary attention in all its nuance. But for Koyama this is too glib, discounting the divisions and ambiguities within civilizations that eroded the binary to begin with. He suggests, rather, that “the concept of the Christian world is as unrealistic as that of the non-Christian world” (p. 42). From this perspective, the missionary task is not merely to redirect the translation of the gospel towards the idiom of Western, humanistic society – it is to consider how the work of loving relationship between culturally and spiritually divergent people has become a relevant issue at every point on the earth.

Most of the commissions are treated in this multi-voice manner, and the text holds interest all the way through. There is no space here to discuss each commission in depth, but a few additional reflections should serve to highlight issues that were both of central importance in 1910 and achieving new resonance in 2010.

According to Kerr and Ross, Commission Four (“The Missionary Message in Relation to Non-

Christian Religions”) and Commission Eight (“Cooperation and the Promotion of Unity”) are the two that have received the most attention from ecumenical scholars to date. Of all the commissions, Four received the greatest number of responses from the field (over 200) and Eight had the greatest number of speakers address it at the conference itself (over 50). Each commission, moreover, demonstrates a

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high degree of reflection from missionaries in the field and a significant level of continuing commitment after the conference ended, and each complicates the caricatured picture of turn-of-the-century evangelism that many today may hold. In their introduction to Commission Four, for instance, Kerr and Ross include a number of quotes from the commission’s organizers that exemplify this complexity (pp. 122-123). Phrases such as “We are all agreed that Christianity is the final and absolute religion” (Robert Speer) are combined with those such as “Do we not need the broadening and deepening of all our conceptions of the living God?” (David Cairns), “Christ’s own attitude towards Judaism ought to be our attitude to other faiths” (J. N. Farquhar), and “No one believes we have the whole Christian truth” (Speer again!) to give a picture of genuine, if not yet wholly coherent, pilgrimage in love among other faiths.

Vinoth Ramachandra, in his own reflections on the commission, asks us to consider that it may

have been a blessing in disguise that no conclusion was reached on this theme in 1910; perhaps, to attempt closure today would equally risk being “inevitably reductionist” (p. 147) in the attempt to systematize a theology of religions. The tension of missionary encounters – between the need to communicate the truth we have inherited and the need to approach other faith traditions with humble unknowing towards the truth that they contain and can convey – remains today at the heart of a viable approach to missionary vocation. Ramachandra might not agree entirely with this formulation, but he does invoke the closing words of the Commission Four Report, which I do believe to be aligned with it: “But at least as remarkable as that spectacle of the outward advance of the Church is that which has also been revealed to us of the inward transformations that are in process in the mind of the missionary, the changes of perspective, the softening of wrong antagonisms, the centralising and deepening of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the growth of the spirit of love to the brethren and to the world. Once again the Church is doing its duty, and therefore once more the ancient guiding fires begin to burn and shine.” (p. 150).

The treatment of Commission Eight in Kerr’s and Ross’s text is significant because it approaches

Edinburgh 1910’s inter-denominational cooperation not only from the single synthetic perspective of the WCC or from the historically apt stance of Protestant evangelicals, but also through authors within the major Christian traditions that were conspicuously absent at the conference: Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Pentecostal. However, the reflections of these authors tend to fall somewhat short of the opportunity to look towards a uniquely 21st century ecumenism. In each chapter, the future of mission resembles the best of 20th century mission – in each writer’s tradition of reference. For Ionita (Orthodox), mission will be oriented by a renewal of high Christology (p. 268) and a balance between liturgical richness and diaconal service (p. 270). For Radano (Catholic), visible unity, repentance, respect, and continuity will remain at center stage (pp. 286-287). For Robeck (Penecostal), ecclesiological unity will increasingly be recognized as not an end in itself but chiefly as a tool for the free movement of the Spirit into all corners of the world (p. 299).

The point is not that these values are themselves problematic, nor that they do not deserve to

be voiced just because they are specific to their traditions. Indeed, viable ecumenism requires such insights grown within tradition, in addition to synthetic theologies at the constructive crossroads. But to the extent that the ecumenical worldview has become polycentric over the last century (p. 308), it is the responsibility of each tradition to speak not only from its own experiential center but also to the heart of each other tradition.

