Hugh MacMahon,
SSC
Rethinking
Mission
Thanks to restrictive cultures, such as those of
China, India and the Islamic
countries, we are reminded of how narrow our vision of mission has become.
They do not permit what we had come to see as the normal means of mission
(parish and welfare ministries run by foreigners) but that does not
mean mission is impossible there. Rather we are led to rediscover the
original and precise task of mission. This is fortunate because in the
immediate future the number of missionaries is likely to be small and
they have to be aware of where and how they can be most effective in
the modern world. The following article outlines the present dilemma
of mission and where the future lies.
Over the past forty years Catholic
missionaries have known considerable success, the challenge of change
and, finally, doubt about their very future.
Most remain convinced that there will
be mission as long as there is a Church but few new candidates are joining
them and their energy is diminishing.
Instinctively they turn to the latest
theologies for direction and reassurance but are slow to recognise that
their own valuable experience on the front lines is more likely to provide
the answers they are seeking.
My own involvement in the traumatic
changes in mission was in Korea and, more recently, China.
By the end of the 1980s, the main missionary
societies in Korea (the M.E.P., Maryknoll, Guadalupe and Columbans)
could look back on a job well done. In the previous thirty years they
had established hundreds of new parishes, seen the number of believers
double, and then double again. In 1967 there were 707,000 Catholics
in Korea, in 1989 there were 2,613,000
and by 2002 they had risen to 4,348,000.
The missionaries had helped form a
strong local clergy and both at home and abroad the Korean Church was respected for its courageous
stand on human rights and social issues.
This success posed a dilemma for the
missionaries: had they worked themselves out of a job? Should they stay
on in supporting roles or move on to where they were needed more?
By then few other countries were seeking
foreigners for key ministerial or evangelising roles. Indeed major non-Christian
populations like China, India and the Islamic world prohibited
direct evangelisation by foreigners. Mission, as it has been known in
recent centuries, was running out of options and had to be rethought
if it was to continue.
A Cutting Edge of the Local Church?
At first it seemed that a future might
lie in introducing a variety of new ministries to Korea.
An example was the apostolate among
the urban poor in Seoul which a number of Columbans undertook in the early 1990s. The team involved
lived in a typical shack in a temporary settlement area and worked with
the local Catholics and people for the wider community. Their goal was
to develop a Catholic community centred on Scripture, service
and cultural sensitivity. It could have been ground-breaking
missionary work but the agenda of the local people was different and
soon questioned this assumption.
Biblical Base
To deepen the people’s scriptural awareness,
Bible reflection gatherings were organized each month for the 15 area
groups into which the Catholic families were divided. The meetings were
held in one of their homes. It soon became apparent that the real interest
of the people was not in Scripture but in their everyday health, family
and economic concerns. Their preferred religion was one that would enable
them to control good and bad fortune (and spirits) and help them forget
their anxieties. Building Scripture study around miracle stories or
encouraging charismatic-style prayers and singing might have satisfied
their felt religious needs but the Gospels do not indicate that this
is what Christ came to give them.
Service for Whom?
With encouragement the community became
involved in a number of projects for the locality: a credit union, resettlement
issues, medical clinics, night schools and care for children, invalids
and the aged. On the leadership level there was close cooperation with
a local Protestant church and a Buddhist center.
At the same time, the better-off Catholics
were looking forward to the day when the community would have an imposing
church, and a convent, kindergarten and doctrine halls they could be
proud of. Eventually economic progress led to their being raised
to the status of parish and a local priest took over. Despite his desire
to continue the former tradition of service, a five-storey church had
to be built and the emphases moved from involvement in the wider community
to fund raising and maintaining the ecclesiastical structure. Collaboration
with other religions became a formality.
The realities of
Korean society brought about this transformation but is that
what is meant when we speak of establishing a truly Korean Church?
How Local the Church?
The final goal of the urban poor apostolate
was to form a community that reflected Korean tradition and spirit.
Again the local people showed a limited vision of what this called for.
Most Catholics were content with
their Church’s foreignness — they liked its progressive and Western
image. The fact that the Western liturgy, publications and catechetical
works had been translated into Korean seemed to satisfy them.
Only a few were aware that their Church
was a duplicate of a Western model which was rapidly declining in its
lands of origin. In Korea itself the youth were already
showing it did not meet their needs. Its emphasis on externals overshadowed
its spiritual message and its efforts to draw on Korean culture were
largely decorative.
Dashed Hopes
The Columban
apostolate among the urban poor in Seoul came to an end when the
Catholic community with which they worked became a parish. However,
the difficulties encountered in trying to make it Scripture based, service
centred and inculturated had shown the limitation
to missionary work in a Church already firmly developed on traditional
Western lines and under local leadership.
There was still hope that a role remained
for missionaries in the young but vigorous Korean Church by raising mission awareness.
But if mission had reached its limits in Korea where were new missionaries
to be sent? The old forms of mission were no longer needed so what was
the next generation of missionaries being called to do?
This missionary
stalemate raised questions which few understood at that time. Later,
in the context of China,
I could get a better view of where the problem lay.
