f e at u r e
mission
From everywhere to everywhere The global financial meltdown means the Communion is embracing a new model of world mission based on mutuality. by jan butter
at tHe laSt Church of england General Synod a game-changing resolution was discussed and passed, yet few outside the meeting heard anything about it. Not until 3 August, almost a month later, did the Anglican Communion News Service reveal that england had made its “biggest change to mission policy in 50 years.” How could such a moment slip by unnoticed? and what was this change? the change was that the Church of england had agreed to radically alter its model of world mission. as laid out in its report World-Shaped Mission, Exploring new frameworks for the Church of England in world mission, the C of e has rethought its working relationship with other churches of the anglican Communion. it is asking its dioceses to commit to principles of partnership that encourage the continuation of a journey from former patterns of dependency and paternalism towards mutuality. this means that the traditional model of one diocese in the West simply giving money for a church project in the South no longer counts as genuine relationship. Now questions have to be asked about true partnership, about mutual benefit, about what else there is to give and receive other than money. How could such a major paradigm shift go largely unnoticed? Perhaps it is because this new model of world mission has been, and still is evolving across the whole of the anglican world, with this resolution as the latest stage of the transition. Zambian priest and the Anglican Communion’s Director for mission the revd John Kafwanka confirmed a gradual shift in the way Churches across the Communion think about collaboration for mission. “the tone [of world mission] was set by the work that took place during the missionary period and we hadn’t really made a break from that,” he explained. “You go back to 1910 World Missionary Conference in edinburgh and the tone was about the european church and the church in the West going to evangelise the rest.” John explained that, along with all the good that came from this missionary enterprise, it left a legacy that undermined the Church in the West and South. CAROLyN VANDERLIP / THE PRIMATE’S WORLD RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT FUND
6
|
anglican world issue 129 september 2012