Just a little prayer book definition for you:
What is the mission of the Church?
The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
How does the Church pursue its mission?
The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.
Visit the MissionWorks website.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Day 2: Being the Church: having fun together!
So, I'm not a great photographer...but this a photo from the bonfire that was built just outside our dining 'huts' tonight. Following a great dinner with an amazing group of people, I sat with some friends at the bonfire and watched my fellow Anglicans dancing along to marimbas and bongos. Ok, ok, I danced a little too. Unfortunately for my Canterbury Cards there is no evidence. Maybe the best way to be the Church is to have a little fun together.
Day 2: Being the Church
Today we heard perspectives on what it means to be the Church engaged in mission, and what our mission might look like. I've included below some highlights from both the Archbishop of Cape Town and Canterbury, as best as I can recreate from my scribbled notes. I hope the texts will be made available sometime, as I'm sure my outlining does not do their thoughtful, passionate words justice.
Before I get to that I will share one line that has stuck with me all day, a line which didn't come from the mouth of an Archbishop. In fact, it came out of the mouth of someone who was a participant in an ERD malaria program, as recounted by Abigail Nelson, part of the ERD staff. Part of the program's success is its education component. Abigail relayed to us that many--millions--of cases of malaria could be avoided each year simply by educating people about how the disease (and mosquitos) work. Following one such program that shared information about how mosquito nets can be effective in preventing malaria, a woman asked:
Why didn't anyone tell us this before?
This question is heartbreaking, not because of any intentional deception or even apathy, but because it is rooted in the reality that we, as a family of human beings, have yet to be able to find a way to live together in a way that would make such an oversight impossible. How is it that no one told these millions dying from malaria that the simple act of hanging (a very inexpensive) net would save their lives? How is it that we can receive dozens of duplicate forwarded emails about some danger that is actual only an internet hoax, but we cannot get the simple, but life-saving, facts about malaria to our brothers and sisters who are most vulnerable to the risk? It is only because we operate from the (to paraphrase Archbishop Williams) 'fundamental untruth, unreality' that 'one group can flourish at the expense of another' rather than embracing God's truth that 'no community is protected from the loss or trauma of others.'
There are many things we don't tell each other, and many things we allow to happen to each other simply because we deny the reality of the Christ in all persons, the reality that each of us is a part of the one body. If we lived that reality--if we lived as though your life was my life--wars would cease, food would be shared, and everyone would know that a $3 mosquito net can save your life.
____________________
God's world crying out to Him
An address by the Archbishop of Cape Town
This morning we heard from Archbishop Ndungane about his vision for the Church's mission. He described it as a process of 'comprehensive salvation', asking us to resist over spiritualizing the promise of abundant life, but instead understanding the implications of the gospel in our real, daily, enfleshed lives. "The gospel," he explained, "is not the Word made text!" Rather, of course, it is the Word made known in Jesus Christ. He went on to say that the Church is called into being by mission for the sake of salvation, as a fire exists by burning. Archbishop Ndungane reminded us that we are agents of transformation to restore all people to God and each other in Christ, and that mission "is an activity that transforms reality" and that mission itself "must constantly be transformed." God's world is crying out to Him and through the mission of the Church, God is acting.
Ndungane described how it is important for Christians to be concerned with holiness but that we must be mindful that our quest for personal holiness does not occur "at the expense of God's mission in God's world." We must live out the whole whole breadth of God's creation and trust that God will overcome the differences we have. He admonished us to live our lives in service to one another, standing for the "equitable sharing of God's abundance" so that their is sustainable life for all. God provides "for our need, not our greed" Ndungane said. "But we operate out of the fallacy that there is shortage." That fallacy, he explained, leads us to exploit one another often.
"We are all neighbors now. Our lives are intimately caught up with one another. God's world cries out to Him, and God hears, and God acts."
_________________
Knowing the Lord: Giving the Poor a Fair Trial
An address by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop Williams also addressed us this morning, exploring several biblical texts which call us into service of the poor and the other in order to "know the Lord." It was a lengthy talk, worth every second, but I will only recount some highlights:
Before I get to that I will share one line that has stuck with me all day, a line which didn't come from the mouth of an Archbishop. In fact, it came out of the mouth of someone who was a participant in an ERD malaria program, as recounted by Abigail Nelson, part of the ERD staff. Part of the program's success is its education component. Abigail relayed to us that many--millions--of cases of malaria could be avoided each year simply by educating people about how the disease (and mosquitos) work. Following one such program that shared information about how mosquito nets can be effective in preventing malaria, a woman asked:
Why didn't anyone tell us this before?
