ACC Meeting to Hear Mission Reform Call
Episcopal News Service. June 28, 1984 [84136]
LONDON (DPS, June 28) -- Anglican Churches are being urged to undertake "an enormous work of reconstruction and reform" so that "mission is given its proper place and a right balance struck between our call to abide in God's love and our commission to make that love known in all the world."
This challenge is issued in a report, "Giving Mission its Proper Place," prepared by the Anglican Consultative Council's Mission Issues and Strategy Advisory Group, which draws members from nine countries and includes representatives of Anglican mission agencies. It will be presented to the Council, of bishops, clergy, and lay representatives from the 27 member churches of the world-wide Anglican Communion, when they meet in Nigeria next month (July 17-27).
The task of the group was to review mission issues and strategy in the Communion; identify exceptional needs and opportunities for mission and development which call for a Communion-wide response; and find ways and means of collaboration with other Christian bodies in mission and evangelism.
Their report says that mission is a much neglected area in the life of the Anglican Church. The dominant model which operates in the churches, it says, is a pastoral one.
It calls for a greater emphasis on mission and proclamation in two particular areas -- places where Christians are a minority and in secularised western societies whose assumptions can no longer be said to be Christian.
"This is an excellent report which gives the Anglican Communion a blueprint for action," commented the secretary general of the Anglican Consultative Council, Canon Samuel Van Culin. "I hope that the Council will respond positively and that the churches and mission agencies will make its implementation a matter of urgency."
The mission emphasis of the report is linked with the theme of unity. "God's mission," says the report, "is to reconcile all people to Himself and to one another in and through Christ." It argues that a divided church obscures God's nature and will.
It asks churches to consider undertaking a regular "mission audit" asking themselves questions such as: How well does public worship serve to proclaim the Church's message to those who do not believe? How adequately are lay people being trained to share their faith?"
The report moved on to pinpoint problems that affect the Anglican Communion.
The panelists found that while the Anglican Communion seeks to express universality, it is dominated by English-speakers. This means that partnership with churches and persons whose first language is not English is greatly hindered. Accordingly, the needs of those whose first language is not English are not sufficiently taken into account in international Anglican meetings and in the Partners in Mission process.
An overall commitment to Partnership in Mission, a process set up by the second meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council to enable shared mission planning by the churches was noted. But the report says that more work needs to be done to make the partnership process work. It says that despite the advent of Partners in Mission, many churches and agencies have continued to undertake bi-lateral funding.
The authors of the report believe that funding should not dominate the Partners in Mission process. They state that bi-lateral funding can cause great problems if care is not taken to develop openness; it can lead to the distortion of the partnership principle. The report says that there needs to be better accountability -- on the part of donors as much as receivers.
Also noted is the complexity of the different systems for world mission which operate within the churches. The report says that these systems need to be rationalized so that coordinated, prompt action by mission agencies will be more possible. One of the main recommendations of the report is for a major conference of all Anglican mission agencies which would seek to find solutions to this issue.
It also recommends that more work be done by the Anglican Communion on the relationship between mission and development.