LETTER FROM THE ECUMENICAL MODERATOR
partnership for mission
MURDOCH MACKENZIE
OCTOBER 2001
Dear Friends,
CONVERGENCE - A PARTNERSHIP FOR MISSION
Last month we thought about unity. Now we think about mission because somewhat like love and marriage the two go together like a horse and carriage. During 2001 these Moderator's Letters have focussed on the Five Marks of Mission and you may wish to revisit some of these and discuss them in your church councils.
But 'What is Mission?' This is the title of a book by Andrew Kirk, Dean and Head of the School of Mission at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. For him the most all-encompassing of the New Testament's texts on mission is John 20:21 'As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' In the major section of the book he identifies Seven Contemporary Issues in Mission namely: 'Announcing Good News', 'The Gospel in the Midst of Cultures', 'Justice for the Poor', 'Encounter with Religions of the World', 'Overcoming Violence and Building Peace', 'Care of the Environment' and 'Sharing in Partnership'. These are issues in which some people from our churches in Milton Keynes are already involved but which we need to explore together in ways which will release everyone to find personal individual fulfilment in mission. This could be a difficult task as we might soon discover that in reality parochialism is much more of a stumbling block to mission than is denominationalism.
As it so happens the Scottish Churches Ecumenical Assembly has just conducted a major exercise in September with a gathering of 500 people looking at Seven Major Issues in Mission namely: 'Breaking Out Of Poverty' (Good News for the Socially Excluded?), 'Breaking Into a New Enlightenment' (Spiritual Values and the Knowledge Economy and Education and Vision), 'Breaking Free from Alienation' (Racism, Migration and Asylum), 'Breaking Into a New Understanding of Work' (Making Human Work More Human), 'Breaking through to a Fresh Approach to Spirituality' (Today, Churches emptying, Spirituality more popular - Why?), 'Breaking into Partnership with Science and Technology' (Science and Technology: The growth of knowledge in an uncertain world.) 'Breaking into Dynamic Ways of Being Church' (Modernity. Postmodernity and Cultural Change).
If we as a Christian Community in Milton Keynes are going to take the issues of Mission seriously in this new city of the Open University on the one hand and of pockets of social deprivation on the other, then we have quite an exciting agenda. Perhaps for some of us our God is still too small for us to be able to grasp the length, breadth, height and depth of what it means to be empowered by the mandate: 'As the Father has sent me, so I send you'. In a recent sermon in St Cuthbert's Edinburgh, the Minister, Tom Cuthell, draws a distinction between the pioneers and the settlers. Are we pioneers relishing new frontiers in mission or settlers preferring a life of security and stability? As Bishop Mike said in his Visitation Charge 2001: 'Surely church is a place where other human communities will be taken seriously and engaged with.' Or as our Woughton Lecturer, Inderjit Bhogal, is always reminding us, the challenge both to Church and Nation is to rediscover A TABLE FOR ALL!
To be engaged in Mission means all of the above. Now that we have converged and have more of an opportunity to get to grips with what is really going on in Milton Keynes, as one Christian body, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily divides and hinders us and let us look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. His is, after all, A TABLE FOR ALL! As Bishop Mike said on May Day: 'This is the time. You are the people. Together we can crack it.'
Deep Peace of the Son of Peace to you !
Murdoch MacKenzie
CONVERGENCE - A PARTNERSHIP FOR MISSION
Last month we thought about unity. Now we think about mission because somewhat like love and marriage the two go together like a horse and carriage. During 2001 these Moderator's Letters have focussed on the Five Marks of Mission and you may wish to revisit some of these and discuss them in your church councils.
But 'What is Mission?' This is the title of a book by Andrew Kirk, Dean and Head of the School of Mission at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham. For him the most all-encompassing of the New Testament's texts on mission is John 20:21 'As the Father has sent me, so I send you.' In the major section of the book he identifies Seven Contemporary Issues in Mission namely: 'Announcing Good News', 'The Gospel in the Midst of Cultures', 'Justice for the Poor', 'Encounter with Religions of the World', 'Overcoming Violence and Building Peace', 'Care of the Environment' and 'Sharing in Partnership'. These are issues in which some people from our churches in Milton Keynes are already involved but which we need to explore together in ways which will release everyone to find personal individual fulfilment in mission. This could be a difficult task as we might soon discover that in reality parochialism is much more of a stumbling block to mission than is denominationalism.
As it so happens the Scottish Churches Ecumenical Assembly has just conducted a major exercise in September with a gathering of 500 people looking at Seven Major Issues in Mission namely: 'Breaking Out Of Poverty' (Good News for the Socially Excluded?), 'Breaking Into a New Enlightenment' (Spiritual Values and the Knowledge Economy and Education and Vision), 'Breaking Free from Alienation' (Racism, Migration and Asylum), 'Breaking Into a New Understanding of Work' (Making Human Work More Human), 'Breaking through to a Fresh Approach to Spirituality' (Today, Churches emptying, Spirituality more popular - Why?), 'Breaking into Partnership with Science and Technology' (Science and Technology: The growth of knowledge in an uncertain world.) 'Breaking into Dynamic Ways of Being Church' (Modernity. Postmodernity and Cultural Change).
If we as a Christian Community in Milton Keynes are going to take the issues of Mission seriously in this new city of the Open University on the one hand and of pockets of social deprivation on the other, then we have quite an exciting agenda. Perhaps for some of us our God is still too small for us to be able to grasp the length, breadth, height and depth of what it means to be empowered by the mandate: 'As the Father has sent me, so I send you'. In a recent sermon in St Cuthbert's Edinburgh, the Minister, Tom Cuthell, draws a distinction between the pioneers and the settlers. Are we pioneers relishing new frontiers in mission or settlers preferring a life of security and stability? As Bishop Mike said in his Visitation Charge 2001: 'Surely church is a place where other human communities will be taken seriously and engaged with.' Or as our Woughton Lecturer, Inderjit Bhogal, is always reminding us, the challenge both to Church and Nation is to rediscover A TABLE FOR ALL!
To be engaged in Mission means all of the above. Now that we have converged and have more of an opportunity to get to grips with what is really going on in Milton Keynes, as one Christian body, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily divides and hinders us and let us look to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. His is, after all, A TABLE FOR ALL! As Bishop Mike said on May Day: 'This is the time. You are the people. Together we can crack it.'
Deep Peace of the Son of Peace to you !
Murdoch MacKenzie