This question is heartbreaking, not because of any intentional deception or even apathy, but because it is rooted in the reality that we, as a family of human beings, have yet to be able to find a way to live together in a way that would make such an oversight impossible. How is it that no one told these millions dying from malaria that the simple act of hanging (a very inexpensive) net would save their lives? How is it that we can receive dozens of duplicate forwarded emails about some danger that is actual only an internet hoax, but we cannot get the simple, but life-saving, facts about malaria to our brothers and sisters who are most vulnerable to the risk? It is only because we operate from the (to paraphrase Archbishop Williams) 'fundamental untruth, unreality' that 'one group can flourish at the expense of another' rather than embracing God's truth that 'no community is protected from the loss or trauma of others.'
There are many things we don't tell each other, and many things we allow to happen to each other simply because we deny the reality of the Christ in all persons, the reality that each of us is a part of the one body. If we lived that reality--if we lived as though your life was my life--wars would cease, food would be shared, and everyone would know that a $3 mosquito net can save your life.
____________________
God's world crying out to Him
An address by the Archbishop of Cape Town
This morning we heard from Archbishop Ndungane about his vision for the Church's mission. He described it as a process of 'comprehensive salvation', asking us to resist over spiritualizing the promise of abundant life, but instead understanding the implications of the gospel in our real, daily, enfleshed lives. "The gospel," he explained, "is not the Word made text!" Rather, of course, it is the Word made known in Jesus Christ. He went on to say that the Church is called into being by mission for the sake of salvation, as a fire exists by burning. Archbishop Ndungane reminded us that we are agents of transformation to restore all people to God and each other in Christ, and that mission "is an activity that transforms reality" and that mission itself "must constantly be transformed." God's world is crying out to Him and through the mission of the Church, God is acting.
Ndungane described how it is important for Christians to be concerned with holiness but that we must be mindful that our quest for personal holiness does not occur "at the expense of God's mission in God's world." We must live out the whole whole breadth of God's creation and trust that God will overcome the differences we have. He admonished us to live our lives in service to one another, standing for the "equitable sharing of God's abundance" so that their is sustainable life for all. God provides "for our need, not our greed" Ndungane said. "But we operate out of the fallacy that there is shortage." That fallacy, he explained, leads us to exploit one another often.
"We are all neighbors now. Our lives are intimately caught up with one another. God's world cries out to Him, and God hears, and God acts."
_________________
Knowing the Lord: Giving the Poor a Fair Trial
An address by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop Williams also addressed us this morning, exploring several biblical texts which call us into service of the poor and the other in order to "know the Lord." It was a lengthy talk, worth every second, but I will only recount some highlights:
- Williams reminded us that "to know" in biblical terms is to describe an intimate knowledge. "To know" is not simply the exchange of acknowledgements, but the establishment and expression of a profound relationship.
- Through his study of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Archbishop asserts that "to know the Lord" is to "give the poor a fair trial." Through our "fairness to the poor" we are obeying the essence of the law, which is to 'do justice.' Living that way assures that "no one is forgotten, no one is invisible. The whole community is responsible to God, to each other, and for each other.
- In the New Testament, Williams sees that "in Jesus the final purpose of God is reavealed, not as an idea, but as a human being creating community. Jesus reshaped what it means to be the people of God. Those who thought they had no destiny under God are touched, received, affirmed by Jesus." Again, no one is forgotten, no one is invisible.
- What does the end of the world look like? Is it the images of popular fantastical apolyptic movies and books? Or is it not a comforting, rapturous end for the righteous but rather a world "where Jesus is"? A world where the future, the end, is near because Jesus is near? "We are part of the end of the world, where God's purpose defines the boundaries of human living." This kind of Christian community has heard the promise and is committed to living to it, but not just for those who have heard, but for all those who might ever hear it.
- Who is being forgotten? "The diminishment of any human being leads to our own diminishment." Living out this principle in our community is "a sacrament, because every action in which God's justice becomes manifest is sacramental as it shows God's future." As we gather at the table, "we are each there waiting on the other, everyone attending to the reality of others." To the church in the West/North +++Rowan asked: "Have you understood that you are deprived, dehumanized by some being allowed to remain invisible? To be a perpetrator of injustice is to be a victim as well."
- In 200 years, about what will people ask "How did they miss this?"
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