China: Faced with the Basics
Today mission to China is viewed as impossible
by many missionary societies because there are no openings for parochial
ministry, or directing social and educational projects. This shows how
narrow our thinking has become. In modern China the foreign missionary
contribution is made through quiet presence and personal service. This
is not a second-class way of doing mission,
rather it is a reminder of how mission began and how it is best achieved.
The original role of missionaries was
to sow the Gospel seed, form local leaders and hand over to them the
responsibility for the growing Church. Then they moved on. It was only
later that they saw their task as that of establishing churches on the
Roman model and taking on the responsibility for running those churches
till, sooner or later, a local clergy could share that responsibility
with them. Often that took many generations and there was a reluctance
to leave at all. Mission became “ministry in another culture”.
It took the challenge of entering “closed”
cultures like those of China, India and the Islamic countries
to renew modern mission and return it to its basics. That in itself might not have been sufficient to make mission societies
change their thinking but the contemporary shortage of missionary
vocations forces them to consider how they can make the best use of
their reduced membership. The fulltime missionaries that do exist should
not be hidden away in minor roles but be placed where they can make
most impact.
Before expanding on the three primary
goals of mission (sowing, forming and handing over) a prior question
must be addressed: is mission still necessary at all today?
Motivation for Mission
The old inspiration for going on mission
— to save souls — has lost its value and the need to spread the Kingdom
by defending human rights and creating sufficiency has been taken on
by professional and dedicated NGOs.
What Christianity offers is at the
most basic level. People are not going to adjust their life-style —
even if they know it make others poorer and destroys the environment
— unless they have a radical transformation of heart and this is the
area in which Christianity specialises.
Reflection on the life and death of
Christ, and his/her own experience, has led the missionary to find God
as the living and moulding force in their own life. Because this means
much to them they wish to share the discovery with others, encouraging
them to change their lives if necessary. This liberating challenge of
Christianity has to be asserted in all cultures but missionaries see
their task as that of focusing on those who historically have had little
or no opportunity to hear it. Now we can return to the manner in which
this is done.
Sowing the Seed
In order to influence others one must
be present among them and the most appropriate form of Christian presence
is personal service. Those who are attracted by its unselfish example
will want to know the reasoning behind it and its simplicity will not
distract them by seeming to offer any institutional benefit — social,
educational or economic.
To answer initial enquiries the bearer
of the message must be able to articulate his/her convictions in simple
terms. Young people, in China and elsewhere, recognise
propaganda in any form and are impressed only by a sustained life-style
that challenges the superficial values around them. When they seek written
materials to deepen their understanding of Christianity it should be
primary sources such as the Gospels, and not doctrinal works,
that are offered to them. It is the Holy Spirit that guides the
seed to fruition and missionaries should be in no hurry to assume that
role.
While missionaries need to be clear
on what they have to offer, familiarity with the local language and
culture is also essential so that local concepts and symbols are used
to deepen communication and draw the seeker into dialogue.
Finding Leaders
The timing of the urban poor project
in Seoul in the 1990s was too late to succeed
in forming communities on personal, Scripture-based spirituality. The
people had already found a certain attraction in a Catholicism based
on church fellowship and a set of practical religious regulations. It
provided continuity with the formality and hierarchy of their Confucian
background.
At the same time, a number of people
were looking for a closer relationship with God and sought Bible study
and meditation groups to help deepen their spirituality. Earlier missionaries
should have sought out and concentrated on such candidates. However,
the theological context of the age and the widely accepted drive for
rapid Church expansion encouraged missionaries to opt for large numbers.
They used catechetics and public devotions to cope with the crowds and
this also solved the problem for them as foreigners to share on a serious
level.
Entrusting the Church
The missionary ideal would be to gather
in communities those who showed an awareness of what Christianity is
about so that they could support each other and enable group witness
and worship. In due time such communities — in communion with the universal
Church — would be the ones to develop the institutions, sacraments and
theologies of a truly local Church. They would be the ones to take evangelisation
on to its later stages.
However in many countries, including
China, the Church already exists
in some form and even those who have found Christianity outside it will
eventually come in contact with its present day reality. They may be
disappointed by what they find so the missionary will have to help them
cope with the situation and show them how they can contribute to the
renewal of their Church.
Foreigners can also broaden the formation
of local clergy, Religious and lay leaders by providing them with opportunities
to experience alternative forms of Church.
Finally
Mission will be by small groups of
well motivated and specially trained missionaries. Rather than getting
involved in long-term “hands-on” ministries they will concentrate on
finding committed Christians to take on those tasks.
Their witness will be personal rather
than institutional and articulated in scriptural and spiritual language
rather than theological.
Their efforts will be addressed, not
to large numbers, but to potential servant-leaders who are attracted
by the spiritual basis of Christianity.
Their goal will be to encourage communities
of reflecting Christians to take on the responsibility, in communion
with the wider Church, of developing a local Church that evolves its
own theologies, liturgies and Christian identity.
If they succeed, their model of mission
will have much to offer their home Churches in their efforts to recreate
the Church in the modern world.
Ref.: Text from the author for SEDOS’
publication. September 2003.