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Jacques
Matthey * The latter part of the sixties was characterized by an increasingly unjust world situation, which called forth protest both in the West (student unrest) and in other continents (liberation struggles). The hope that unjust oppressive structures could actually be changed in the comparatively near future also characterized missionary thinking and activity. At the time of the WCC assembly in Uppsala in 1968 the most radical thinkers defended the thesis that the sole priority of Christian mission was engagement in social and political activity for the "humanization" of structures, following God’s own mission dynamic, which is at work within movements of social and political struggle for shalom 1. Two particularly controversial WCC programmes date from this time, the Programme on Dialogue with People of Other Living Faiths and the Programme to Combat Racism. The world mission conference in Bangkok at the end of December 1972 and the beginning of January 1973 with the theme "Salvation Today", was the last before the widespread crisis of the seventies took hold. Three major emphases arose in the process of preparation and in the conference debates. 1. For the first time in such an explicit way, salvation was understood in a sense that included the different aspects of human life in society. God’s saving work is seen as having four main aspects: struggle for economic justice against exploitation, struggle for human dignity against political oppression, struggle for solidarity against alienation between persons, and struggle for hope against anxiety and resignation. As a whole, salvation embraces all those aspects. Nonetheless, depending on the specific context, one particular aspect would have priority in mission. Thus it could be said that salvation was: peace for the people of Vietnam, independence for Angola, justice and reconciliation in Northern Ireland, or personal conversion in a society without hope. God’s justice is to be seen both in the justification of the sinner and in social and economic justice. If they are to be capable of becoming involved in the dynamic of God’s mission, the churches must first be freed from their captivity to structures of oppression and their complicity with them and become catalysts of God’s healing action in the world. 2. Bangkok marks the appearance on the stage of world mission conferences of the deeply felt revolt by the representatives of third world churches against the dominant cultural influence of the West. While before Bangkok the world could be viewed as one stage on which one universal history was being played out, that backdrop now irretrievably disappeared. There was strong condemnation of the alienating nature of missionary work, especially by representatives from Asia and Africa. The working style of the conference - which was more like a happening - and the freedom given to the section reports sent slogans and strong words resounding through the ecclesiastical world. "Christ came to redeem real men not pale reflections of other men." "Christ came to answer questions that I ask and not those which others think I ought to ask."(2) Delegates claimed their right to cultural identity as Christians. Each church should be able to free itself from the models imposed by Europe or North America so as to formulate its own theology, make its own organizational, liturgical or moral choices, and form its own alliances, for example with people of other living faiths. There is no one universal theology, but a variety of theologies, which respect the various social and political contexts in which they have come into being. At the Bangkok conference the demand for "contextual" theology (3) made its appearance on the international scene as a protest against missionary domination. 3. In response to the inequality in North-South church relations, the delegates sought means to make the churches living in different contexts truly independent. Bangkok has become famous for one of the proposals in the section documents, that of a "moratorium" (4). The "moratorium" consisted in the demand for a withdrawal, for a fixed period, of all missionaries and all expatriate staff, as well as a stop to outside financial support to churches so as to enable them to find for themselves their identity and the responses that they should be giving in the name of the gospel to the real questions of their members. As for the missionaries sent home, they were to be active in their own industrialized countries working to change unjust structures and to build awareness. The aim of the moratorium was to be the in-depth renewal of relations between Christians of the North and those of the South. Its radical nature meant that it was immediately attacked, even by the churches of the South - and not always, be it said, for the right reasons - and, above all, that it was practically not implemented, except where political powers enforced it, as in China and Burma. Nonetheless, the critical spirit it reflected was to have an enduring influence on missionary relationships and particularly on the way in which people sent from the North to the South were received. At the same time, the highly respected Paris Society of Evangelical Missions (SMEP) went out of existence to give birth in 1972 to a French body in which mission was integrated into church structures, the French Evangelical Department for Apostolic Action (DEFAP), and to an international body for inter-church cooperation, the Evangelical Community for Apostolic Action (CEVAA). Being a fellowship of churches committed to pooling a part of their resources in order to fulfil their missionary task together, CEVAA can be seen as a structural alternative to the "moratorium", as an attempt to respond in a different way to the situation of blatant inequality condemned by Bangkok. CEVAA is in fact mentioned in the Bangkok reports as a possible