wfn.org | WCC NEWS: WCC mission body to revamp ecumenical understanding of mission

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>World Council of Churches - News

WCC MISSION BODY TO REVAMP ECUMENICAL UNDERSTANDING OF MISSION FOR  THE
21ST CENTURY

>For immediate release: 18 June 2010

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on World Mission  and
Evangelism has launched a process aimed at an overhaul of the ecumenical
understanding of Christian mission.

Two key steps in the process will be a mission event scheduled for  March
2012 and a new affirmation on mission and evangelism to be submitted  to
the upcoming WCC 10th Assembly, which is due to take place in Busan,
Republic of Korea (South Korea) in 2013.

The WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) took these
decisions at its 7- 10 June meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, which  followed
the Edinburgh 2010 conference commemorating the hundredth anniversary  of a
landmark 1910 World Mission Conference in the same city.

For the WCC, the authoritative missiological text is currently the  document
Mission and Evangelism - An Ecumenical Affirmation adopted by the  WCC
central committee in 1982. This landmark document draws on insights  from
Protestant, Evangelical, Orthodox and Roman Catholic mission theologies.
It keeps a fruitful tension between the commitment to the proclamation  of
the gospel and the prophetic role of the churches.

"The 1982 Ecumenical Affirmation has been one of the most influential
ecumenical mission texts of the last century," says the Rev. Dr  Jooseop
Keum, a Presbyterian from Korea who is the CWME secretary. "However,  the
context in which mission and evangelism take place has changed
dramatically over the last three decades," he adds.

"The new mission statement will take this changed context into account  and
provide new concepts and directions for the WCC member churches  and
affiliated mission bodies, as well as offer a broader appeal that  goes
beyond the WCC fellowship," Keum says.

The statement will be given its final form at a mission event to  take place
in March 2012 at a venue still to be decided. Some 120 delegates  from the
WCC member churches and the CWME affiliated bodies plus some 30  guests and
advisers will struggle with crucial questions such as what the mission  of
God is in the world today, how can churches participate in it, as  well as
the main challenges and issues that need to be addressed in this  regard.

 From this event, the statement will find its way to the 2013 Busan  Assembly
of the WCC through the meeting of the WCC central committee in autumn
2012.

Before that, the CWME will meet again next year, this time in Achimota  near
Accra, Ghana. It was there in 1958 that the International Missionary
Council (IMC), one of the outcomes of the 1910 Edinburgh World Mission
Conference, decided to unite with the World Council of Churches.

The merger of the IMC and the WCC became effective in 1961, and  the CWME
will commemorate its fiftieth anniversary with a public event the  last day
of its 2011 meeting in Ghana. "We will celebrate and revisit the  goals of
that merger that aimed at integrating church and mission, which  had been
separated thus far," says Keum.

In addition, a centennial issue of the International Review of Mission
(IRM), another outcome of the 1910 World Mission Conference in Edinburgh,
will be published in October 2011. While celebrating its hundredth
anniversary, the missiological quarterly of the WCC will offer yet  another
platform for the ongoing revamping of the ecumenical understanding  of
mission in the 21st century.

The CWME commission is composed of some 25 members representing  WCC member
churches, mission bodies affiliated with the CWME and expressions  of the
“wider ecumenism”. Roman Catholics, Evangelicals  and Pentecostals are
full members of the CWME commission and participate in all its activities .

The Commission is a space for sharing reflections, experiences,  questions
and discoveries on content and methods of Christian witness today.  Its
goal is to empower churches and mission bodies to be in common mission  and
to do it in Christ's way.

Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=61de06478682c46135ad )
Ecumenical perspectives on mission and unity (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=6eb20abf77914f4bee36 )
WCC Programme "Ecumencial perspectives on mission and unity"
(Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=6761e3dc659cba4d6a58  )

Website of Edinburgh 2010 (Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT= 
e2ef983ad2a8c2607760
)

Athens 2005 (Link: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=bc6d2f0dc85a 
50837504 )

>* * * SIDE BAR * * *

Competition between churches should give room to shared witness

Diakonia, mission, and faith and order are different aspects of  the same
ecumenical movement and not separate, the Rev. Dr Walter Altmann,
moderator of the WCC central committee, said to the members of the
Commission of World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) at their meeting  last
week after the Edinburgh 2010 conference in Scotland.

Altmann spoke out of his Brazilian context, where the number of  people who
do not consider themselves to be of any faith is growing faster  than those
who regard themselves as part of the Pentecostal and charismatic  movement.

“This is a missionary challenge to us as churches," Altmann  said.
"Therefore competition between churches is not appropriate, and  there
should be shared witness to the love of God within society.”

“There is a need for understanding about what mission means,�� � Altmann
added. “All churches need to give an account of the hope  which is within
them.”

Regarding the upcoming WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea,
Altmann stressed that the Korean emphasis on mission makes even  more
relevant the CWME’s contribution in order to bring mission  and
evangelism into the agenda of the 10th Assembly.

The 2013 Assembly will be a unique opportunity to experience the  life of
the church in Korea while bringing the ecumenical experience of  global
mission and ecumenism to the country.

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 Olav Fykse  Tveit, from 
the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.