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World Council of Churches - Feature
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org 
For immediate release - 17/08/2004

MISSION SPECIALISTS DEBATE THE INTEGRITY OF CHRISTIAN MISSION

				By Martin Conway (*)

"A very thin woman stood up, walked to the middle, sat beside the candle and
told us a long story of suffering. Her name was Alexandrina. We called her
Adina. When she was about 6 years old, her parents were arrested by the
Indonesian soldiers. She never saw them again. She was left behind with her
elder brother, who had joined the Fretelin freedom fighters struggling for
the independence of East Timor. 

"Some years later he too was captured by the Indonesian soldiers. They
tortured him and let him slowly die a horrible death. When Adina was in
senior high school, the military arrested her while giving food to a young
man. They accused her of being a collaborator of Fretelin. They tortured her
until she was half-conscious and raped her.

"At this point Adina could not finish her story. There was a long silence.
Then Adina gathered all her strength, looked at me, and said in a faint
voice: 'Father, where is that salvation promised by the Lord?' 

"Again there was silence. I could not answer her question. Tears flowed.
Slowly I raised my eyes and saw a wooden cross on the wall. I saw it and
understood the solidarity of the crucified one, but I could not utter a
single word. Adina needed my solidarity, not my words. For several years I
have been living with her question."

This story was recounted by Fr Leo Kleden, of Indonesia, a member of the
Society of the Divine Word. He told it at a meeting of the International
Association for Mission Studies (IAMS) in Port Dickson, Malaysia, from 31
July to 7 August, 2004, a gathering which brought together more than 200
people from 44 countries and a wide range of church traditions. 

The story was used as an illustration of the importance of "listening with
full respect to what God has done for different people, in various cultures
and religions - an awareness which will slowly, but radically, transform our
way of thinking and doing mission." 

Only afterwards did he mention that, since writing his paper for the meeting,
he had had a middle-of-the-night phone call from that same Adina, to tell him
she was now happily married and had built a new life, longing to thank him
for the new hope and vitality which the Holy Spirit had communicated to her
on that unforgettable evening in the chapel.

Understanding mission today 

The IAMS meeting was an in-depth personal and theological encounter between
missiologists of a kind which is rarely seen. Entitled "The Integrity of
Mission in the Light of the Gospel - Bearing the witness of the Spirit," its
tone was set by two addresses by experienced theologians. 

Rev. Dr Hwa Yung, of Trinity Theological College in Singapore, identified
Asian mission factors such as the acceptance of "signs and wonders" in regard
to healing and exorcism, both responding to the needs of people feeling
themselves trapped by supernatural powers Westerners have ceased to be aware
of. 

Professor Dr Pablo Suess, outgoing IAMS president and a Brazilian Catholic,
focused in his presidential address on what the Holy Spirit is saying to
today's Christians as "they encounter the Spirit side by side with the
oppressed, the excluded and the marginalized.

"The universality of mission today", he said, "has to be understood as an
alternative to globalization under the dictates of a social-Darwinistic
liberalism" He continued: "It is because of the universality of victims that
our mission is universal. Mission follows the suffering servant of God into
the most remote areas of the world."

Other presentations included contributions from Africa, Latin America and
Europe. Dr Philomena Mwaura, a university teacher at Kenyatta University,
Nairobi, offered, after a careful survey of the current troubles of Africa -
the "bleeding continent" - suggestions to enhance the integrity of mission in
the light of the gospel. She spoke of the church as a mediator of peace,
healing and reconciliation, providing visionary leadership and discipling the
nations, and stressed the need for courageous, empowered and effective
leadership committed to evangelization and ecumenism. 

European contributors - a Bulgarian Baptist, Dr Parush Parushev, and a French
Catholic laywoman, Edith Bernard - presented similar perceptions of mission.
Obedience to God's call, they said, consists in serving the needy, in the
discovery of friendship across human and social barriers, in pointing to the
cross and rising of Jesus of Nazareth as signs of an unconquerable hope. 

Another contributor was Prof. Chun Chae Ok, president of the IAMS from
1986-2000, and now professor emeritus of Ewha University in Seoul, South
Korea. She spoke of the "Missiology of Emptiness - mission from the poor to
the poor" - as a distinctive contribution of women in Asia. 

"The reality is that women in mission without names and in most cases without
writings have been vehicles of the gospel in the Korean churches and
throughout Asia," she said "The existence of a female majority in the world
church must no longer be ignored. Rather it should be celebrated and become a
source of inspiration for a more authentic form of mission."

The conference spent two days in "exposure visits", including trips to a
Buddhist temple and a Catholic centre to meet groups of migrant workers from
nearby Asian countries. Visits were also made to the International Institute
of Islamic Thought and Civilisation in Kuala Lumpur, and to the International
Islamic University of Malaysia.

Since the gathering coincided partially with the World Council of Churches'
(WCC) Faith and Order plenary commission meeting in Kuala Lumpur, and was
held only about 150 kilometres away, some participants spent time at both
meetings. And one of the conference study groups focused on a paper on
mission and reconciliation prepared for the next WCC Conference on World
Mission and Evangelism, to be held in Athens, Greece, on 9-16 May 2005. 

* Dr Martin Conway, from the Church of England, is a former president of the
Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, UK. 

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org 

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 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.