wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Edinburgh 2010: Churches to mark centennial of historic mission event

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 14/05/2009 10:29:16

WORLD CHURCHES TO MARK 100 YEARS OF LANDMARK MISSION EVENT

As the centennial of a landmark mission event approaches in 2010, a global  study process is mobilizing churches, theological institutions and mission  bodies around the world.

The World Mission Conference that took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, in  1910 brought together some 1,200 representatives mainly linked to the  Western missionary movement. In addition to its focus on evangelism, the  historic gathering emphasized cooperation and unity.

"It is because of this concern for unity that Edinburgh 1910 is widely  considered the symbolic starting point of the contemporary ecumenical  movement, although there were no Orthodox nor Catholic delegates present  at that time", says Nayiri Baljian, an Armenian Orthodox from the US.

Baljian is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on  World Mission and Evangelism. In that capacity she sits on the Edinburgh  2010 General Council ( http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/home/people/2010-gen eral-council.html ), a body charged with coordinating the worldwide  centennial celebrations on behalf of a network of stakeholders which  includes churches, Christian world communions, regional associations of  theological institutions and world mission bodies.

Key among the activities marking the centennial is a study process on nine  themes ( http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/study-themes.html )that are at  the centre of contemporary missiology. Launched in 2005, it has an  interdenominational and intercontinental scope and a decentralized  approach that allows for the participation of many organizations and  movements.

The themes range from the foundations of Christian mission to current  forms of missionary engagement, including aspects like inter-religious,  postmodern and other contemporary contexts in which the missionary  endeavor of the churches takes place. The inter-relations between mission  and power, unity and spirituality are also among the themes.

"The study process is certainly polycentric and quite global", says  Edinburgh 2010 research coordinator, Dr Kirsteen Kim. "Eight of the nine  working groups could be described as having worldwide participation", says  Kim, and "almost all have demonstrated that they are confessionally  representative as well".

According to Kim, "a very wide range of institutions and church and  mission agencies are represented in the make-up of the groups, with many  centres for the study of world Christianity and mission in different parts  of the world involved in the Edinburgh process".

"In addition to the main study process, a series of events ( http://www.edi nburgh2010.org/en/events/chruchevvents0.html )are taking place around the  world in which different church communities choose their own ways to mark  the centenary, whose theme is Witnessing to Christ Today", says Edinburgh  2010 international director Dr Daryl Balia, a missiologist from South  Africa. "These events are encouraged by the Edinburgh 2010 General Council  but planned and executed locally."

"This way of marking the centennial recognizes and affirms the development  of the church around the world in the last 100 years", says the Rev.  Andrew Anderson from the Church of Scotland, who is the general council's  chairman.

>Celebration, repentance, re-commitment

The outcomes of the study process will be the main input for a 2-6 June  2010 conference hosted by the School of Divinity at the University of  Edinburgh. Some 150 delegates from the stakeholder organizations will  engage with about 70 delegates from the study process.

"We need to ensure that the results of the study process are not confined  to academic discussion but are really engaged with in the conference  sessions on the study themes", says Kim. She is asking the study groups to  think how their work "can be made meaningful to the constituency of the  conference and the churches at large in creative ways".

Organizers envision the conference as an opportunity for joint celebration  of what God has done in the growth of the church over the last 100 years;  repentance for all that has gone wrong in mission; and re-commitment to a  new shared vision for the present and future of God's mission in the  world.

"There will be many events marking the Edinburgh centennial in 2010, and  several major Christian organizations will have their assemblies during  that year", says Jacques Matthey, a Swiss pastor who is the director of  the WCC programme on Unity, Mission, Evangelism and Spirituality. But "the  specificity of the common 2010 Edinburgh conference lies indeed in the  wide spectrum of churches, denominations and mission traditions united  around the project".

This spectrum includes Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist,  Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal  and Independent traditions. "Although relatively small in terms of  participants, the 2010 Edinburgh conference will be the most representative  of the diversity of world Christianity today", adds Matthey, who has been  involved with the project since its inception.

The conference culmination will be on Sunday, 6 June, when participants  will join members of the local churches and gather at the 1910 Assembly  Hall for what organizers anticipate as "a significant celebration".

Whilst Edinburgh 1910 gave indirectly birth to the International Missionary  Council and the contemporary ecumenical movement, Edinburgh 2010 is not  expected to create a new structure or institution. However, the four-day  long conference will not be the end of the Edinburgh 2010 process.

"There are already many ecumenical or interdenominational mission or  church bodies at global and regional levels who can take up the results of  the process and of the conference", explains Matthey. "It will be up to  them to keep going on the key conversation on mission that Edinburgh 2010  will initiate."

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Edinburgh 2010 website:

http://www.edinburgh2010.org ( http://www.edinburgh2010.org/en/events/chruc hevvents0.html )

WCC work on unity, mission, evangelism and spirituality:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=2948

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

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness  and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of  churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,  Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.