The main reason I set up the blog was to share some of the thoughts and reflections arising from my sabbatical. I have just one week to go before I return to work, and I'm beginning to pull together some of the threads, etc.
I began by attending a seminar at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, titled: 'Mission as Proclamation of the Gospel: towards a new ecumenical agenda for evangelism in the 21st century'. There's a mouthful, eh? And a subject to get your teeth into.
Of 42 participants, on the seminar, just two of us were from the United Kingdom. Other European countries represented were Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Italy. From Africa: Benin, South Africa, Ghana and Burundi. From Asia: India, Korea and Pakistan. From the Americas: Cuba, Jamaica, the West Indies and the USA. The South Pacific Cook Islands and the Island of Kiribati were also represented. In other words, there were represented at Bossey at least 20 different cultures and contexts in which mission is seen as urgent and imperative.
During the course of the week, we shared a spiritual life (morning prayers and Bible Studies, as well as attendance at the English-speaking Lutheran Church in Geneva on Sunday), and significant fellowship (many friendships began that will be maintained at least by e-mail, and a WCC online community, the ‘Ecumenical Network of Evangelists’, was established), as well as the opportunity to receive and discuss papers from a number of contributors. And it was fascinating to hear stories and reflections on mission from different churches and Christians around the world.
Watch this space for some of my reflections and conclusions that came out of that week.
1 comment:
I am interested as to whether there was any conclusions about multi-faith situations such as the one minister in : 95% Asian..surrounded by Muslims, Hindu, Sikh and Jew!
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