Global Mission Network Looks Ahead to Challenges of Next Millennium
Episcopal News Service. May 26, 1999 [99-077]
Margaret Larom
(ENS) Describing God's mission as the salvation and liberation of humankind, Africa's senior Anglican archbishop has urged Episcopalians to move out from their altars and meet people where they are, as Jesus did.
"We must enable God to transform us," declared the Most Rev. Khotso Makhulu, primate of the church in Central Africa and bishop of Botswana, in his keynote speech at the annual Global Episcopal Mission (GEM) Network educational institute April 29-May 1 in Denver.
Speaking on the theme of "Empowering Global Mission into the Next Millennium," the archbishop argued that the church must be engaged in the tasks of transformation and reconciliation, using not only the Great Commission but also Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) to undergird any involvement in mission and evangelism.
Christians are called not only to make Jesus "attractive" to everyone, but also to convince his followers to "live courageously with the challenge of change.... Is this church so freed from prejudice that it can face the challenges of the ensuing years?" Makhulu asked.
The church is not only for sanctuary or sanctimony, he said, adding that "Christians must be at the heart of reconciliation, the champions of the poor and the oppressed. He deplored the absence of heroes like Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King, Jr. "In a broken world, surely one area of missional involvement is healing."
Living up to his reputation, Makhulu's address was full of the sage advice that the Anglican Communion has come to expect from its senior African prelate, peppered with salty soundbites on the state of society as well as the church. He described the church as "the home of sinners, where saints are molded," but insisted that improvements are necessary in every area of congregational life, including attention to youth, empowerment of laity, enlivening worship and liturgy, deepening of prayer life and scripture study.
The important question, he argued, is "Are your doors open? Are you a welcoming church?"
In global terms Makhulu expressed concern over the absence of nourishing relationships among churches in the Anglican Communion -- and what he characterized as the virtual dormancy of ecumenical relations, characterized by endless dialogues that never lead to improved relationships.
Bishop Munawar (Mano) Rumalshah of Pakistan, who was recently appointed general secretary of the United Society of the Propagation of the Gospel, observed that the mission mindset is still that of sender/receiver. He urged a new modality of relationship, using the language and symbolism of the body of Christ, rather than "partnership" or even "mutual responsibility and interdependence." If we are part of the body of Christ, that means sharing the same metabolism, he declared. "To me a missionary is like a transplant into another part of the body. Rejection can mean death for both, acceptance can mean life for both."
He urged Episcopalians to look at giving and receiving as something natural within the economy of God. "It's so difficult for people in the West to believe they can receive, and so difficult for others to believe they have anything to offer. Some seem to feel they're trading material resources for spirituality, and vice versa."
Using Pakistan as an example, he said that when Christianity was introduced 200 years ago, the missionaries reached out to the outcasts, the untouchables. "The scum of the earth received the Gospel in its whole incarnated truth. Yet today, two-thirds of my people still carry human excrement in their hands to make a living. ... You'd have to be mad to be a Christian. It's not a community of hope or wholesomeness, but a people completely deprived. The eradication of poverty is the number one task if the mission is to be credible. Somehow we've perpetuated this evil," Mano said.
He also warned about the globalization of culture and the degradation of the environment, and urged Christians to seek ways of influencing situations where people are being exploited. "The mission challenge is to empower and enable so that poverty and pollution don't devour us all."
Both Archbishop Makhulu and Bishop Rumalshah addressed the crushing burden of international debt and the "evil" of poverty. Mano noted that two common themes that emerged in all nine regional gatherings prior to the Lambeth Conference were international debt and the world of Islam.
In small groups, more than 90 participants representing 38 dioceses described mission initiatives in their regions, and dreamed about what the future of mission will be. These visions included:
- A revival of missionary sending in the church, with better information, training, financial support, communication and networking capability, all informed by intentional intercessory prayer;
- Forgiveness of the third world debt, eradication of religious persecution, reconciliation among racial and ethnic minorities and people of other faiths;
- Short-term mission experiences for all clergy and seminarians, led by their bishops;
- Cross-cultural experiences for all confirmands, and more mission opportunities for youth;
- Greater attention to non-traditional ways and places for spreading the Gospel, such as prison ministries;
- Listening and praying, listening and praying, and seeing mission as part of our baptismal covenant;
- More connections between justice and mission.
The GEM Network, launched by the dioceses of New York and Southern Ohio in 1994 in response to a recognized need for more diocesan engagement in mission at the congregational level, now includes 51 dioceses. It works in collaboration with the Anglican and Global Relations staff at the Episcopal Church Center, with voluntary mission societies and other member agencies of the Episcopal Council for Global Mission, and with ecumenical partners. The Rt. Rev. David B. Reed, retired bishop of Kentucky, is the executive director. A governing board consists of 12 members representing member dioceses.
In addition to the annual meeting and educational institute, the GEM Network is engaged in a number of projects. Reed presented the new GEM Handbook at the Denver meeting. Contents include chapters on Organizing a Diocese for Global Mission, Sending Mission Workers from a Diocese, Short Term Mission Visits, and Receiving Missionaries. Member dioceses have received two copies each (as well as one for the bishop's office), but additional copies are available from Bishop Reed (telephone 1-888-913-6858; fax 502-721-8754; e-mail david_reed@ecunet.org.)
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