wfn.org | Episcopal Missions conference in North Carolina

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2000-110

Missions conference in North Carolina draws 800 
participants

by Peggy Noll

     (ENS) "All our problems: We send to the cross of 
Christ…All our hopes: We set on the risen Christ."  With 
that acclamation from the Kenyan Service of Holy Communion, 
more than 800 Episcopalians from all over the U.S. and 
Anglicans from all over the world concluded the New 
Wineskins for Global Missions Conference 2000 in 
Ridgecrest, North Carolina, on April 30.  Celebrant at the 
service was the Rt. Rev. Joseph Wasonga, Diocese of Maseno 
West, Kenya.

     "The Wineskins conferences in 1994 and 1997 were 
wonderful," reported the Rev. Tom Prichard, director of the 
South American Missionary Society USA at the end of the 
week, "but this one was more wonderful yet."  

     The Episcopal Church Missionary Community in Ambridge, 
Pennsylvania, under its director, Sharon Stockdale, 
sponsored the conference along with Rock the World Youth 
Mission Alliance, which ran a concurrent program for young 
people.  

     Evening plenary speakers included Bishop Benjamin 
Kwashi of Jos, Nigeria; Dr. Paul Marshall, author of Their 
Blood Cries Out; the Rev. Miguel Uchoa, rector of the 
fastest-growing Anglican congregation in Recife, Brazil; 
and the Most Rev. Maurice Sinclair, primate of the Southern 
Cone.  Other presenters included the Very Rev. Peter Moore, 
dean/president of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry; 
Lisa Chinn, newly appointed director for International 
Student Ministry at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; and 
Paul Borthwick, a well-known missiologist.

'We did not feel alone'

     In his opening sermon, Kwashi thanked the many 
participants who had sent their prayers and emails to him 
in Jos during the recent bloodshed near his diocese in 
northern Nigeria, where Christians were being killed by 
militant Muslims.  "For the first time we did not feel 
alone," he said.  "We felt connected with you and knew that 
you were standing with us."

     Kwashi reminded the conference that God had promised 
in Isaiah 41 that God's people would rise up on wings like 
eagles, would run and not be weary.  "What is this being 
'burnt out?'" he chided.  "Too many Christians are like 
chickens, their eyes on the ground, pecking around at their 
feet.  We have had enough of chicken Christianity!  God 
gives us power to soar like the eagle."

     The preacher at the final plenary session on Sunday 
morning was the Rev. Dr. Sam Kamaleson of South India, who 
has led pastors' conferences for World Vision International 
for 25 years. He told a story of a beggar showing that 
Christians need to stop clinging to the rags of their old 
selves and accept Christ's gift of a new life.  "Our lives 
in our own hands, a pain and a problem.  Our lives in God's 
hands, a power and a possibility," he said repeatedly as a 
refrain to his message.

     The Rev. Kuan Kim Seng of Singapore described the 
evangelistic activities that his diocese is carrying out in 
Southeast Asia.

     The Rev. Dr. Alison Barfoot from Kansas City in her 
evening Bible studies underlined the "mission to keep 
mission the mission" of the Church.  "We need to be like 
Jesus, who set his face towards Jerusalem and did not turn 
aside or turn back."  In the morning Bible studies, the 
Rev. Walter Hannum, founder of ECMC, pointed out the need 
for scripture and leadership if a people are to continue as 
the people of God.  "We need men and women like the men of 
Issachar "who understood the times and knew what Israel 
should do." (1 Chronicles 12:32)  "Like Paul, we need to 
plant congregations that continue to be people of God for 
generations."

     A group from Shepherd's Heart in Pittsburgh, an 
Episcopal ministry among the homeless in the city, gave 
their  testimonies of God's healing, and on Saturday 
evening the Rev. Tad deBordenave, founder and director of 
Anglican Frontier Missions, led the assembly in a Concert 
of Prayer for all the areas addressed on the preceding 
days.

Prayer and preparation

     "Two themes kept recurring throughout the conference," 
noted the Rev. Grant LeMarquand, associate professor of 
Bible and mission at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.  
"One was the crucial role of prayer to undergird all 
mission.  We have seen that power here at this conference 
in the intercession offered for us by a team throughout the 
week.  The other was preparation.  You wouldn't want to go 
to a surgeon who decided only two weeks ago to be a doctor.  
If you sense that God might be calling you to cross-
cultural mission, you need to think seriously about 
preparation."

     The Rev. Jane Butterfield, director of mission 
personnel at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, spoke 
during a plenary session about mission requests received by 
her office for both clergy and lay people.  Directors of 
independent Episcopal agencies such as Anglican Frontier 
Mission, Church Mission Society USA, Episcopal World 
Mission, Inc., South American Missionary Society, and 
Sharing of Ministries Abroad USA described the 
opportunities available through their organizations.

     Before the conference opened, the Episcopal 
Partnership for Global Mission was officially inaugurated 
at the final meeting of the Episcopal Council for Global 
Mission, a 10-year effort of approximately 50 mission 
entities in the Episcopal Church. Also, the boards of 
Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry and the South 
American Missionary Society were convened. The board of 
Uganda Christian University Partners held its inaugural 
meeting on April 28.

     Fifty workshops allowed people to hear about every 
aspect of mission from AIDS and its effect on ministry in 
the coming decade to questions about missionary kids; from 
ongoing housing projects in Honduras in the wake of 
Hurricane Mitch to reaching out to international students. 
Richard Parkins, director of Episcopal Migration 
Ministries, led two workshops on the church's work with 
immigrants and refugees in the United States.

     Each day began with Eucharist, including a service in 
Spanish on Friday morning.  Wellspring, a music and worship 
team from England, led the singing throughout the 
conference and received a standing ovation at the end.  In 
between sessions, participants browsed at exhibits from 
more than 100 mission agencies and projects, including the 
United Thank Offering and the Presiding Bishop's Fund for 
World Relief.

--Peggy Noll and her husband, Stephen, will begin 
missionary service at Uganda Christian University later 
this year.