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[WCC Feature] Discerning God's mission in our own place and


From "WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>
Date Wed, 09 Jun 2004 12:57:52 +0200

World Council of Churches * Feature
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 09/06/2004 - feat-04-13

WCC-URM consultation in Ghana
Discerning God's mission in our own place and time

By George Martinson *

					  Free photos available - see below
				      Cf. Press Update 28-04 of 13 May 2004:
http://www2.wcc-coe.org/pressreleasesen.nsf/index/pu-04-28.html

For the World Council of Churches (WCC)-based secretariat of the world-wide
Urban Rural Mission (URM) movement, a consultation needs to be
"people-driven". Allowing delegates the time and space to tell their own
stories contributes to that goal and plays a vital role in answering the
real needs of the poor.

This principle was put into practice at a recent (1-7 May) URM meeting in
Ghana that brought over 50 members of this world-wide movement from Africa,
Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe, Canada
and the USA to Abokobi, a small christian village near Accra. There,
stories - of human rights being violated, of injustice, of violence, but
also of liberation from bondage - dominated the agenda.

Told during group discussions and prayer times, some of the stories
elicited shock, fear and sadness. But at the end of the day, these emotions
were transformed into a new resolve among the participants to re-affirm
their commitment to working with the poorest of the poor and the most
marginalized, and to protect and promote their interests.

The participants also re-affirmed their commitment to work with the
churches, and through people, irrespective of their religious beliefs; a
final communiqu* from the meeting called for efforts to prevent the
commodification of human life that economic globalization seeks to
perpetuate.

A day before the consultation, participants visited Cape Coast, the former
capital city of the colonial Gold Coast and bridgehead of the infamous
trans-Atlantic slave trade. Evocative as it was of past human suffering and
injustice,  the visit was an appropriate introduction to a consultation on
"Mission from the Perspective of People in Struggle" due to begin the
following day.

God's preferential option for the poor

Opening the consultation, Mrs Justice Sophia Adinyira from Ghana called on
Christians to continue their prophetic role "as the conscience of society"
and to champion the cause of the less privileged.

Pointing to growing inequalities between rich and poor, Adinyira, who is
vice moderator of the WCC central committee and an appeals court judge in
Ghana's Supreme Court, expressed concern over the silence of religions on
this issue. "The church cannot afford to see the worsening human conditions
without taking action," she warned.

Adinyira also called on African governments to seriously address the huge
gap between the rich and the poor that, she said, has been an underlying
factor in conflicts on the continent.

Deploring poverty levels in the less developed countries, the general
secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Dr Fred Deegbe, called
for positive action from Christians.  "As the salt of the earth, we must do
everything possible as a church to bring relief to suffering humanity," he
emphasized.

Cesar T. Taguba, a Filipino URM member living in the Netherlands, noted
that although globalization is supposed to be an economic process, its
"other face" is economic militarism, and that this is destroying human
lives and values and accelerating the struggle for the survival of the
fittest.

For Rose Johnson Mackey, a URM moderator from the US, "globalization is
disrupting the natural path of our everyday life, forcing us to follow a
path we are not ready for or would ever want".

Reflecting on the understanding and practice of mission today, WCC
programme executive for Urban and Rural Mission Rev. Fr. Kwame Labi spoke
of "a discernible shift in theological and missiological perspectives 
towards a more holistic understanding of mission that emphasizes God's
preferential option for the poor, and thus a need for the churches to be in
solidarity with the poor."

But, according to Labi, "This shift in thinking has not always been
reflected in practice." For Labi, there are "continuing attempts to keep or
return to a narrow view of the evangelical calling of the church", to
preserve a dichotomy between the church's social mission and evangelization
rather than to see mission as solidarity. "How have the churches responded
to new ways of perpetuating marginalization and poverty? What has been
their role in it?" he asked.

"There needs to be an understanding and practice of mission that brings the
church of Christ back to where she belongs, to the poor and the outcast,
that enables the marginalized to reclaim the church as their own. This,"
Labi argued, "can only be achieved when mission is done with the poor, when
it can be an enterprise of the communities of the poor themselves, when it
is the perspectives of the people in struggle that are shaping the agenda."

Violence and restorative justice

During the consultation, several participants broke down while listening to
their fellow URM members' stories about violence in their countries. Rev.
Rose Lala, for example, told heart-breaking stories of murder, rape and
sexual slavery, and the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).

"Over 80,000 women were raped by the rebels who occupied five regions of my
country from 19982003, during the civil war. These women often found
themselves in sexual slavery over a long period, serving as mistresses,
cooking and performing all sorts of chores for the rebels, who took turns
to sleep with them. Many of these traumatized women, sad to state, have
since become victims of HIV/AIDS," she reported.