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Both in terms of inter-denominational communion and inter-religious hospitality, mission after 2010 may well be an open-ended dialectic of parts, rather than a crowding together of existing wholes. Kerr and Ross suggest as much in their concluding chapter, and they invoke Ramachandra’s statement that when we reach out to the other in ecumenical solidarity we must “go expecting to meet the God who has preceded us” (p. 311). It is a sentiment that is uniquely resonant both with the pluralistic and post-pluralistic instincts of the contemporary theological academy and with the moments of deepest and humblest vision in the documents of Edinburgh 1910. Some of the closing words of Commission Six – an example of these moments that inspire us equally today – are also the closing words of this wonderfully rich and diverse anthology: “We can never understand our own Holy Scriptures until they are interpreted to us through the language of every nation under heaven…”

** Aaron T. Hollander is a student of ecumenical theology and inter-religious relations from New York City, beginning the PhD program in Theology at the University of Chicago in September 2010. He currently serves as lay ecumenical officer and as a chorister for St. John’s Episcopal Church, Brooklyn. [This book review has been published in “One in Christ” 43:2 (Winter 2010)]

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A Speech at the Scottish Parliament by Adele Ngomedje

Date: Thursday, 3rd June 2010 Speaker: Adele Ngomedje, World Student Christian Federation Delegate Occasion: Edinburgh 2010 Mission Conference Location: Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh, Scotland Presiding Officer Chair of the General Council Representatives of Stakeholders Representatives of the University of Edinburgh Distinguished guests Delegates at the Edinburgh 2010 Mission Conference It is a great honour and privilege for me to speak on behalf of the international delegates, you, my friends who have travelled from far and wide to Edinburgh in order to witness to Christ today and beyond as we celebrate the centenary of the 1910 Mission Conference and press ahead into the missionary journey. This is indeed a momentous time for Christian mission, ten years into the new millennium and looking forward to what is to come next. The Delegates who are here today at this Conference come from over 60 countries from the f ive continents and represent all major Christian denominations. Here, we reflect the world gathered in Edinburgh for this wonderful occasion. Just look around. As proud as I am to speak to you all today, it is an even greater honour to speak to representatives of Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal, and Evangelical Christian bodies all under one roof with a truly global agenda. This is what makes this conference so important because all of the major Christian denominations are working together to witness to Christ today. My friends and guests this collective spirit is what makes our hard work and perseverance worthwhile as we witness to Christ today. A century ago, the first mission conference was organised to shape the future of the missionary movement in order to bring the Christian gospel to the whole world. Being myself from Cameroon, it is wonderful to stand here in Edinburgh, Scotland to speak a century later at the centenary conference. So may I take this opportunity to thank the Presiding officer and the Scottish Parliament for recognising the significance of this event and for welcoming us in this magnificent building. In closing, fellow delegates, let us remind ourselves that we are friends in mission to witness to Christ today for Jesus himself said: I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name. (John 15: 15-16). Thank you for your attention.

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A Speech on Youth, Mission, and Power by Jec Dan S. Borlado

Delivered at: Edinburgh2010: Witnessing to Christ Today Track 2; Theme 4: Mission and Power (youth transversal) On: June 4, 2010 Good Afternoon. Thank you for giving me the “power” to speak to you. I recognize that you become vulnerable when you don’t have “the power”.. And so, for your security, I hope not to abuse it in the next five minutes or so.. I am an Asian. I am a Filipino. I am a Young Person. As Asians, our context is that of plurality and diversity.. most of the countries in this region have a colonial past.. we are on the process of nation building, development and modernization.. we want to achieve authentic self & cultural identity in the context of a modern world .. we are in search of a form of social order beyond the current alternatives.. Asia is home to some of the world’s living and reawakening religions that shape both culture and consciousness.. and last but not the least, in the Asian context, the Christian community is a minority..29 (show first painting) It was 489 years ago when the first fleet of Spanish ships landed on the shores of my Motherland. And it has been said that they came holding the Cross on one hand, and a Sword on the other. These forceful waves relay the impacts of their coming.. Yet, the first fleet may have actually landed amidst still-calm waters.. Some 333 years later, Protestant Christianity arrived in the Philippines introduced mostly by American Missionaries at that time. After dividing the country up into 7 parts, so as to delineate the geographical work allotments for each church, can it be said that, this time around, they came with Bibles and scissors?

29

Douglas Elwood quoting Emerito Nakpil, former Executive director of ATESEA, “Introduction”, What Asian Christians Are Thinking: A Theological Source Book, ed. Douglas Elwood (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1976), xix-xx.

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Not all people who do not look like ourselves are savages or uncivilized.. Not all people who don’t understand what we are saying are illiterate and stupid.. It doesn’t mean that in unknown worlds, there are no divinely inspired pre-existing systems within their practice of community..

