wfn.org | Mission Conference

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Internet:  news@ncccusa.org

49NCC5/19/98                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHURCH LEADERS TO EXPAND COMMON WITNESS ON 
MISSION WORK

 May 17, 1998, Milwaukee ---- Eighty Roman 
Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical and 
Orthodox participants explored the changing 
character of mission work and how that work might be 
better accomplished ecumenically at the Third 
Ecumenical Conference on Common Witness, held May 
14-17 at the Bishop Cousins Center in Milwaukee.

 The meeting was sponsored by Church World 
Service and Witness (CWSW), the humanitarian relief 
and refugee assistance ministry of the National 
Council of Churches (NCC), and the U.S. Catholic 
Mission Association (USCMA).  This third conference 
also included individuals from several evangelical 
mission agencies.

 Participants heard compelling stories of need 
and response from frontline workers in overseas 
missions, inner city ministries and refugee 
networks.  Throughout the conference, they 
strategized about how to further this kind of work 
on an ecumenical basis and helped draft an action 
plan that was released at the end of the weekend.

The group looked for innovative new ways to 
share their vision of common witness and committed 
to invest in a web page and communications network 
to continue the cooperative work that began in 1987.

"Although we have worked together well around 
certain issues, like refugee assistance, we have not 
done enough together institutionally in areas like 
mission education and training," said the Rev. Dr. 
Rodney Page, Executive Director of CWSW.  "These 
conferences have brought together major Protestant 
and Catholic umbrella mission organizations in a 
counter-cultural struggle to find common ground.  
Already, an ecumenical Gospel and Culture Network 
has been formed and a group of Presbyterians, 
Lutherans and Catholics are working together to 
train and orient missionaries.  A communications 
strategy was one of the concrete initiatives to come 
out of this meeting."

 "The relationships that are formed here mirror 
the inclusive body of Christ which cuts across 
denominational lines," said Rosanne Rustemeyer, 
SSND, Executive Director of USCMA.  "In this 
Milwaukee conference, mission agency leaders 
gathered to consider new areas of mission, including 
mission in the city and mission among uprooted 
peoples.  It is our hope that the conversations 
begun here will reach back into our churches and 
provide new stimulus for those engaged in mission."

-end-

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: A longer feature on 
the conference will follow.
 -0-