Print
this page
Email
this page Mission & Evangelism - About the Department
The Anglican Communion understands mission as primarily God’s mission (Misio Dei). Meanwhile the Church has been called by God himself through Christ to participate in God’s mission. Therefore the Church exists for mission and because of mission!
The Anglican Communion also understands that God’s mission is holistic, both in terms of concern for all human beings and the totality of a human person (body, mind & spirit), and also in its concern for the totality of God’s creation - humanity and other creation. This holistic understanding of mission in the Anglican Communion is clearly expressed in the Five Marks of Mission:
- To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
- To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
- To respond to human need by loving service
- To seek to transform unjust structures of society
- To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
The Five Marks of Mission are not comprehensive in themselves but they serve as a guide and help the churches within the Communion to live out a mission lifestyle in their local contexts, and in variety of ways.
Mission and Evangelism Department
The depart of Mission & Evangelism traces it’s origins at the first meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC-1) in 1971, which itself was established by the 1968 Lambeth Conference resolution to form a central co-ordinating office in the Anglican Communion.
At its first meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the ACC identified four (4) themes, Unity and Ecumenical Affairs; the Church’s role in Society; Order and organisation in the Anglican Church, and Mission and Evangelism.
The Anglican Communion has always taken mission to be at the heart of its life and purpose for its existence. It is this recognition of the centrality of mission that Mission & Evangelism emerged as one of the first themes and departments of the ACC.
Since then, Mission and Evangelism has run along side other themes through successive Lambeth conferences and other Communion gatherings. Mission will shape agenda and content for year’s Lambeth Conference, whose theme is Equipping Bishops to Fulfil Their Leadership Role in God’s Mission.
The Department of Mission and Evangelism has participated in and facilitated several mission conferences and programmes at Communion level as well as produced various resource mission & evangelism material for use in the Communion.
The Role of Mission and Evangelism Department
The Mission and Evangelism department believes that mission takes place in a local context (congregation, parish, diocese & province), and that it is the responsibility of every baptised Christian - young & old, men & women, lay & ordained.
The Department also appreciates the fact that the Communion is diverse and that mission takes place or/and is expressed in diverse ways and with diverse approaches, appropriate to particular contexts in the Communion. The ways in which mission is lived out in the various parts of the Communion is determined by a number of factors, such – cultural context, resources, challenges & opportunities.
Therefore the Mission and Evangelism department exists to serve the Anglican Communion to fulfil God’s mission in God’s world in their local context.
Some of the contexts include: multi-faith, war & conflict, poverty, young people/youth & Women, the marginalised, HIV/AIDS & suffering, urban & rural, migrants, climate change & its effects, declining & growing churches.
The following are some of the roles of the Mission and Evangelism department:
- Promote and ensure mission is at the top agenda of the life and ministry of the Anglican Church world-wide, that it is the Gospel imperative and not additional activity.
- Promote and enable sharing (and exchange) of resources for mission in the Communion - such as prayer, experience, training, personnel, knowledge/theologies, finances, strategies, case studies, stories, joys and pain, (and stand in solidarity with those in challenging situations)
- Promote and enable networking among churches in the Communion – personal, congregation, diocesan and provincial links. This result in building and strengthening bonds of affection, and exchange of resources for local mission.
- Acts as an international co-ordination of Mission and Evangelism in the Communion.
- Promote and enable ecumenical mission relationships, recognising that most ecumenical relationships happen at a local level.
- Contribute to the preparation for the Lambeth Conference, and help shape post Lambeth Conference mission vision in the Anglican Communion.
Primarily, the Mission and Evangelism department works closely with, Provincial Mission (& Evangelism) Co-ordinators, and Mission Agencies around the Communion, ecumenical mission partners, Networks, and other departments at ACO.
Top