This is the “Bantayan”. Bantay in my dialect means “watcher.” So, bantayan would mean a “watch tower”; a place to watch from. The Filipino people (among other races) have a positive characteristic called the Bantay System. We are our brother’s and sister’s keeper! Theologians, is this theologically sound? You would agree? This pre-existing reality is very similar to the Prayer on Wisdom from the traditional spiritual teachings of the Elders of the Omuskagowuk Nation. The point is: if only we aren’t so blinded by our sin of pride or the unhealthy passion to always triumph and succeed; if only we have the right kind of sensitivity – mission work can become a mutual life-transforming & mutual life-saving endeavor. It is unfortunate that we cannot recover the past. However today, as prophets, we are to and can address wrong systems of power such as war, neo-colonialism guised in the form of economic domination, and moreover address demeaning and abusive inter-personal relationship habits influenced by, but not limited to, selfish and individualistic capitalists.

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(point to the flying fragments) The constant collide through painful clashes and smashes have truly been traumatic. Yet to be optimistic about it, our engagement or exposure to another - reveals our weaknesses, pointing us to opportunities of growth; opportunities where new and better things can emerge. Our missions have been very divisive, destructive and disempowering! If not among those we witness to, to those whom we witness with. The very opposite of what Jesus prayed for. (stand between the paintings) Yet today we are here at Edinburgh. Today, we are at our crossroads as the global church representing our own respective local congregations. The fullness of God’s time has come to pursue new and fundamentally better participation in God’s Mission in the world. And so I say, let us repent from our ways!

(open second painting) Essential to this road towards new and better things is the young person; the young person, being both a recipient and potential agent of The Mission.

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As a young person, I say: through the prodding of the Holy Spirit: empower us to be reconciliatory to the divisions we did not start! through the prodding of the Still Small Voice: empower us to be restorative to the lives we did not destroy! through the prodding of the Sustainer of our Faith: empower us to re-empower others in reflecting God’s will for the whole created world! All for the Glory of God! Do so by retelling, and retelling the old-old story of Christ’ love and the old stories of our people. Consequently, the youth will prophesy; the young will see visions; the old will dream again! (Acts 2:17) Do so by equipping us with facilities to use in paving the way. In effect, we will turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. (Isa 2:4) Empower us to pursue new and fundamentally better approaches to the unchanging Mission of God. Affirm the notion that mission shouldn’t be a traditional project understanding; instead affirm that it should be a project of Lifestyle – with a transformative; restorative; reconciliatory; mutually empowering – disposition. And by that, let us together witness to Christ today not through politically strategized means; but through a naturally compelling practice of a life in Christ – a light that shines in the darkness.. So let us live a life of empowered solidarity; a life of empowered praise; a life of empowered faith. Because the Consequence of an Empowered People.. - in solidarity: is The Beloved Community - in praise is: God’s Inhabitation - in faith: is God’s Mission Incarnated And on that note, I now relinquish my power. Thank you for your kind attention.

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A Creative Multimedia Contribution by Heather Chester

Dwelling Within Mission has always been about how someone orients him or herself in relation to the World. A

missionary focuses on how he or she relates in a space they are non-native inhabitants of, and how they

dwell among the people of that space. With this mindset kept in thought is how one must approach the

installation art piece entitled: Dwelling Within. The piece itself is a handmade Bedouin-style tent.

Walking within the tent the viewer is instantly struck with the sound of a heart beating, and is immersed

in a complex network of string all somehow lead, connecting, to an incandescent light.

The very image of a tent itself alludes to movement; the act of moving oneself into a land that is

not one's own and dwelling within the land amongst its people. This is what the original missionaries

did. Abraham left his land and his people and went to dwell in a land that the LORD would show him,

and in essence because of this movement the Nations were blessed through him. (Genesis 12:1,3). Paul,

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too, left his people, his land and moved as a tent-maker amongst the gentiles, preaching the good news

to them. (Acts 18:1-3). Mission has always been about dwelling within cultural groups that the

missionary is a non-native to, and in turn allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell within one's everyday

encounters. The tent is representative of where mission originated, highlighting the past in order that

the evolution of mission might become more evident.

The inside of the tent speaks to the evolution of mission. The living space of the tent has been

transformed into a place of intricate webs, a room of networking, partnerships and connections. Mission

has undergone a world-wide transformation, with the introduction of technology, partnerships and

networking is made possible and accessible. Instead of mission organizations working independently and

unaware of each other,

networking is possible for

believers around the

world to unite in order to

spread the gospel more

effectively. Missionaries

are able to share what

God is doing in amongst

the nations to their

supporters more speedily

as well as send urgent

prayer requests to

intercessors across the

world.

