wfn.org | GLOBAL EPISCOPAL MISSION NETWORK UP AND RUNNING

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TITLE:GLOBAL EPISCOPAL MISSION NETWORK UP
June 26, 1996
Episcopal News Service
James Solheim, Director
(212) 922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

96-1503
GLOBAL EPISCOPAL MISSION NETWORK UP AND RUNNING

BY CHARLIE RICE
           (ENS) "I worked in the House of the Destitute and Dying in
Calcutta. I found myself sitting next to a 15-year-old boy who was
Christ," Rick Harvey of Idaho told more than 100 people attending the first
Global Episcopal Mission (GEM) conference in Nashville,
Tennessee, in June. "I washed his dirty blankets. I bathed him, and touched
the scars on his arm. I was Thomas until I touched those
wounds."
           Harvey added, "I don't think that there are any tracks in the sand
of India because of my shoes, but there is sand in my shoes
from India."
           Stories of how missionary work like Harvey's changes lives--both
here and abroad--were the essence of the five-day conference
which focused on the future of overseas missions for the Episcopal Church.
           But the conference--described as a mission education
institute--also talked about the realities of doing mission work and issued
some challenges to encourage the Episcopal Church to "own" its corporate name:
The Foreign and Domestic Missionary Society.
           Missionary activity by the Episcopal Church in recent decades has
dwindled, 
partly because of funding, but also because of a lack of clarity about
missionary work, speakers indicated. And representatives from
dioceses in Africa, Asia, Central America and other countries reminded
attendees that missionary work from North America and Europe is
not something which can--or should--be "done" to them.

"A NEW MODEL"
           Facing the hard reality that the number of appointed missionaries
of the Episcopal Church has dwindled from more than 500 in
the 1950s to 26 this year, the bishops and diocesan members of the Global
Episcopal Mission Network (GEM) are organizing themselves
into a new diocesan-based mission network that "will support mutually
responsible and inter-dependent relationships among dioceses within
the Episcopal Church and within the Anglican Communion."
           It all began during the General Convention in Indianapolis in 1994.
           "When I heard at the last General Convention that we were going to
cut mission spending again, I talked to Bishop Thompson
and we got going," said co-convener Bishop Richard Grein of New York.
           Bishop Herbert Thompson of Southern Ohio concurred, adding, "The
last General Convention was a wake-up call. Mission work
has long been a function of the national church--disassociated from the parish
and the diocese. This is very different from the New
Testament idea. Through GEM, we are providing a new model that keeps
missionaries connected" primarily at the local level.
           GEM is not designed to replace or compete with missionary work at
the national level. Rather, it is creating a network of
parishes and dioceses working together to support mission work here and
abroad.
           Bishop David C. Jones, suffragan bishop of Virginia, explained, "We
are not 
creating a funding group, but we are a group of funders who desire to be in
touch with one another. We are an integral part of the
infrastructure of mission. The concern that we have is that sending agencies
don't have resources available. This is a dimension that we
need to address together."
           Grein added that "with local responsibility comes local funding. By
`owning' missionaries who report back, keeping us up to date
on their activities, funding and interest are stimulated."

A CALL TO ACTION
           The Rev. Canon John Peterson, Secretary General of the Anglican
Communion, opened the conference with a challenge.
           "Our mission is to tell people about Jesus Christ," Peterson said.
"But we 
must show our allegiance and love by our actions. Action is key. Jesus healed,
Jesus touched, Jesus consoled. We must show the people of
this world who do not know Christ what it means to be a Christian."
           As the Decade of Evangelism enters its seventh year, Petersen said,
the Anglican Communion must be ready to enter the Third
Millenium with the clear understanding of what it means to be a missionary
church.
           Stories of successful missionary work abounded.
           "In Nigeria, you're going to find that people are very lively,
despite everything," Bishop Benjamin Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria, told
youth delegates. "A good portion of the church is full of young people. I
spoke at the Anglican Youth Conference in Nigeria last year, and
there were 7,000 young people. That was a low turn-out because of the
political instability. I've seen nearly 13,000 before."
           At youth events, the young people "pray from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.,"
Kwashi said. "They will sing, dance and pray all night. I love
them and they love me too--even though I can't always stay up with them all
night. There is a gentle revival taking place. We don't
understand it, but we're seeing it happen."
           Peterson also told the youth, "For any of you in any part of the
Communion, 
I would encourage you to participate, be it in Honduras, be it in Nigeria, be
it in Jerusalem, be it in the United States, wherever. Your lives
will be dramatically changed, because you will have touched the mission of the
church, that is the people of the Church of God."

FACING REALITIES
           Many delegates shared their concerns about the lack of
participation in mission work at the parish level. Pam Boston of Oregon
said, "I've heard of numerous parishes that have an annual Mission Sunday,
when they want someone to come in to `do something about
mission' for the day. We need to get past that, and make mission an everyday
concern and matter of daily prayer."
           "The first enemy of mission is parochialism," explained Grein. "In
my first parish the only new item of business at one meeting
was the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner. We talked about it for two hours,
and people actually got heated up about it. Unless the people
of God have a context, they will kill themselves on the little things. The
larger context is global mission."

WRESTLING WITH THE PAST
           Delegates from 35 member dioceses officially established the GEM
Network by approving incorporation papers, adopting
by-laws, proposing a 1997 operating budget, and electing a 12-member board to
oversee the future of mission work. They also wrestled
with 19th-century assumptions, stereotypes and past abuses of missionaries.
           "Sometimes we feel that we have all the answers," said Pat Powers
of Western New York. "We forget that the receiving church
probably knows more about how to do mission than we do."
           Thompson agreed. "We've had to come to grips with the excesses and
abuses of the past. We've also had to come to terms with
our past complicity in colonialism. For these we repent."
           "We need to be more concerned with the receiving churches than we
have been in the past," added Bishop Onell Soto, former
Bishop of Venezuela now assisting in Atlanta. "It is important not to impose a
missionary on a diocese."
           But despite drastic cuts in U.S. foreign aid and budget cuts by the
national 
church, Soto declared that "GEM ought to be congratulated. At a time when
there seem to be many voices calling for isolation in America,
GEM is calling us to global mission."

--CHARLIE RICE IS COMMUNICATIONS ASSISTANT FOR THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO.