Episcopalians: World Mission's new vision: companions in transformation

episcopalchurch.orgFrom dmack@episcopalchurch.org Date Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:47:45 -0400 June 13, 2003 2003-142 by Sarah T. Moore

(ENS) Develop exciting missionary education programs. Crank up the young adult service corps and send more missionaries out to other countries. Include more missionaries from ethnic minority groups. Increase seminary internships, improve short-term mission pilgrimages, and expand mission networking.

Those are a few recommendations included in "Companions in Transformation: The Episcopal Church's World Mission in a New Century," a vision statement that the Standing Commission on World Mission (SCWM) developed over the past three years.

However, rather than asking the church to jump immediately into its proposals, the commission will recommend in a resolution to the 74th General Convention this summer that the church, at every level, read and study its suggestions over the next triennium. Then, in 2006, the General Convention will be asked to reach a consensus about how to proceed. Between 2007-2009, the church then can put a framework into place to launch a well-thought out global mission plan--one the whole church embraces.

"Given the scope and possible cost of what we're suggesting the church needs more time to digest and study," says the Dr. Titus Presler, chair of the commission, dean of the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and former missionary to Zimbabwe.

"It's not so much the complexity as the matter of realizing that this kind of shift in thinking about world mission and global engagement really means a cultural shift in thinking by the Episcopal Church," he continues. " It requires reflection and what that involves."

Mission companions

By a cultural shift, Presler is speaking of a refocus to an overall motif of companionships, rather than just partnership. He notes today's Episcopal missionary goes out with seven commitments -- to be a companion, witness, pilgrim, servant, prophet, ambassador, host and sacrament. "Everything else in the report works that out: modes of mission, resources, and programmatic emphases."

"When we are companions together, we keep company with breadness' -- people who share bread on a journey. That means sharing the bread of suffering, exaltation, and life. And it means learning as well as giving."

He added, "At the end of the document there is a doxology' that talks about the downsides of past periods of mission history that, over last half of 20th century, have induced a paralysis on Episcopal and mainline euro denominations about engagement," pointing out that this is the commission's attempt to discern and share a vision of what it might be to be mission companions in the 21st century.

Creating the structures

Those responsible for putting the vision into action after the 2006 General Convention will need time to create the structure to put such ministries into place, the commission believes. "Our hope in the triennium is that people will have a chance to digest and discern better into the future what they are able to take on and what they don't," Presler says.

A second related resolution recommends that monies, previously dedicated to international jurisdictions formerly related to and/or financially linked to the Episcopal Church, be directed to future global mission and not absorbed into the general budget. Several international linkages have changed status this triennium, others are scheduled to follow suit, and all releasing previously dedicated financial resources.

"Those funds should continue to go to global engagement which includes a whole group of program areas beyond what world mission receives," Presler notes. "We present a principled way to increase funding and ask the church to adopt that principal with a major commitment to world mission."

In other related areas

During the three years since the 2000 General Convention, the commission undertook several topics other than crafting the vision statement. It:

Convened a consultation in 2001 on the intersection of Race, Money and Power in the World Mission of the Episcopal Church;

Assisted in the process of seeking autonomy for some international dioceses and incorporation of others back into the Episcopal Church structure;

Monitored and collaborated with the Episcopal Partnership for Global Mission (EPGM), a group of mission organizations of the Episcopal Church; and

Continued supportive talks with the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, a network of churches, mission congregations, and specialized ministries in five countries, which elected its own bishop-in-charge in 2001, as a step toward a new Anglican identity within the international English-speaking populace.

Three resolutions emerged from these engagements: two about reincorporating two dioceses into the Episcopal Church; and one commending the Executive Council for its continued collaboration with EPGM and recognizing its missionaries.

International jurisdictional linkages

Related through nurture, structure, linkages, or history to the Episcopal Church, the autonomy, or process to reach autonomy, of several international dioceses/jurisdictions required the attention of the commission and Executive Council this triennium.

Continuing to be part of the Episcopal Church are Colombia, the Convocation of the American Churches in Europe, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador Central, Ecuador Litoral, Haiti, Honduras, Taiwan, and the Virgin Islands.

Former members of the Episcopal Church, but now autonomous Anglican provinces, include La Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil, the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia (now part of the Province of West Africa), the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, and La Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America.

Incorporating Puerto Rico, Venezuela; Cuba stays alone

In an historical turnaround, the commission was closely involved with decisions by the Dioceses of Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Cuba to be reincorporated into the Episcopal Church international provincial structure.

It is unprecedented for a fully developed and autonomous diocese to seek membership in the Episcopal Church. Historically it has only been missionary dioceses that joined the structure of the church. Also it is a change in the church's missionary strategy that, in the past century, sought to encourage independence and growth of autonomous, regional church provinces.

This required intense conversation, meeting, and examination with several dioceses in the Caribbean and Latin America. Discussions centered on theology, mission strategy, colonialism, Anglican Communion structure, governance, political environments, as well as rooting a church within its own culture and indigenous ministries. Clergy and lay pension concerns were explored in conversation with the Church Pension Fund.

The resulting resolution before this General Convention is a recommendation to admit the Dioceses of Puerto Rico and Venezuela as dioceses in union with General Convention and members of Province IX of the Episcopal Church.

Each of these dioceses in its annual synod voted for such a change. The Diocese of Cuba, though originally considering a move, reversed its decision at its February 2003 synod. It will continue to be an "extra provincial" Anglican church, with oversight by a Metropolitan Council, chaired by Canada's Archbishop Michael Peers.

"Companions in Transformation: The Episcopal Church's World Mission in a New Century," is being printed by Morehouse Publishing to be distributed to all deputies and bishops at Convention. (The full text also is posted on the General Convention website.)

Sarah Moore is director of communications for the Diocese of Hawaii and a member of the ENS news team at the 74th General Convention in Minneapolis.