A secondary

meaning can be read

from the image of the

tent. Not only is

networking made more

possible with the

introduction of

technology but going

back to the idea of

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movement. Unreached People Groups are migrating, moving around the world to reached nations and

dwelling within our very own neighborhoods, dwelling with us. In order to reach Unreached Peoples we

don’t always have to migrate to different continents, or different nations. In some cases all we have to

do is use the information available from technological advances, find pockets of unreached people living

near us and migrate down the street in order to develop relationships with them.

A final meaning that can be read into Dwelling Within is found within the use of the light and the

heart beating inside of the tent. All the string, the “networks,” are somehow connected to the light,

picking up on the rays of the light, highlighting the rays of light. Perhaps the light could be symbolic of

the light that shines in the darkness that the darkness could not comprehend. Perhaps the light could be

symbolic how we, are the light of the world, a city on the hill that cannot be hid. It is because of the

light, and the revelation of that light, that we are able to connect and shine unto all the nations. It is only

in the rhythm of the heartbeat that we are able to live and move and have our being. It is only by

Dwelling Within this light, or letting this light dwell within us that Christ made be made known unto the

nations.

The answer to how Dwelling Within can be used in the mission field is found within the bodily

experience of indwelling this tent. The tent is an invitation asking the viewer to become a "tent-

dweller," the tent is asking the viewer to engage in the network. In fact, once the viewer enters the tent

they cannot help but become part of the network. This bodily experience not only points Christians to

the ideas of dwelling within the nations and becoming part of the modern mission movement, but also

can serve as an invitation for non-Christians to become a tent-dweller. I pray that this invitation to enter

the network, to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, would impact people from all nations. It is my hope that

this project would serve as a visual reminder of Christ embodied to the nations.

Heather Chester Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today Youth Multimedia Contest Winner

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V. Liturgical Resources

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Worship Resources

Prayer of Thanksgiving (words in bold said by all together)

Come and see what we have seen: the lame dance for joy, the blind see wonders,

the deaf hear music, the voiceless given dignity and worth.

Come and see what we have seen: the powerful are humbled,

the prisoners are freed, women heard and honoured, children grow in safety and love.

Come and see what we have seen: the fearful find courage,

the broken-hearted find healing, the addicted embrace freedom,

the indifferent find passion, the superstitious find truth that is real.

Come and see what we have seen: long-standing hatreds overcome,

sacrifices made across borders, care and respect for the earth, hope springing forth,

a new creation emerging, God’s praise rising from all nations.

Come and see - See what God has done.

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Worship Resources

Prayer of Confession [A musical setting of Kyrie eleison, such as CH4 no. 776, should be used]

The leader says Because God is merciful, and because there is nothing we should hide from God, let us express to our Maker regret which comes from our hearts.

Forgive us, gracious God, if - as your people – we have tried to make heaven in the image of our church, rather than making our churches resemble heaven.

And forgive us if we have looked with suspicion on churches not of our tradition, and especially if we have been unwilling to share the gifts

which your Holy Spirit brought to birth in other cultures. Kyrie eleison

Forgive us, gracious God, if we have called ourselves „ the Body of Christ‟

but have refused to share the pain which others bear, and have been jealous of the happiness others share.

Christe eleison

Forgive us, gracious God, our abuse of power, personal and institutional,

if at any time we have approached with disrespect the cultures and customs of those we are among, and sought to impose our own interpretations of the truth and love of Christ.

Kyrie eleison

Now, where penitence is real, let your forgiveness, O Christ, be truly felt.

Say to us all, as you said to your first followers, Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.

Come and follow me.

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Worship Resources

Prayer of Intercession Leader: Let us pray

We give thanks to God for the unique beauty God has created in our motherlands:

their landscapes, their plant life, their animal life and people.

Encourage, O God, a deep love for the lands from which we come. Preserve their water, air and soil;

keep their economies clean, their trade fair, their politics healthy.

We give thanks to God for the Churches to which we belong,

their centuries of worship and witness, their service to those in need,

the potential in every member. Keep them nourished, good Lord,

through your word and sacraments; show them what to leave behind and what to anticipate in hope,

so that they may attract others to Christ.

We give thanks to God for calling us to be his ambassadors, so that the Gospel may be shared

and shown throughout the world, Let it take root in our time as strongly as in the time of the apostles.

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Give us discerning minds, O Christ, so that we know when to speak, what to say,

and when to be silent and trust your Spirit. Give us courage to challenge beliefs and customs which make people slaves,

and to proclaim the love which liberates and reconciles.

We thank you, eternal God, for the World Missionary Conference of 1910, and the good things which began there.

