Topic: Ecumenical

Lutherans Actively Engage in World Mission Conference

Understanding Christian Mission in Diverse Local Contexts
EDINBURGH, Scotland/GENEVA, 10 June 2010 (LWI) - The Lutheran delegation to the 2010 World Missionary Conference, 2-6 June, in Edinburgh, Scotland, was diverse and its members well prepared to join in ecumenical consideration of mission in the 21st century.

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF), as one of the "stakeholder" organizations in the conference, was represented by a team of seven persons, including academicians and practitioners, with a balance of gender and more than the recommended 20 percent young adults.

"We wanted to look in the direction of the future," said Rev. Roger Schmidt, spokesperson for the LWF delegation. "We also knew that other significant Lutheran leaders would be present in their organizational and ecumenical capacities," noted Schmidt, youth secretary at the Department for Mission and Development.

Held under the theme "Witnessing to Christ Today," Edinburgh 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, also held in Edinburgh that helped to set the course of Protestant mission outreach in the 20th century.


Edinburgh 1910 was pan-Protestant, with 1,200 participants, mostly white men from Europe and North America. Edinburgh 2010, while smaller in size with 300 delegates, encompassed Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, as well as many varieties of Protestants, Pentecostals, and some independent Christian movements.

LWF delegates came from Germany, India, Malaysia, Norway, Ethiopia, Czech Republic, the United States and Uruguay. They joined others from 67 countries and more than 50 denominations in intense evaluation of the last century of church mission work. They discussed future mission trends, especially in terms of how Christians can work together in mission.

Diversity
Nicolas Iglesias Schneider, an LWF youth delegate from Uruguay, was interested in how mission works in the present day. A social worker for the Latin American Council of Churches, he wondered about the impact of diversity on the content and forms of mission.

Malaysia theologian Dr Young Cho said she expected to incorporate the spirit and content of Edinburgh 2010 in her work with future pastors at Sabah Theological Seminary. She had keen interest, because of where she lives, in the section on mission among people of other faiths. "We live in a Muslim context," she said of the Lutheran communities in Malaysia.

Urszula Marek of the Czech Republic, who works with children across the border in Poland, absorbed all she could in the study on mission and power. "The Lutheran ministry in Poland feels weak because we are a minority," she said. "We try to appear strong and use too much energy trying to look better," an approach she was beginning to feel was counterproductive to mission.

Church of Sweden ecumenical officer Rev. Peter Lindvall, said Edinburgh was teaching him to "listen with different ears" but was causing some concerns. He said he was troubled that the conference included little on the collaboration among churches in the area of humanitarian relief. He was also reflecting on how Edinburgh 2010 might strengthen the relationships between churches as such and Lutheran-related mission societies that operated with considerable autonomy.

Continuation
There is a proposal for a continuation committee of the "stakeholders," mostly world confessional organizations - the LWF, Vatican, World Methodist Council and similar groups - and umbrella organizations such as evangelical and Pentecostal associations.

One of the models in the section on unity in mission focused on the "Mission Today" project jointly sponsored by the LWF and World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). This project focused on grassroots experiences and reached its culmination in Argentina and the Netherlands in November 2009.

"There are many ways in which this pilot project can now be developed for broader use," said Schmidt “This was a first run; we hope many more groups will use this model to reflect anew on their calling."

The Holy Spirit was frequently invoked at Edinburgh 2010. The final point of the "Common Call", the conference outcome document, recalls Jesus' way of witness and service, and says Christians are bidden "by God to follow this way joyfully, inspired, anointed, sent, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and nurtured by Christian discipleship in community."

Schmidt said each of the Lutheran delegates will be communicating the outcomes and their experience at Edinburgh to their respective constituencies, and that the LWF would be circulating to member churches the "Common Call," available at: www.edinburgh2010.org. (725 words)

(Elliott Wright, a long-time religion journalist based in the United States wrote this article for Lutheran World Information.)

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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the world, representing over 70 million Christians. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)