Anglicans Share Models of Mission at St. Louis Conference
Episcopal News Service. June 21, 1990 [90159]
Anglican mission leaders from South Africa, India, and California shared models of mission at a conference on "Anglicans and New Frontiers in World Mission," held on June 11 to June 13 in St. Louis.
Bishop Philip LeFeuvre from the northern Transvaal, the Rev. Duc Nguyen, the first Vietnamese priest in the Episcopal Church who is now working in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and the Rev. Andrew Swamidoss, director of a college in the Church of South India, presented case studies on how they are reaching out to evangelize people in their areas.
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, former bishop in Pakistan who is now general secretary of the Church Missionary Society in England, offered additional models and also discussed mission from the biblical and historical points of view.
About 40 mission leaders, representing a variety of mission agencies, parishes, and organizations, shared ideas on how, in the Decade of Evangelism, the Gospel can be shared with those who have not heard it. In answering the question, "What do we want to accomplish here?" the group made suggestions that were sorted into nine areas for further decision and action. Among the topics covered were assisting the two-thirds world in training missionaries; prayer; developing a ministry of "tentmakers," Episcopalians who work overseas and can proclaim the Gospel in their secular jobs; promoting specific actions on diocesan and parish levels; and exploring changes in church structures that might inhibit the spread of the Gospel.
Two resolutions were drafted for the Standing Commission on Evangelism, one asking all dioceses of the church to become involved in reaching out to people at home and abroad, and another suggesting the World Mission Unit "contract with suitable agencies to provide to parishes and dioceses assistance in identifying and learning about unreached people groups in the USA and overseas."
The conference was organized as a follow-up to last year's World Mission Consultation at Sewanee, which called the church to "a new vision of mission and a new time of courage in proclaiming the Gospel to the ends of the earth."