And we thank you for this moment, one hundred years later, when, by your Spirit and with those around us, we can prepare for the ever new future to which you call us.

Keep our eyes, our ears,

our hearts and our minds open, for we do not know when your Holy Spirit will confront us with a new thing.

May we all find new friends here, and catch visions of your Kingdom

we have not glimpsed before. And may those who speak find words to fire the faith and shape the discipleship of all who listen,

so that we may become better witnesses to Christ today.

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The Stations of the Cross of Globalization Paintings and Meditations by Luiz Coelho

Foreword

Often, when Christians gather to discuss mission, certain common themes seem

to emerge in the conversations: the call for us to become engaged with the

work of bringing more souls to Christ's family, the call to preach the Gospel to all

peoples, and the call to go and serve those in need, by sponsoring church

planting, medical and educational facilities are just a few of those common

themes. In recent decades, we have heard the Holy Spirit calling us to include in

our Mission endeavors works which protect and care for all God's creation.

This call has led us to promote policies that focus on sustaining the Environment

and grant basic living conditions to all.

As we prayerfully continue listening to God and to one another, many other

faces of Mission begin to emerge. One of them, which is often daunting to put in

practice, is the call to transform the unjust structures of our society. This call is a

challenge partly because many well-meaning and faithful Christians lack

knowledge and access to information concerning the widespread web of

injustice around them. These “Stations of the Cross” emerge as a series of

conceptual works that focus on current issues on globalization and world trade;

they are meant to both inform and provoke prayerful action for justice.

Today, those who earn a reasonable salary have access to more goods than

their ancestors could have ever imagined. However, within the production

networks which grant this easy access to goods, there are often many cases of

human exploitation. Have you ever noticed that many products you find in

stores and on supermarket shelves are not made in your country? Have you ever

pondered why sometimes they can be so cheap to the point they will

eventually be sold in sales at enormous price cuts? Have you ever thought

about the impact that ubiquitous, cheap, imported products have on local

businesses? Have you ever wondered why most products – from food items to

electronics – now have their production controlled by only a handful of

companies, which act through a complex network of distributors, contractors

and factories spread throughout a global nexus?

On the other end of the line of production, there is often considerable

exploitation happening. Crowded factories force workers to labor long hours per

day. Farms employ young children, who never get to complete even the most

basic education. Workers who protest are threatened and fired. Modern forms

of slavery persist. All of these abuses, and many others, are documented by

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trustworthy sources, but rarely surface to the mass media. Still, people are being

oppressed every single day in precarious labor environments. Their life

expectancy is low. They do not have time for their family. They lack basic rights.

Their life is miserable.

It is our firm belief that Christians, regardless of their church affiliation, must work

to transform the unjust structures of our society. This is not mere political speech.

It is Our Lord's will. We learn through Scripture that Jesus fed the hungry, healed

the sick and came to bring abundant life to all. As Christians, we are supposed

to be salt and light in a sinful world. But how can we rejoice with Our Lord's

Resurrection and proclaim His Good News if we let other human beings –

created in the image and likeness of God – suffer, and worse, suffer in order to

bring us comfort? We ought to see Jesus' face in the oppressed, and this

includes those who are directly oppressed by our consumerism and irresponsible

shopping.

This series of pieces is not intended to completely replace traditional formulas of

the Stations of the Cross. Those have their own liturgical and theological

implications, and point to the suffering of our Lord and his sacrifice in atonement

for our salvation. It is presented, nonetheless, as a Lenten meditation for those

who, like us, feel that it is integral to the Mission of the Church that we fight

against human exploitation in the production and trade system.

Luiz Coelho

Additional Notes

This liturgy may be used for private prayer. However, for communal prayer, the

Officiant should read the Readings for each station, and the people will join the

Officiant in saying or singing the Trisagion (Holy God...).

All paintings are 16” x 20” oil and acrylic on canvas.

A list of sources used while doing research for this booklet can be found at the

end of it. Special thanks to the Rev. Fr. Robert J. Laws III, SCP, OPC, for his

valuable support in revising and updating these texts.

