SCOTLAND: Edinburgh prepares for world mission conference in June
Episcopal News Service. May 7, 2010 [050710-03]
Matthew Davies
About 300 delegates from more than 60 countries will travel to Edinburgh in early June for a global summit to mark the centenary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference that is widely regarded as a major milestone in the modern ecumenical movement.
The Edinburgh 2010 conference, "Witnessing to Christ Today," will run June 2-6 and is being hosted by New College, home to the University of Edinburgh's School of Divinity. The conference is funded by more than 30 international churches and mission organizations from the Anglican, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Evangelical Christian traditions.
Archbishop of York John Sentamu will be the guest preacher at the closing celebratory service June 6 in the Church of Scotland General Assembly Halls on the Mound, the venue of the 1910 conference. The event is expected to draw 1,200 visitors from all over the world, including a delegation from the Anglican Communion.
"This is not just about study and celebration of the glory days of mission, but a creative way to open up new perspectives for Christian witness today," said Dr. Daryl Balia, ordained minister of the Methodist Church and international director of Edinburgh 2010. "I hope that a new vision will arise through serious research to breathe new life to the worldwide church and help us think outside the box about God's mission."
The Edinburgh 2010 project is overseen by a 20-member general council, which includes the Rev. John Kafwanka of the Anglican Communion Office's mission department.
The Anglican delegation selected to attend the conference includes nine men and women -- young and old, ordained and lay -- drawn from seven provinces of the Anglican Communion. In addition to Kafwanka, they are Caitlin Reilley Beck of Canada, the Rev. Kwok Keung Chan of Hong Kong, the Rev. Irene Akini Ayallo of Kenya, the Rev. Kapya John Kaoma of Zambia, the Rev. Vicentia Kgabe of South Africa, Luiz Caelho of Brazil, Bishop Mark MacDonald of Canada, and Janice Price of England.
Kafwanka told ENS that six of the delegates are young Anglican leaders, "upon whom we have placed emphasis in terms of Anglican representation to this historical event."
The Anglican Communion's mission department, Kafwanka said, "is investing in an ongoing process of developing potential young Anglican and Episcopal leaders who are involved in cutting edge or pioneering mission [and] ministry around the communion. One way of doing this is giving the young Anglicans an opportunity to experience and contribute to international mission events."
The delegates will participate in a pre-conference hospitality program May 28-June 2, when they will have an opportunity to experience church life and various mission initiatives in different dioceses in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Also attending the Edinburgh 2010 conference will be Andy Thompson, an Episcopalian from New Haven, Connecticut, and former Young Adult Service Corps volunteer, who was selected as the winner of the Edinburgh 2010 youth writing contest. Thompson's prize is a sponsored trip to Edinburgh 2010.
"I am looking forward to learning," said Thompson. "Some of the speakers are very highly esteemed people in the field of mission and the opportunity to interact with them will be great."
Thompson said he has also been corresponding with some of the other young adults expected to attend the conference. "We have talked about the importance of ensuring the youth perspective will be represented and how it will constitute an important part of the conference," he said.
Thompson's essay deals with the relevance of an early 20th century Anglican missionary and missiologist, Roland Allen, and his contemporary concerns about mission.
The essay was based on the study themes identified -- by several hundred theologians and mission experts who have worked together since 2007 -- as the crucial topics in Christian mission in the 21st century. (A separate ENS article about Thompson is available here.)
The study themes are: foundations for mission; Christian mission among other faiths; mission and postmodernities; mission and power; forms of missionary engagement; theological education and formation; Christian communities in contemporary contexts; mission and unity - ecclesiology and mission; and mission spirituality and authentic discipleship.
"This unique global conversation," says Dr. Kirsteen Kim, study process coordinator of Edinburgh 2010, "will both inform future mission practice and stimulate further mission studies."
The conference, which will include workshops, seminars and worship services, will open on June 6 with a keynote address by Dana L. Robert, co-director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at the Boston University School of Theology.
"As we celebrate the centennial of the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh, 1910, we seek to deepen and strengthen its prophetic vision of worldwide, multi-cultural Christian unity -- a unity marked by shared passion to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ," says Robert on the Edinburgh 2010 website. "The memory of Edinburgh 1910 reminds us that we are ambassadors of hope, confident in the power of God's love despite our limitations in a world of pain and injustice."