way forward for new relationships. MISSION IN THE CRISIS YEARS OF THE 70s. In the early years of the 70s a number of beliefs and hopes were being called in question. Within the bounds of this article we can only touch briefly on these by mentioning the most important ones. In 1971 the Club of Rome’s first report appeared pointing out the limits to growth: the world is not infinite, and its resources will one day be exhausted. At the same time, serious famines in Africa demonstrated the failure of capitalist concepts of development, while the Chinese cultural revolution called in question so-called socialist models. And to crown it all came the first major oil crisis. Even in the West it was becoming evident that economic systems and development theories were precarious. These developments were also to influence missiological thinking, particularly from 1975 onwards. But, before that, we should mention the International Congress on World Evangelization in 1974 in Lausanne, organized by evangelical groups and sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, to flag up their opposition to ecumenical theological developments and their demand that mission should once again concentrate on the essentials. These personalities, movements and organizations had already met in the 60s (see the end of the preceding article). It was, however, Lausanne that marked their emergence at a truly world level. The Lausanne Covenant adopted by this congress clearly dissociates itself from the statements of the ecumenical movement, particularly those from Bangkok. It states that the absolute priority in mission is to evangelize those who have never yet heard of Christ, the Saviour and Lord of the world. All efforts in organization and cooperation should contribute to strengthening Christian witness to "the unreached" (5). It was the intention of Lausanne to reaffirm what the WCC was neglecting. By clearly distancing itself from the statements of Bangkok, the Lausanne Covenant (6) rejects any identification of salvation with political liberation, of proclamation of the gospel with political involvement. Salvation is personal, linked with acceptance by faith of Christ as the only Saviour and Lord. However, particularly because of the influence of the many delegates from the third world, Lausanne did not reject social action as a Christian task, but affirmed it on condition that a clear distinction be made from any "messianic" intention (7). Similarly, while Lausanne does accept a form of dialogue in love as a means of getting to know believers in other faiths, the Covenant clearly rejects any possibility of salvation apart from confession of faith in Jesus Christ. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, the so-called Lausanne Committee, set up in 1974, was to become for many years alongside various other evangelical bodies, the essential mouthpiece of those Protestant missionary movements which were not Pentecostal nor associated with the WCC. It can be said that Lausanne both marks the extreme difference between "evangelicals" and "ecumenicals" and also the beginning of rapprochement. The mid-70s can in effect be seen as a period of reorientation in missionary thinking. Not everything can be mentioned within the limits of this article, but it can be noted that in 1975 the Vatican published a notable document "Evangelization in the Modern World" (8), which presented a comprehensive overview of mission. In the same year the Nairobi assembly of the WCC produced a wholistic definition of mission, linking together the two poles of witness and solidarity. It is interesting to note that in this time of crisis there was a rediscovery of the specificity of the gospel within the global mission of God. THE APPEARANCE OF VICTIMS AS BEARERS OF GOD’S MESSAGE (1980) At the end of the 70s two movements flow together in the world Conference on mission and evangelism in Melbourne in 1980: the study on "The Church and the Poor" by the Commission on the Churches’ Participation in Development and the experience of the Urban Rural Mission movement linked with the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. Convened under the theme "Your Kingdom Come", this conference turned the assumptions and priorities of mission upside down. The coming of the kingdom of God (9) - a formidable subject, if any there be - entails a fundamental change of values and structures and overthrows hierarchies. Three major points among the many themes in the documents are singled out here (10). 1. Under the determining influence of the representatives from Latin America and the experience of the base communities, the conference discovered and declared that those who are the most oppressed in society, "the poor", are at the forefront in the dynamics toward the kingdom of God. Taking up the concept of Missio Dei, which had influenced WCC theology since Willingen, Melbourne defines its theological entry point into the world: God acts by and through the poor, the victims and the excluded. The aim of God’s action, described as "shalom" (cf note 1), is also defined in the sense that God aims first at the liberation of the poor, a liberation that will bring about changed relations in the world and also the liberation of the rich and powerful. The poor and their fate thus become the yardstick for judging all social, political, economic, religious and missionary developments and programmes. They also become the prime bearers of witness to the gospel in the world. In this area there is a fuzziness in the conference documents: some paragraphs suggest that it is the poor as such, their social and political movements, which thus are the bearers of God’s message, apart from any religious connections. Others, admittedly more numerous, clearly define the churches or communities of the poor as bearers of the gospel. 