** A full copy of the text of “The Stations of the Cross of Globalization: A liturgical resource for Christian communities engaged in God's reconciling mission throughout the world” is attached with this email. Or you may find it at www.luizcoelho.com

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VI. Online Links &

Resources

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Online Links & Resources

a. Edinburgh 2010: Youth Perspectives - this book, consisting of a series of essays, provides a look into the various perspectives of youth from around the world, as they engage in the future challenges facing the Church today and the opportunities for the future. The authors of these essays provide new and refreshing approaches to Christian witness within the 21st Century. Edited by Kirk Sandvig William Carey International University Press 2010 / ISBN 978-0-86585-0125 A free downloadable version can be found at:

http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/resources/books.html b. Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today – was the primary resource book for all the Edinburgh2010 delegates. Discussions in the conference were encouraged to spring board off of these reports of the 9 study theme processes. Edited by Daryl Balia and Kristeen Kim Regnum Books International 2010 / ISBN 9781870345774 A free downloadable version can be found at:

http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/resources/books.html

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Online Links & Resources

c. Edinburgh2010: Witnessing to Christ Today – a Facebook Group – is the official Facebook Group of the Edinburgh 2010 conference. With almost 1450 members, this facebook group was the venue for online discussion on the 9 study themes leading up to the conference and is a source of information for upcoming events happening all around the world related to the centenary celebration of the 1910 World Mission Conference. The purpose of the Facebook page was to accommodate more youth interaction on the conference via the internet. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86413318386 d. Twitter: Edinburgh2010 – this is the official twitter page of Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today. The “tweets” were being “tweeted” by accompanying Young Adult Stewards. They were listening to profound phrases utter by the plenary speakers or by the delegates during the parallel sessions. http://twitter.com/edinburgh2010 e. Generation 2010: a Post Edinburgh2010 Facebook Group – “Many of us met at Edinburgh 2010, and many more will come together in a culture of sacred mission that crosses boundaries, heals afflictions, and speaks new possibilities into being.” This Facebook group is a fruit of the conference coming from the new friendships that were forged during the conference among the “younger” delegates, stewards, and staff.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135372346473

889&v=photos&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=135372346473889

&ref=ts

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Online Links & Resources f. WCC Mission and Unity: Edinburgh 2010 – inside the World Council of Churches‟ website (www.oikoumene.org); under Program 2: Unity, Mission, Evangelism, and Spirituality; Edinburgh2010 is found under the program project of Mission and Unity. There you can access WCC news written on Edinburgh2010 and other related articles on the subject matter.

http://www.oikoumene.org/programmes/unity-mission-

evangelism-and-spirituality/mission-and-unity/towards-

2010.html g. WCC Echos – Commission on Youth and the Ecumenical Movement – consists of 25 young people from a broad cross-section of churches and youth organizations within the ecumenical movement. It was set up as an "active think tank" to provide the WCC and ecumenical youth networks with new ideas on how young people can engage in ecumenical work. The Echos commission met with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism in Bangalore, India in an attempt to facilitate quality youth involvement in the Centenary Celebration. Echos was involved in naming Young Missiologists who could get involved in the Edinburgh2010 study process. Two Echos members were delegates to the conference.

http://www.oikoumene.org/programmes/the-wcc-and-

the-ecumenical-movement-in-the-21st-century/youth-in-

the-ecumenical-movement/echos-youth-commission.html

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Online Links & Resources h. Luiz Coelho - is an Engineer, Visual Artist, and Ordained from the Anglican Diocese of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His multidisciplinary work focuses mostly on the intersections between Sacred Art, Liturgy, Mission and Technology. He is the author of “The Stations of the Cross of Globalization”. His other works can be found in his website:

http://www.luizcoelho.com/en/home.html

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VII. Youth

Delegates

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A List of Delegates below 30 years of Age

# Name Organisation Gender Denomination Nationality

1 Rev. Irene Ayallo Anglican Communion

F Anglican Kenyan

2 Ms Caitlin Beck Anglican Communion

F Anglican Church of Canada

Canadian

3 Mr Jec Dan Borlado World Council of Churches

M Convention Baptist Filipino

4 Mrs Gwen Bryde Lutheran - Study Process

F Lutheran German

5 Miss Heather Chester

Multi-media Contest F Missionic Church USA

6 Mr Luiz Coelho Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil

M Anglican Brazilian

7 Ms Elizabeth Duffy Diocesan Centre F Roman Catholic British

8 Miss Taryn Knibbs Youth With A Mission

F Presbyterian/Free Church

SouthAfrican/ British

9 Fr Vineeth Koshy National Council of Churches in India

M Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church

Indian

10 Miss Karyn Lasei Council for World Mission

F Congregational Union of New Zealand

New Zealander

11 Mgr Urszula Marek Center for Missions and Evangelism

F Silesian Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Czech Republic

Polish

12 Mr Iain McLarty The Church of Scotland

M Church of Scotland Scottish

13 Ms Adele Ngomedje

World Student Christian Federation

F Evangelical Church of Cameroon

Cameroonian

14 Lic. Nicolas Schneider

Iglesias World Lutheran Federation

M Iglesia Evangelica del Rio de la Plata (IERP)

