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[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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Kathryn McCormick
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2000-056

Domestic Missionary Partnership seeks to forge community

by Dick Snyder

     (ENS) The foundation and form and future of missionary 
spirituality in the Episcopal Church were explored at the annual 
meeting of Domestic Missionary Partnership (DMP) February 3-6 in 
Burlingame, California.

     "Building a missionary spirituality can be a gift to the 
larger church," said Rustin Kimsey, bishop of Eastern Oregon and 
president of DMP, which comprises 10 dioceses.

     "We help small, isolated dioceses feel that they are not so 
isolated and alone," he said. "We provide a communion for those 
dioceses to come together, and to enjoy one another and to build 
on our friendships."

     Participants listened to an overview of mission and of 
authority in the church presented by the Rev. John Kater, 
professor of ministry development at the Church Divinity School 
of the Pacific.

     "Unfortunately, many times in the church's history, faith is 
presented as part of a package, part of a 'whole' which very 
often arrived as part of a colonial or imperial package.  
Christian faith simply provided the religious underpinning," 
Kater said.  "In that kind of missionary strategy, context is 
irrelevant."

     Kater argued that context--utilizing conversation and 
interaction with those involved in the missionary strategy--is 
essential.  He said that prior to the last Lambeth Conference, 
"the Anglican Communion never tried to realize what diversity 
means for us.  Lambeth permanently changed the Anglican 
Communion.  We will never be able to ignore context again. "The 
best kind of evangelism is where we learn from our past, our 
mistakes, and where people make of themselves open, inviting 
communities," he added.

Total ministry

     Bishop Steven Plummer of Navajoland agreed with Kater's 
presentation about missionary efforts having been made in a 
colonial or imperial package.

     "In the Navajo experience, missionaries came from the 
government," Plummer said. Those missionaries discouraged use of 
the Navajo language, ordered children to cut their hair, and 
tried to make them dress and look "like Anglos," he said.

     "You have to be the victim of that kind of experience to 
understand," he noted.  "We now wrestle with how to forgive those 
who harmed our ancestors. We have to forgive each other and move 
forward."

     Many of the member dioceses of DMP have embraced the concept 
of total ministry, also known as mutual ministry or collaborative 
ministry in which, the ministry of all the baptized is recognized 
and affirmed.

     Kater praised the role of total ministry in "claiming the 
fact that the authority of the community belongs to the 
community.  Ultimately, authority in the church is Christ's, and 
that is shared with the whole community."

Gospel-Based Discipleship

     A practical missionary application was presented to the 
participants by the Rev. John Robertson, interim national  staff 
officer for Native American ministry.  He spoke about Gospel-
based Discipleship (GBD), a practice he described as being 
borrowed from the Maori, native people in New Zealand.  

     He explained that each day, participants--lay and ordained--
join together to read and reflect on the Gospel, and then share 
what the Gospel is saying to them.  And then they share what the 
Gospel is calling them to do.

     Robertson said that GBD "is not meant to be a program; it's 
a people-to-people thing.  It is not the messenger who is 
important.  It is the message.  It's not Bible study; it is 
Gospel engagement." Where it is in use, it is "re-bubbling-up 
leadership.  What happens is that people begin to emerge as 
leaders.  After consistent use, it turns to amazement and 
transformation, and then to empowerment of their people," he 
said.

     GBD is in daily use at the diocesan office of the Diocese of 
Alaska, explained Mary Parsons.  It was instituted there by the 
diocesan bishop, Mark MacDonald.

     "I have found my own prayer time to be more frequent, and 
better quality," she said.  She added that GBD can be used 
"across denominations and cultures."

     Robertson concluded that "through determining what the 
Gospel is saying to us today...that gives us a basis for missionary 
strategy."

     Kater  praised the concept of GBD.  "It is a way of inviting 
the community to reflect on the community's book.  It's a way of 
listening to each other, a way of communion.  And it helps to 
hear things that we might not hear for ourselves," he concluded.

     Bishop Vernon Strickland of Western Kansas, president-elect 
of the DMP, agreed the meeting was helpful.  "This meeting is 
lifeblood for us in Western Kansas.  We have more in common with 
the people here than with any other group in the church."

     He added that he felt invigorated by the meeting. "I am not 
interested in 'maintaining,'" he said.  "I am interested in 
mission."

     Bishop Keith Whitmore of Eau Claire, who was attending his 
first DMP meeting, said, "It was wonderful. After three quarters 
of a year, sort of wandering around in the new office of bishop, 
it's nice to leave here with some sense of direction and 
connection."

     DMP member dioceses are Utah, Idaho, Eastern Oregon, Western 
Kansas, Navajoland, North Dakota, Alaska, Nevada, El Camino Real 
and Eau Claire.

--Dick Snyder is a freelance writer who lives in Nevada.