2. Symbolically, the change in mission priorities was described at Melbourne as a two-way movement from the "centre" to the "periphery" and from the "periphery" to the "centre" (11). Christ himself is the initiator of this new movement: he, who is the centre of the kingdom of God, is born neither in a temple nor in a palace, but in a cave. And he will be executed outside the city walls at a place called "the Skull". He bears witness that the kingdom of God is constantly moving from every "centre" towards every "periphery". The living Christ is not to be found where political, economic or religious power is concentrated, but where the wretched of the earth are wasting away. It is consequently from there that God’s message of hope or of judgment on the state of the world presently rings out. The movement of the Missio Dei begins from the poor at the periphery to reach and affect the centres of power. 3. One of the sections at Melbourne highlighted particularly the criticism of power implicit in such an approach. Christ crucified calls into question any use of power in mission - and perhaps in general. On the cross, with its total renunciation of all power, the kingdom of God is made manifest through the servant’s giving of his life. To be in mission in Christ’s way is to share in the vulnerability of the Saviour of the world. Here we find a specific feature of witness in the light of the Melbourne theme. It can only lead to a refusal of any attempt to impose the Christian message by the instruments of power or with their support. That is also perhaps the most radical calling into question ever of the form of the church or of Christian missionary organizations or organizations arising from them. A "crusade" is a counter-witness to the cross. But perhaps the institutional church is also.... THE 80s: HOPES FOR CONVERGENCE BETWEEN EVANGELICALS AND ECUMENICALS The Lausanne movement, in the same year of 1980, seemed for its part to be interested in other issues. A conference at Pattaya in Thailand attempted to draw methodological and organizational conclusions from the Lausanne Covenant, particularly what had emerged as mission priority number one, that is, proclamation to those who do not yet know Christ. The main issue considered by the delegates was "How will they hear [the gospel] ?" In many workshops the missionary leaders present worked in detail to pinpoint the various population groups within which it was desired to bring churches into being. In reality, according to the evangelicals, it is a mistake in evangelism to regard individuals as isolated units. But it is equally wrong to work with the concept of political "nations". The fact that a church exists in a particular country does not at all mean that the gospel can truly reach all population groups in that country. A more refined analysis must therefore be made, which is what Pattaya attempted to do. They identified around 17,000 population groups which do not yet have the opportunity of experiencing the gospel as lived by a community originating from that group itself (12). Some of the workshops did noteworthy work in analysis and strategic thinking which could, incidentally, be a foundation for closer working with ecumenical groups - as has been the case with the workshop on witness among the poor in large cities. THE WCC’s ECUMENICAL AFFIRMATION ON MISSION AND EVANGELISM In 1982 the WCC published "Mission and Evangelism - an Ecumenical Affirmation", which brings together developments since 1960 by combining in a remarkable way the fruit of previous mission conferences, as well as insights from the Orthodox churches, Roman Catholic missionary orders and congregations, and dialogues with evangelicals. The result is a truly comprehensive view of mission (13), which, together with the 1974 Lausanne Covenant and the 1975 "Evangelii Nuntiandi" ("Evangelization in the Modern World"), forms a corpus of documents which are essential reading (14). The WCC text is not summarized in this article, because the purpose is to examine each conference in detail. It is, however, appropriate to mention some points which indicate progress in subjects mentioned above. 1. The document insists that a clear witness to the gospel lies at the heart of mission. The church is there to call people and nations to repentance, to declare forgiveness of sins and a renewed life. The proclamation of the kingdom of God inaugurated by Jesus, the crucified Lord, lies at the heart of the church’s calling in the world. 2. But the church is not simply an instrument of witness. It shares in Christ's ministry as mediator between God and creation. There are two movements: the church shows forth the love of God to the world, but, in its identification with those who suffer, it also presents to God their prayers, their cries, their hopes and their joys. The document states that any imbalance between these two movements seriously hinders Christian witness. 3. The WCC insists on the importance of decision and personal conversion to Christ, the acceptance of his forgiveness, and the willingness to follow him in a life of service. At the same time, the call to repentance is also addressed to "nations, groups and families". 4. Evangelism takes place primarily and supremely in inter-personal relations in which the Spirit causes faith to spring forth. 