Uruguay

15 Ms Megan O'Callaghan

World Council of Churches

F Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia

European New Zealander

16 Ms Alejandra Ortiz Latin American Theological Fraternity

F Methodist Mexican

17 Mr Andrew Thompson

Youth Essay Contest M Episcopal USA

18 Mr Burkhard Wagner

Lutheran World Federation

M Pomeranian Protestant Church (PPC)

German

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VIII. From the

Youth Coordinator

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WCC Feature Article

by Kirk Sandvig Youth Voices on Mission were heard at Edinburgh 2010

It has often been said that youth are the future of the Church. While this may be true, it is important to realize that while youth will eventually become the Church of tomorrow, they are also intricately involved in the formation and development of the Church of today. In the time leading up to the June conference, Edinburgh 2010 has worked hard to increasingly incorporate the inspirational perspectives and ideas of young people within the Church. There have been quite a few events that have occurred during the build-up to the centenary celebrations in June, particularly as they pertain to youth. Various groups and committees have been gathering to discuss the various conference study themes in preparation for the conference. During these meetings, ideas were shared about the complex issues facing Christian witness within the twenty-first century, and how transversal themes, such as Youth and Mission, should be addressed during the Edinburgh 2010 conference. Edinburgh 2010 Youth were host to an Online Consultation through the Edinburgh 2010 Facebook group. The consultation took place from September to November 2009, and addressed each of the nine study themes of the conference. This consultation was open to people of all ages and backgrounds for the purposes of allowing Christians from all over the world the ability to share and discuss mission related topics. In an effort to increase youth participation and foster creative thinking within the Edinburgh 2010 process, a youth writing contest was established in order to provide youth an opportunity to share their thoughts on the issues of Christian witness. Youth, ages 18-30, were encouraged to write a 3000-word essay, engaging in one of the nine study themes of the Edinburgh 2010 conference. We were fortunate to receive essays from youth spanning around the world, including: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brazil, the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK.

The essay contest was evaluated by a panel of top theologians and missiologists with varying age, gender, theological, and geographical backgrounds. The panel was charged with finding the essay which clearly and precisely engages in one of the nine Edinburgh 2010 Study Themes through new and innovative ways. In Andrew Thompson's essay, entitled 'Communities of the Spirit: Missiology of Roland Allen in the Twenty-First Century', the panel found what they were looking for.

Andrew received a sponsored invitation to the Edinburgh 2010 conference and celebrations in June. The top 10 papers from the writing contest were published in the form of a book entitled Edinburgh 2010: Youth Perspectives.

In light of the centenary celebration of Edinburgh 1910, a Youth Multimedia Contest was established in order to challenge youth (ages 18-30) to think creatively about “The Changing Face of Mission” through the submission of projects which incorporate diverse forms of media, incorporating but not limited to:

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video, photography, music, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc. Similar to the writing contest, the multimedia contest was also evaluated by a panel of theologians who specialize in incorporating media and theology. The purpose of this group was to find the project which best illustrated 'The Changing Face of Mission' in thoughtful and meaningful ways. Through the use of a handmade Bedouin-style tent, Heather Chester's project demonstrates how the introduction of technology has transformed Christian mission from tent-makers, spreading the gospel throughout the world, to a network of churches and organizations around the planet, working together through the utilization of the internet. Heather received a sponsored invitation to the Edinburgh conference, where she presented her installation art peace, entitled ‘Dwelling Within’, during one of the three evening sessions, and showcased her project throughout the conference. Throughout the conference, young delegates contributed to the break out sessions through presentations and discussions relating to the many issues facing Christian witness in the various contexts of today's world. Everyone had their own perspective and opinions that were shared and listened to by other delegates. It was clear that there is no such thing as a 'youth voice', but many voices, and each were considered thoughtfully during the discussions. In addition to this, Edinburgh 2010 had YouTube videos, as well as facebook and twitter updates throughout the conference, where people from all over the world could be aware of the events taking place in Edinburgh and share their comments. This was done so that those who were unable to attend the conference in Edinburgh could also experience and contribute to the discussions and topics raised throughout the conference.

** Kirk C. Sandvig is a Ph.D. student at the University of Edinburgh, New College, Centre for the Study of World Christianity. Since the beginning of 2009, he has served as the Edinburgh 2010 Youth and Mission Coordinator, encouraging youth from around the world to increasingly participate in the Edinburgh 2010 process.