The use of violence as a means of resistance and fighting oppression was
condemned by most URM members as un-Christian. Some, however, thought that
violence is justifiable as a last resort. But the former group insisted on
the use of alternatives, such as political, diplomatic and religious
interventions or dialogue.

Ron Tramblay, a participant from New Brunswick, Canada, had a story of
oppression and de-humanization to tell, and laid the fault for his tribe's
woes squarely at the door of the early missionaries. "My people, the
Wolastuks, a minority ethnic group in Canada, have over the years been
decimated by ethnic discrimination, sexual, physical and emotional abuse
from colonialists holding Bibles who invaded and stole our lands.

"Already before 400 BC, we had a peaceful and progressive community with a
unique culture and tradition. Today, we have lost our culture, language and
spirituality, and our society has become vulnerable to drugs, violence,
domestic violence and poverty. Christianity is what put us where we are
today. We therefore ask the church, 'Where are you?'"

In discussing the concept of restorative justice, participants agreed that
as a means of eventually reconciling people who have suffered deep
injustice with the perpetrators of those injustices, it can succeed only
when the perpetrators or the oppressors accept guilt and repent. It is only
through such action that any authentic process of reconciliation and
possible reparation can be considered.

"It is clear that reconciliation is difficult, if not impossible, when
people are unable to repent, and let that repentance be followed actions
that change situations," suggested WCC Mission and Evangelism programme
executive Rev. Jacques Matthey.

"The term restorative justice hints at the need to give back what has been
taken away or stolen. While that may be a condition sine qua non in some
places, in others one can not come back to a status quo ante. In such
situations, one must find a way to imagine and create a new community.
Reconciliation processes always aim at healing memories, and at creating a
new future," he said.

URM and the churches

The consultation emphasized the importance of URM's relation to the
churches. URM is "in the trenches" with oppressed people in struggle,
organizing, counselling, and empowering them to rise up from poverty
ignorance and disease. But it relies on the support of the churches, the
participants said.

For Matthey, "to involve the church and transform its mission towards
solidarity with the poor is one of URM's main objectives URM channels the
voice of the poor to the churches in order to influence their way of
practising and thinking of mission The relationship is both complementary
and contradictory, one of solidarity and also of critique. URM is 'in
between' the churches and the poor," he suggested.

At the same time, participants felt that being "an invitation to the feast
of life", mission goes beyond the church into diverse religious and social
confines. The interreligious character of URM was affirmed and in part
experienced, but, says Matthey, "must be reflected upon in a much more
serious way". The movement characterizes itself as Christian, but with an
open attitude and cooperation with others. There is a clear involvement in
URM of people from other faith communities. "How that should be embodied in
the spiritual life and theological language of the URM community remains an
open question," Matthey suggests.

A URM coordinator with the National Council of Churches in India, Rajesh
Jadhav argued that the church can only succeed in efforts to do mission
from the perspective of people in struggle when it sets a good example in
the community in which it lives. "Christians are a minority in India, and
for us to be effective, we have to extol our biblical values in a more
practical way. Don't forget many Indians may not be Christians, but are
very spiritual, and that must be the fusion point."

This view is accepted by most URM activists. URM Africa coordinator Abdul
A. Sy said that this is why the movement is training people in Sierra
Leone, for example, to go further into the field to create awareness,
counsel and empower communities through practical training to undertake
projects that will raise their standard of living. "We train a few who
serve as a nucleus of trainers. These then move into the communities to
further train others in literacy, mobilize them into cooperatives and
support them to undertake income-generating projects," he reported.

* * *

By exploring contemporary missiological challenges from the perspectives of
people in struggle, the Ghana consultation was able to fulfil its main aim,
which was to review, renew and sharpen URM's vision of mission in
anticipation of the forthcoming conference on World Mission and Evangelism
in Athens in May 2005.

"Our objectives were achieved, and this gives us the right focus for the
2005 world mission conference and for the future planning of Urban Rural
Mission activities," Labi said at the close of the consultation.

By ensuring safe and sacred spaces where the stories and insights of those
in struggle could be told and heard, the Abokobi consultation was able to
create a community and space where participants could struggle together to
discern the mission of God in their own place and time. It was able to
inspire and energize them with new vision, renewed hope, fresh insights and
the tools and skills to bring a holistic mission imperative alive again.

* George Martinson is the editor of the Christian Messenger, the periodical
of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

See full text of the URM conference communiqu*
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/mission/accra-urm2004.html 

Free high resolution pictures are available at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/mission/ghana-photos.html 

For more information contact:
	 Media Relations Office
 tel: (+41 22) 791 64 21 / (+41 22) 791 61 53
 e-mail:media@wcc-coe.org 
 http://www.wcc-coe.org 

 The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in
 more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
 traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
 cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
 which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
 inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
 general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.


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