Missions Conference in North Carolina Draws 800 Participants
Episcopal News Service. May 25, 2000 [2000-110]
Peggy Noll
(ENS) "All our problems: We send to the cross of Christ...All our hopes: We set on the risen Christ." With that acclamation from the Kenyan Service of Holy Communion, more than 800 Episcopalians from all over the U.S. and Anglicans from all over the world concluded the New Wineskins for Global Missions Conference 2000 in Ridgecrest, North Carolina, on April 30. Celebrant at the service was the Rt. Rev. Joseph Wasonga, Diocese of Maseno West, Kenya.
"The Wineskins conferences in 1994 and 1997 were wonderful," reported the Rev. Tom Prichard, director of the South American Missionary Society USA at the end of the week, "but this one was more wonderful yet."
The Episcopal Church Missionary Community in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, under its director, Sharon Stockdale, sponsored the conference along with Rock the World Youth Mission Alliance, which ran a concurrent program for young people.
Evening plenary speakers included Bishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria; Dr. Paul Marshall, author of Their Blood Cries Out; the Rev. Miguel Uchoa, rector of the fastest-growing Anglican congregation in Recife, Brazil; and the Most Rev. Maurice Sinclair, primate of the Southern Cone. Other presenters included the Very Rev. Peter Moore, dean/president of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry; Lisa Chinn, newly appointed director for International Student Ministry at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; and Paul Borthwick, a well-known missiologist.
In his opening sermon, Kwashi thanked the many participants who had sent their prayers and emails to him in Jos during the recent bloodshed near his diocese in northern Nigeria, where Christians were being killed by militant Muslims. "For the first time we did not feel alone," he said. "We felt connected with you and knew that you were standing with us."
Kwashi reminded the conference that God had promised in Isaiah 41 that God's people would rise up on wings like eagles, would run and not be weary. "What is this being 'burnt out?'" he chided. "Too many Christians are like chickens, their eyes on the ground, pecking around at their feet. We have had enough of chicken Christianity! God gives us power to soar like the eagle."
The preacher at the final plenary session on Sunday morning was the Rev. Dr. Sam Kamaleson of South India, who has led pastors' conferences for World Vision International for 25 years. He told a story of a beggar showing that Christians need to stop clinging to the rags of their old selves and accept Christ's gift of a new life. "Our lives in our own hands, a pain and a problem. Our lives in God's hands, a power and a possibility," he said repeatedly as a refrain to his message.
The Rev. Kuan Kim Seng of Singapore described the evangelistic activities that his diocese is carrying out in Southeast Asia.
The Rev. Dr. Alison Barfoot from Kansas City in her evening Bible studies underlined the "mission to keep mission the mission" of the Church. "We need to be like Jesus, who set his face towards Jerusalem and did not turn aside or turn back." In the morning Bible studies, the Rev. Walter Hannum, founder of ECMC, pointed out the need for scripture and leadership if a people are to continue as the people of God. "We need men and women like the men of Issachar "who understood the times and knew what Israel should do." (1 Chronicles 12:32) "Like Paul, we need to plant congregations that continue to be people of God for generations."
A group from Shepherd's Heart in Pittsburgh, an Episcopal ministry among the homeless in the city, gave their testimonies of God's healing, and on Saturday evening the Rev. Tad deBordenave, founder and director of Anglican Frontier Missions, led the assembly in a Concert of Prayer for all the areas addressed on the preceding days.
"Two themes kept recurring throughout the conference," noted the Rev. Grant LeMarquand, associate professor of Bible and mission at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. "One was the crucial role of prayer to undergird all mission. We have seen that power here at this conference in the intercession offered for us by a team throughout the week. The other was preparation. You wouldn't want to go to a surgeon who decided only two weeks ago to be a doctor. If you sense that God might be calling you to cross-cultural mission, you need to think seriously about preparation."
The Rev. Jane Butterfield, director of mission personnel at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, spoke during a plenary session about mission requests received by her office for both clergy and lay people. Directors of independent Episcopal agencies such as Anglican Frontier Mission, Church Mission Society USA, Episcopal World Mission, Inc., South American Missionary Society, and Sharing of Ministries Abroad USA described the opportunities available through their organizations
Before the conference opened, the Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission was officially inaugurated at the final meeting of the Episcopal Council for Global Mission, a 10-year effort of approximately 50 mission entities in the Episcopal Church. Also, the boards of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry and the South American Missionary Society were convened. The board of Uganda Christian University Partners held its inaugural meeting on April 28.
Fifty workshops allowed people to hear about every aspect of mission from AIDS and its effect on ministry in the coming decade to questions about missionary kids; from ongoing housing projects in Honduras in the wake of Hurricane Mitch to reaching out to international students. Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, led two workshops on the church's work with immigrants and refugees in the United States.
Each day began with Eucharist, including a service in Spanish on Friday morning. Wellspring, a music and worship team from England, led the singing throughout the conference and received a standing ovation at the end. In between sessions, participants browsed at exhibits from more than 100 mission agencies and projects, including the United Thank Offering and the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.