wfn.org | [ACNS] Global and local: Making the difference

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

ACNS 3920     |     ENGLAND	|     14 DECEMBER 2004

Global and local: Making the difference

 >From the Partnership Secretary for the Partnership for World Mission
(PWM) of the Church of England

'Justice and celebration belong together, in the prophets and the
Gospels.' 'God's plan is one in which all human beings are called to be
both givers and receivers.' Two brief examples of remarks made by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Rowan Williams, as he addressed
the World Mission Conference held 23-25 November 2004 in Swanwick,
England. Just under 200 participants gathered at the conference, which
had developed out of the annual Diocesan Companion Links conference
which has been held regularly each November over the last few years,
organised by the Church of England's Partnership for World Mission. The
theme of the conference was interaction of the global and the local in
mission: how the global and local dimensions of mission could and should
inform and strengthen each other.

Most of the participants were from the Church of England (mission
agencies, dioceses, parishes), but there were also representatives from
the Episcopal Church of Scotland, the Church of Ireland, the Episcopal
Church of the United States of America (ECUSA), and the Anglican Church
of Canada, as well, ecumenically, from the Methodist Church of Britain.
Speakers represented a variety of continents and theological positions:
as well as the Archbishop, participants heard from Christopher
Duraisingh (India and the US), Gottfried Osei-Mensah (Ghana, Africa, the
leader of 'African Enterprise') and Graham Kings (currently Vicar of St
Mary's Islington, London, but with mission experience in Kenya and at
the Henry Martyn Centre in Cambridge.)

One of the currents that surfaced in several of the talks was the
importance of allowing space for difference. Christopher Duraisingh dug
deep into the meaning of the word 'catholicity', and challenged
participants to realise that if the church is to be truly catholic,
there needs to be both an honouring of local contexts, allowing them to
interweave with each other, set alongside a vision of people from 'all
tribes and languages' worshipping God together. Gottfried Osei-Mensah's
Bible study, linked to the letters of Paul, reminded the conference that
Christians in the Western world are both rich - and poor. Archbishop
Rowan spoke of the need to allow others to help us discover more of the
face of Christ, more of the gospel through our encounter with them,
'Finding Christ in the really different.' Graham Kings ably and
powerfully fulfilled his task of summing up the conference on the last
morning; in the process reminding us to value and care for our mission
history.

A period of time at the conference was given over to consideration of
the Windsor Report, with a number of participants sharing their views as
to how the Church of England mission agencies might respond to it.

A particular highlight of the conference was the worship: the
combination of the Revd Rob Jones, an exceptionally creative and
liturgically sensitive priest from Worcester Diocese in England, and
Geoff Weaver's multicultural musical talents came together with a
special serendipity and helped enfold this worthwhile event with prayer
and spiritual celebration.

www.pwm-web.org.uk

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