wfn.org | Episcopalians: World Mission's new vision: companions in transformation

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

June 13, 2003

2003-142

Episcopalians: World Mission's new vision: companions in 
transformation

by Sarah T. Moore

(ENS) Develop exciting missionary education programs. Crank up 
the young adult service corps and send more missionaries out to 
other countries. Include more missionaries from ethnic minority 
groups. Increase seminary internships, improve short-term 
mission pilgrimages, and expand mission networking.

Those are a few recommendations included in  "Companions in 
Transformation: The Episcopal Church's World Mission in a New 
Century," a vision statement that the Standing Commission on 
World Mission (SCWM) developed over the past three years.

However, rather than asking the church to jump immediately into 
its proposals, the commission will recommend in a resolution to 
the 74th General Convention this summer that the church, at 
every level, read and study its suggestions over the next 
triennium. Then, in 2006, the General Convention will be asked 
to reach a consensus about how to proceed. Between 2007-2009, 
the church then can put a framework into place to launch a 
well-thought  out global mission plan--one the whole church 
embraces.

"Given the scope and possible cost of what we're suggesting the 
church needs more time to digest and study," says the Dr. Titus 
Presler, chair of the commission, dean of the Episcopal Seminary 
of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and former missionary to 
Zimbabwe.

"It's not so much the complexity as the matter of realizing that 
this kind of shift in thinking about world mission and global 
engagement really means a cultural shift in thinking by the 
Episcopal Church," he continues. " It requires reflection and 
what that involves."

Mission companions

By a cultural shift, Presler is speaking of a refocus to an 
overall motif of companionships, rather than just partnership. 
He notes today's Episcopal missionary goes out with seven 
commitments -- to be a companion, witness, pilgrim, servant, 
prophet, ambassador, host and sacrament. "Everything else in the 
report works that out: modes of mission, resources, and 
programmatic emphases."

"When we are companions together, we keep company with 
breadness' -- people who share bread on a journey.  That means 
sharing the bread of suffering, exaltation, and life. And it 
means learning as well as giving."

He added, "At the end of the document there is a doxology' that 
talks about the downsides of past periods of mission history 
that, over last half of 20th century, have induced a paralysis 
on Episcopal and mainline euro denominations about engagement," 
pointing out that this is the commission's attempt to discern 
and share a vision of what it might be to be mission companions 
in the 21st century.

Creating the structures

Those responsible for putting the vision into action after the 
2006 General Convention will need time to create the structure 
to put such ministries into place, the commission believes. "Our 
hope in the triennium  is that people will have a chance to 
digest and discern better into the future what they are able to 
take on and what they don't," Presler says.

A second related resolution recommends that monies, previously 
dedicated to international jurisdictions formerly related to 
and/or financially linked to the Episcopal Church, be directed 
to future global mission and not absorbed into the general 
budget. Several international linkages have changed status this 
triennium, others are scheduled to follow suit, and all 
releasing previously dedicated financial resources.

"Those funds should continue to go to global engagement which 
includes a whole group of program areas beyond what world 
mission receives," Presler notes. "We present a principled way 
to increase funding and ask the church to adopt that principal 
with a major commitment to world mission."

In other related areas

During the three years since the 2000 General Convention, the 
commission undertook several topics other than crafting the 
vision statement. It:

Convened a consultation in 2001 on the intersection of Race, 
Money and Power in the World Mission of the Episcopal Church; 

Assisted in the process of seeking autonomy for some 
international dioceses and incorporation of others back into the 
Episcopal Church structure; 

Monitored and collaborated with the Episcopal Partnership for 
Global Mission (EPGM), a group of mission organizations of the 
Episcopal Church; and 

 Continued supportive talks with the Convocation of American 
Churches in Europe, a network of churches, mission 
congregations, and specialized ministries in five countries, 
which elected its own bishop-in-charge in 2001, as a step toward 
a new Anglican identity within the international 
English-speaking populace.

Three resolutions emerged from these engagements: two about 
reincorporating two dioceses into the Episcopal Church; and one 
commending the Executive Council for its continued collaboration 
with EPGM and recognizing its missionaries.

International jurisdictional linkages

Related through nurture, structure, linkages, or history to the 
Episcopal Church, the autonomy, or process to reach autonomy, of 
several international dioceses/jurisdictions required the 
attention of the commission and Executive Council this 
triennium. 

Continuing to be part of the Episcopal Church are Colombia, the 
Convocation of the American Churches in Europe, the Dominican 
Republic, Ecuador Central, Ecuador Litoral, Haiti, Honduras, 
Taiwan, and the Virgin Islands.

Former members of the Episcopal Church, but now autonomous 
Anglican provinces, include La Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do 
Brasil, the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia (now part of the 
Province of West Africa), the Episcopal Church in the 
Philippines, La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, and La Iglesia 
Anglicana de la Region Central de America.

Incorporating Puerto Rico, Venezuela; Cuba stays alone

In an historical turnaround, the commission was closely involved 
with decisions by the Dioceses of Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and 
Cuba to be reincorporated into the Episcopal Church 
international provincial structure.

It is unprecedented for a fully developed and autonomous diocese 
to seek membership in the Episcopal Church. Historically it has 
only been missionary dioceses that joined the structure of the 
church. Also it is a change in the church's missionary strategy 
that, in the past century, sought to encourage independence and 
growth of autonomous, regional church provinces.

This required intense conversation, meeting, and examination 
with several dioceses in the Caribbean and Latin America. 
Discussions centered on theology, mission strategy, colonialism, 
Anglican Communion structure, governance, political 
environments, as well as rooting a church within its own culture 
and indigenous ministries. Clergy and lay pension concerns were 
explored in conversation with the Church Pension Fund.

The resulting resolution before this General Convention is a 
recommendation to admit the Dioceses of Puerto Rico and 
Venezuela as dioceses in union with General Convention and 
members of Province IX of the Episcopal Church.

Each of these dioceses in its annual synod voted for such a 
change. The Diocese of Cuba, though originally considering a 
move, reversed its decision at its February 2003 synod. It will 
continue to be an "extra provincial" Anglican church, with 
oversight by a Metropolitan Council, chaired by Canada's 
Archbishop Michael Peers.

"Companions in Transformation: The Episcopal Church's World 
Mission in a New Century," is being printed by Morehouse 
Publishing to be distributed to all deputies and bishops at 
Convention. (The full text also is posted on the General 
Convention website.)

------

--Sarah Moore is director of communications for the Diocese of 
Hawaii and a member of the ENS news team at the 74th General 
Convention in Minneapolis.