5. There is a tragic coincidence in that most of the individuals and peoples who have never heard of Christ are also the poorest and the victims of the world social and economic system. In face of this situation, there is a double credibility test: "A proclamation that does not hold forth the promises of the justice of the kingdom to the poor of the earth is a caricature of the gospel; but Christian participation in the struggles for justice which does not point towards the promises of the kingdom also makes a caricature of a Christian understanding of justice." (15) On many essential points in the missiological debate the 1982 Affirmation avoids one-sided positions. It can thus be regarded as a genuine convergence document. The groups in conversation or dialogue with the WCC have clearly understood this. There have been several regular meetings with the Roman Catholic missionary congregations and also with representatives of the Lausanne Committee and the Evangelical Alliance. The 1987 joint statement on evangelism from Stuttgart is remarkable in this respect (16). It identifies points of agreement and problems, and then makes an appeal that an attempt be made together to establish what sorts of evangelistic programmes are desirable in common. To the author’s knowledge, this appeal has, unfortunately, not been followed up. THE WORLD CONFERENCE ON MISSION AND EVANGELISM IN SAN ANTONIO (1989) The world mission conference in San Antonio, Texas, in the spring of 1989 did not attract as much media attention as its "rival" gathering, the European Ecumenical Assembly on Peace with Justice, in Basel, which was held at more or less the same time. Nonetheless, it represented an advance for the WCC and its member churches on several important points. As regards relations with evangelicals, mention should be made of the well-known letter addressed by San Antonio participants of evangelical persuasion to the organizers of the Congress which the Lausanne Committee was planning for later that same year in Manila in the Philippines. In it the delegates review the growing together and the theological differences and express the desire for more frequent and formal dialogue. At the San Antonio conference the idea was even mooted for a future joint meeting of the two international movements, or at least the organization of two conferences in parallel at the same time and at the same location to enable contacts to be made. To the author’s knowledge, this proposal has also not been implemented (17). The following points from San Antonio are relevant to this article: 1. Ever since its inception the WCC Programme on Dialogue with People of Other Faiths has been surrounded by tension and lively theological debate, not least concerning the relation between dialogue and mission. Contrary to what is usually thought, there is no unanimous position at all on this issue within the ecumenical movement, and particularly not in its mission sector. Indeed, it is one of the points on which the 1982 Affirmation is weak. San Antonio was able to find a formulation clarifying the issue in three statements which declare substantially that, first of all, we affirm that we cannot point to any other way of salvation than Jesus Christ; but at the same time, we cannot set limits to the saving power of God; and, finally, we acknowledge that there is a tension between these statements which we are not in a position to resolve. That has the merit of being clear and it effectively summarized the point which the ecumenical movement had reached. In effect, it affirms at one and the same time the need to preach the gospel to all who do not yet know it and the fact that mission and dialogue are complementary and not mutually exclusive. That middle position is the only one which the many churches and movements linked with the WCC can at present affirm in common. 2. Taking up the tradition of appeals for involvement in the struggles for justice and peace which have been made in every ecumenical mission conference, San Antonio attempted a more positive approach to power than had been the case at Melbourne. San Antonio speaks of the creative power of God, the power of the resurrection, which is manifested in the protest movements against oppression, the struggle for justice, and, above all, in resistance to all that dehumanizes. On that point, San Antonio was not always able to maintain the critical distance essential in all theological pronouncements on political matters. Nonetheless, San Antonio broke new ground particularly by widening the field of mission to include the whole of creation. In practical terms, this consisted in demanding the right to land for landless peasants and minorities, since God alone is the owner of God’s created world. Mission thus took on board the initial moves towards the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation programme, launched by the WCC at its 1983 Vancouver assembly. 3. San Antonio opened up new ground in appreciating and taking seriously the experience of popular religiosity. In search of a less cerebral and less Westernized Christian spirituality, the conference approached in a positive spirit the experiences of religious communities who have a strong communal identity, use symbolic religious language and attach importance to themes such as the earth and fertility, the body and sexuality, and work and festive celebrations. The conference was not clear on whether it was interested only in the experiences of Christian communities or also in those of groups and communities of popular religion in general. 4. Finally, it can be said that San Antonio officially broke the silence on the ministry of missionaries, a silence which had lasted since Bangkok, with the exception of a short paragraph in the 1982 WCC Affirmation. It is true that at the programmatic level the WCC had done much work on the exchange of personnel and resources. But its missionary theology had not really been insisting on the importance of the ministry of crossing cultural frontiers. Similarly, San Antonio reaffirmed positive appreciation of the experience of reorganizing North-South relations in shared community, such as is to be seen in CEVAA (17). 1989: LAUSANNE II AT MANILA Only a few months after San Antonio, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation also called a world congress on mission, the second of that importance (over 3,000 participants from 170 countries) after 1974. As had been the case in Lausanne, those participants had not been sent by member churches or bodies (as is the case in the CWME conferences), but selected on the basis of their personal capacities. The congress, which took place in Manila, the Philippines, could draw on intensive work done since 1974 in many evangelical consultations on themes such as gospel and cultures, simple lifestyle, evangelism and social responsibility, conversion and the 1980 Pattaya congress (18). The "Manila Manifesto" mainly reaffirms the contents of the Lausanne Covenant, which remains the basic document on mission for many if not most evangelicals. But the comments and affirmations made at Manila must be taken into consideration. Some are indicated below as examples: 1. Created in the image of God, human beings nevertheless are and remain sinful and are lost without Christ. This is seen as a precondition for announcing and receiving the gospel. There is no possible salvation in any human ideology or religion, in any human effort. 2. Christ is unique and inseparable from the historic person of Jesus of Nazareth who died on the cross and resurrected. While at the congress the re have been somewhat more open opinions on relations towards people of other religions than had been the case in Lausanne, the official position remains an exclusivist one: there is no possible salvation in other religions. Manila repudiates false gospels and rejects half-true gospels. 3. The gospel must be preached without fear and hesitation, and Christians must be ready to defend it. Apologetics is an essential part of the witnessing responsibility of the church. Evangelism, thus, remains the first priority within the overall mission of the church. This affirmation is somewhat balanced with the other that good words and good works are inseparable. 4. Manila has a clearer emphasis than Lausanne o the affirmation that gospel is good news to the poor, understood both as the humble before God and as the materially poor. The message of God's kingdom requires prophetic denunciation of injustice and oppression. On that point, the positions of the WCC and the Lausanne movement have come nearer than was the case in the early seventies. 5. Within the world context of a spiritual warfare, Manila insists on the fact that God is the main evangelist and that the Holy Spirit is the most important power for mission. 6. The Lausanne movement reaffirms the priority of the local church in mission as well as the need for cooperation in evangelism, between churches and also with para-church organisations. Participants acknowledge among themselves differences as to their relation to the WCC and its member churches. Some are ready to remain critical participants in the ecumenical movement while others stay outside. 7. The perspective of the coming of the new millennium is understood as an urgent call to accomplish as far as possible the main missionary task: the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church. The urgency was stressed in relation to the creation that same year within the Lausanne circles of a specifically militant evangelistic movement called "AD 2000 and Beyond." Those people, any of whom were present at Manila, insist on the urge to evangelize all unreached peoples living within what they name the "10/40window" (19). Another important factor to be mentioned concerning Manila is the important participation of Pentecostals and charismatics together with the more traditional evangelical circles. There is an evolution which can be discerned between the evangelical and ecumenical movements. Some basic affirmations on mission and evangelism seem to be common, as well as the insistence on the role of the local church and the emphasis laid on the socio-political aspect of Christian witness. One of the really main differences - an important one - has to do with the appreciation of the uniqueness of Christ and its consequences on the relation with people of other religions.(20) 2.4 IN 1989 THE WALL FALLS AND A NEW PAGE IS TURNED Though they did not know it, the San Antonio and Manila mission conference were to be the last to be held in a politically and economically divided world, since in the autumn of that same year the Berlin wall was to fall. And so, for the first time since Edinburgh the missionary movement again found itself facing the challenge of one world under a single economic system. Thinking on mission would from then on have to tackle the causes and effects of "globalization", both from the economic and the cultural point of view, and also the conflicts arising from the breakdown of the large cultural groupings into small communities with a tendency to withdraw into themselves. In 1996 the WCC again organized a Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, which was to be the last in the present century. It took place in Salvador, Brazil, with the theme "Called to one hope: the Gospel in Diverse Cultures". The preparatory work for the conference had been done in decentralized studies over several years since the previous WCC assembly in Canberra, and it produced a number of significant results (21). 1. The ecumenical missionary movement acknowledged - hopefully for good - the richness of the diverse cultures in the world as an expression of the will of God the creator. None of these cultures can claim to be closer to the gospel than others and thus better fitted for its dissemination. From a theological point of view, cultures are of equal value. We should note that this is still a subject of debate, particularly with some Orthodox churches. The gospel should be able to come into being and develop in each culture according to its own genius. Salvador thus took up again the thinking of Bangkok on the need for all church life to be contextualized. During the study process on "Gospel and Cultures" and at the conference itself, the delegates were able to appreciate that this is still far from being the case. To take but one example, the thought forms and theological options of Western university work continue to influence directly or indirectly the churches of non-Western