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IX. Pictures

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Pictures courtesy of Gary Doak & Jec Dan Borlado

Sights in Edinburgh

above: looking up to Arthur’s Seat

below: Arthur’s seat

above: a walk down Holyrood Park inset: St. Leonard’s Hall at Pollock Halls

below: Bagpipe player in a kilt

above: the Royal Mile in typical Scottish weather

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left standing: (left – right) Jose Lopez Vazquez, Megan O’Callaghan, Irene Ayallo, Andrew Thompson, Alejandra Ortiz, Iain McLarty, Miriam Haar, Aaron Hollander, Heather Chester, Julia Heyde left sitting: (left – right) Luiz Coelho, Jec Dan Borlado, Vicentia Kgabe, Caitlin Beck, Mark Taylor

Pictures courtesy of Gary Doak & Jec Dan Borlado

The Youth in Edinburgh

below: The Anglican Youth Delegation

above standing: (left-right) Andrew Thompson, Heather Chester, Adele Ngomedje, Fofo Lerefolo – WCC intern, Alejandra Ortiz, Iain McLarty, Kwok Keung Chan, Jose Lopez Vazquez. above sitting: (left - right) Caitlin Beck, Vicentia Kgabe, Irene Ayallo, Luiz Coelho, Nicolas Iglesias Schneider.

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Pictures courtesy of Gary Doak & Jec Dan Borlado

Significant Voices

right: Bishop Geevarghese Mor Coorilos (moderator – Commission on World Mission and Evangelism) inset: Olav Fykse Tveit (General Secretary of the World Council of Churches)

above: Adele Ngomedje

addressing the Scottish

Parliament

left: Anastasia Vasileiadou (member, General Council Edinburgh 2010) giving her conference reflection above: Michael Wallace (member, General Council Edinburgh 2010) from the World Student Christian Federation

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right: Jec Dan Borlado from the Philippines

Pictures courtesy of Gary Doak & Jec Dan Borlado

Expressions

below: Gwen Bryde from Germany

above: Luiz Coelho from Brazil

left: Heather Chester from USA

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Pictures courtesy of Gary Doak & Jec Dan Borlado

Facets of the Conference below: at the closing plenary

below: Dr. Sarojini Nadar in conversation with fellow delegates.

above: pebbles brought from all over the world and laid down during the Opening Ceremony. inset: a buzz group during one of the Parallel sessions in Track 3.

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Pictures courtesy of Gary Doak & Jec Dan Borlado

The Ceilidh - is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated in Ireland and Scotland, but is now common throughout the Irish and Scottish diaspora. Before discos and nightclubs, there were céilidhs in most town and village halls on Friday or Saturday nights; they are still common today.

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Pictures courtesy of Gary Doak & Jec Dan Borlado

The Closing Celebration at the Church of Scotland Assembly Halls

above & right: inside the Church of Scotland General Assembly Halls on the Mound, the historical venue of the 1910 World Missionary Conference

left: sending off the delegates with their red and white umbrellas and pebbles from Iona.

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X. Acknowledgements

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Acknowledgements by Jec Dan Borlado

At the onset, I would like to express that this report is a personal initiative to echo the Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today experience to those who were not there. Initially intended as a report for the World Council of Churches Echos – commission on Youth in the Ecumenical Movement, I recognize that this piece of work might have valuable significance to wider communities and contexts. It is my hope that this material will be useful to those who wish to share and impart the Spirit of God’s Mission experienced for a short time being by those who were there at Edinburgh, Scotland from June 2 – 6, 2010. I concede that there are limitations to this compendium of insights, resources, and information that will not suffice to offer a comprehensive picture of the total Edinburgh 2010 experience. I express my thanks to all those who have contributed to the making this material. To those who gave their insights on the conference: Megan, Anastasia, Jose, Aaron, and Andrew. To those who contributed in the road leading to and during the conference: Andrew for the essay, Aaron for the book reviews, Adele for the Scottish Parliament speech, Heather for the creative artwork, and Luiz for the creative liturgy on the Stations of the Cross of Globalization. A big thanks goes to Kirk Sandvig for being our Youth Coordinator and for forwarding to me much of the content. To stewards and staff: Kirsteen, Mark, Fiona, Miriam, Aaron, Fofo and Jasmin. Great job! To all who were there in at Pollock Halls: we celebrated, we repented, and we learned; we were transformed, renewed, and inspired. As we journey on, may we respond to the challenge by living a new sense of hope and assurance that we are God’s Mission and that we are active participants in the demonstration of our encounters of God’s Mission from our contexts, to our generation. And to the Primary Mover, Radical Example, and Gracious Sustainer of The Mission – all glory be Yours!

Jec Dan S. Borlado July 2010