Anglican delegates to the 2010 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh will meet in Toronto to prepare a book about their experience. Photo: Episcopal News Service
An Anglican delegation present at the 2010 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh will meet again next week in Toronto to prepare a book about their experience. The nine Anglican delegates participated in what has been called a milestone in the global ecumenical movement.
Bishop Mark MacDonald, national indigenous bishop for the Canadian Anglican church, attended the conference. In an earlier interview with Episcopal News Service, he characterized the gathering of 300 people from 60 countries as one of “building the relationships that will carry the worldwide church to a new level.”
The event marked the centenary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference. This time, the conference saw a broader representation of gender, ages, geography and denominations. Delegates from the Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox, Protestant and Pentecostal churches-not represented at the 1910 conference-were among the participants. Women, youth and Christians from Africa-likewise missing from the 1910 event-were also present at Edinburgh.
Anglican delegation leader Canon John Kafwanka, from the Anglican Communion Office’s mission department, said in a report that the upcoming book will be written from an Anglican perspective and within the context of the Five Marks of Mission. The Five Marks of Mission are:
· To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
· To teach, baptize 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 book will be published under the Edinburgh 2010 series by Regnum Publishing, and spearheaded by the Anglican Communion Office’s mission department.
“The book should be relevant not only to those who attended Edinburgh 2010 but also, as an Anglican contribution written by contributors from or living in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, [it] should be relevant to Anglicans, with a heart for mission, around the Anglican Communion,” said Canon Kafwanka in an email interview. “The book should also draw ecumenical interest from those who are keen to find out Anglican perspectives.”
Since seven of the nine Anglican delegates are young mission leaders, it is hoped the book will interest youth and those “who believe that we need to be taking note of the perspectives of young mission leaders,” he added.
The book will include study materials for parish-based groups “that are keen to wrestle with the issues raised and discover the relevance for their own context.”
The publication date has been set for mid-2012.
The Anglican delegation will meet at the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College. Other members include Caitlin Reilley Beck (Anglican Church of Canada), the Rev. Kwok Keung Chan (Hong Kong Anglican Church ), the Rev. Irene Akini Ayallo (Anglican Church of Kenya), the Rev. Kapya John Kaoma (Anglican diocese of Central Zambia), Janice Price (Church of England), the Rev. Vicentia Kgabe (Anglican Church of Southern Africa) and Luiz Coelho (Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil).