Mutuality Principle Spurs Anglican Call to World Missions
Diocesan Press Service. February 1, 1966 [40-6]
Hilary Gordon
(A Canadian Press Newsfeature)
Two years ago the Rt. Rev. Donald B. Marsh, Anglican Bishop of Arctic, received a welcome but unexpected check. The $85 gift, from Nippon Seikokai (The Anglican Church in Japan), was a token of its interest in the Canadian church's work among the Eskimos.
The money marked the first tangible recognition of a new concept of world mission that had its genesis in the Anglican Congress held in Toronto a few months earlier. At the Congress, 1,000 delegates from around the world acclaimed a summons by primates and metropolitans of the Anglican Communion's 19 independent churches to re-evaluate and revitalize church work on a global basis.
The challenge was inherent in a Christian and social document bearing a long-winded title -- "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ." MRI, as it quickly became known, proved a catalyst and set the world-wide communion on a course that stimulated personal service and fostered Christian unity.
More than two years have elapsed since the Congress and churchmen are cautious in assessing what has been achieved under MRI. The little Japanese gift was followed by a flood of money as the communion's older churches responded to a financial appeal with an initial five-year objective of $15,000,000, over and above regular budgets.
To date more than $4,500,000 has been subscribed toward this target. The money is to be used for emergency projects in the less affluent churches of Africa, Asia and South America. At the outset, however, it was realized that the objective would be merely the launching figure for a continuing effort requiring many more millions.
The Congress program and the discussions which followed evoked far-reaching challenges, a great number with financial implications. Now, the emphasis which has since been placed on the latter aspect of the world mission is causing concern.
The Rt. Rev. Ralph S. Dean, Bishop of Cariboo, in his capacity as the communion's executive officer concerned with the co-ordination of missionary strategy for world Anglicanism, stresses that mutual responsibility is not a one-way street. Giving, while an initial and practical base for implementing the new mission concept, should not preclude prayer and study and a continuing effort to effect deeper and deliberate relationships among the various churches.
Studied in its broadest aspects, mutual responsibility has inspired new attitudes and a new vision regarding the Christian mission to the world. Indirectly the ecumenical spirit has sparked the sense of interdependence underlying current Anglican missionary strategy.
Western patronization and superiority are disappearing as the older churches co-operate with their counterparts in the emerging nations to make the Christian Gospel relevant to their life and culture. There is a growing movement to co-ordinate the work of the centuries-old British missionary societies which are voluntary agencies of the Church of England.
The Anglican Church of Canada has discarded the traditional approach to missionary enterprise and sends workers abroad only on invitation of the indigenous churches. MRI has spurred the Episcopal Church in the United States to extend its missionary endeavor, particularly in Latin America.
Under the stimulus of MRI, and aided by generous grants from the older churches, the five autonomous Anglican Churches of Africa are making progress in developing national ministries, providing Christian Literature, community centres, agricultural technology and in extending hospital and medical services.
The same is true, to a lesser degree, in Asia, A trend to reunion of various denominations is noticeable 'in India, while the 50,000-member church in Japan, which hitherto has appealed chiefly to the intellectual class, seeks to bring the Christian message to the nation's huge labor force.
Formation of a North American Regional Council involving churches of the Anglican Communion in Canada, the United States and the West Indies may become one of MRI's top achievements. Currently only in the drawing-board stage, the scheme has earned tentative approval in principle. Its proponents believe Anglicanism's contribution to Christian life on the continent will make a much greater impact if it is supervised by such a canonical body. At present the United States and Canadian Churches collaborate well in many areas, but the Church of the West Indies is more isolated and has close ties with the Church of England.
A Latin-American Regional Council is also a possibility. Igreja Episcopal Brasileira (Episcopal Church of Brazil) with a membership of about 50,000 would probably become the most important unit in such a council. It would be linked with two dioceses now under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and another that is supervised by the American Episcopal Church.
The Southeast Asia and South Pacific Councils were established a few years ago, but their formation was regarded as preliminary to the creation of new indigenous churches. In strife-torn Southeast Asia and in New Guinea and the scattered islands of Polynesia and Melanesia work has been accelerated through MRI grants and renewed interest in their problems.
Relationships in the Anglican family of churches have taken on a new meaning. The term "foreign missions" has all but disappeared from Western ecclesiastical parlance. Even the word "missionary" has a patronizing overtone and churches are no longer earmarked as "giving" and " receiving" churches.
Application of the mutual responsibility principle is evident throughout the communion. Here are some instances of what has been dubbed "cross-fertilization:"
More than 30 American Episcopal Church dioceses now are linked with as many overseas dioceses for mutual help and understanding; a Bexhill, England, parish has given $6, 780, including an anonymous donation of $2, 700 found in the rector's letter-box, to aid children in Southern Africa; the Diocese of Massachusetts will work an undeveloped 5,761-acre estate in Fiji to aid the rehabilitation of poverty-stricken peasants.
Other examples: Africans in Central Africa have "discovered" there are fellow Anglicans in Canada and the United States as well as in Britain (prior to MRI virtually all mission aid in the area originated in Britain); Canadians have learned of Uganda's culture and life from Christopher Kisosonkole, a Buganda district chief who is responsible for adult literacy in the young nation; Korean missionaries are working in Pakistan and more are wanted.
The Church of South Africa has come up with the most intriguing example of MRI at work. It has sent a token gift of $300 for the Mississippi Delta scheme, started by the National Council of Churches in the United States in an attempt to cope realistically with poverty and racial tension in the area.
Financial involvement was implicit in the mutual responsibility program and the five - year, $15,000, 000 appeal was launched. The various churches made their most urgent needs known to the executive officer in London and as a result what are known as project directories were created.
By mid-December directories from 14 churches were in circulation throughout the communion. They list a total of 1,037 specific projects which, when fully met, will require more than $24, 000, 000. At the time about $4, 500,000 has been raised. Officials are cautiously optimistic, stating that the total changes almost daily, while there has been little time for response to some directories recently issued.
Four of the churches responding to the MRI appeal have set definite objectives. Three of them have five-year targets while the American Episcopal Church is out to raise $6,000,000 in three years. The Anglican Church of Canada expects a total of $2,500, 000; the Church of England in Australia $840, 750 and the Church of New Zealand $305,000.
A definite objective has not been set by the Church of England which through its many affiliated missionary bodies has a large on-going commitment in work overseas. Two years ago the church concluded a five-year program of advance, but the societies are again appealing for increased financial aid and are channeling support for a variety of MRI projects through their existing outlets.
Some African and Asian churches receiving MRI assistance have themselves taken projects to aid needy sister churches, but because of their own lack of funds, the amount of money involved is comparatively small.