continents. Salvador thus called first of all for the demands of Bangkok to be taken seriously - at last! 2. But Salvador also introduced other points. Every culture carries in itself not only forces encouraging solidarity, peace and reconciliation, but also elements of violence, contempt and exclusion. For the first time a WCC mission conference took note of this in an emphasized public official way. Two developments in recent years had contributed to this. First, during the studies and visits in connection with the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, women had become aware that their cultures did not always allow them dignity and rights equal to those of men, nor did they unambiguously encourage the flowering of their talents. Certain types of oppression are not caused by international structures but by very local customs, beliefs and structures. We need to learn to identify them. Secondly, the bloody events in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda - to take only these two examples - had served as a reminder of how religion, including Christianity, could, in the name of cultural, ethnic or national identity, support or participate in actions which are indefensible from a gospel point of view. That was why Salvador recalled that any culture can be at one and the same time enriched and critiqued by the gospel, just as any culture can exhibit or obscure the contents of the Christian message. There is an ambiguity here, and churches in mission need to be able to discern what in each culture tends towards oppression, violence and exploitation and what fosters dignity, peace and justice. One would have wished to see an even stronger condemnation of any use of the Christian faith to justify racial discrimination and incitement to racial hatred towards those born in other ethnic groups. 3. Nonetheless, discernment of cultures cannot be controlled from a centre, such as Geneva or Rome, but only in ecumenical dialogue and inter-cultural communities. Identification of elements or forces which in a given culture are contrary to the Missio Dei needs to be done in cooperation with the Christians who live in that culture. The weakness of Protestants in not having a centre like the Roman Catholic Church or highly developed doctrine like the Orthodox churches is an advantage in this respect. But the Protestant churches need to be able to seize this opportunity and prove by their actions that their non-directive system allows for expressions of the gospel which are relevant to the diverse contexts. We are still quite far from that. Here if need be the WCC could certainly prove its usefulness. It is the place where we could develop what might be called an intercultural hermeneutic, which would be essential to maintain unity between the various churches incarnated in their respective cultures. 4. The debate on gospel and culture is far from being closed with the Salvador conference. It continues and is being enriched, particularly by the wide definition of culture used at Salvador, which includes religion. As a result, the debate on inculturation can no longer avoid the question of syncretism, a delicate question if ever there was one. The 1991 Canberra assembly was deeply divided by the very controversial presentation by Chung Hyun Kyung, in which she used symbols from traditional Korean religion in her exposition of Christian theology. The evangelical delegates, as also those from the Orthodox churches, vehemently distanced themselves from that approach. The difficult discussions which are going to have take place between the Orthodox churches who are critical of the WCC, and other member churches of the WCC, will concentrate, inter alia, on the question of the limits to diversity and to the freedom to inculturate the gospel. On the other hand, in the renewed contacts with Pentecostal groups and the African independent churches the same questions arise. The study of Protestant missionary history shows very considerable reservations towards popular religions and the over-bold borrowing of religious symbols regarded as non-Christian. San Antonio intuitively half-opened the door to religious experiences. Salvador took this further by attempting to distinguish between a syncretism faithful to God’s purpose in and for the world and a syncretism which calls the gospel in question. 5. In the area of common witness and the total rejection of any form of proselytism, the 1996 conference took up a position confirming previous WCC statements, the position of all of which is very clear. It was important, however, to reiterate this in the context of the opening up of the countries of eastern Europe and in face of the wave of missionaries descending upon them from all sides with no respect for local people or churches. It should, however, be acknowledged that, since Salvador, a particularly worrying feature is the influence of certain very conservative and anti-ecumenical trends within Orthodox churches in those countries. 6. Finally, while the message of Melbourne was not taken up again as such, nor the language of "the poor", it is fair to say that the attention given to the representatives of indigenous peoples, to their demand for respect for their cultural identity, to their offer of and request for true partnership with churches with a missionary tradition can be considered as a way of taking up again Melbourne’s concern for the poor. But today they are reappearing on the scene as the proud bearers of cultural and religious traditions which had not been contemplated in 1980. The more active presence of indigenous peoples is compelling missiologists to combine two currents of thought which have not often crossed: that of God’s preferential option for the poor, and that of one’s attitude to other religions. That raises the question of the presence of God before the arrival of the first official bearers of the gospel. Traditionally considered "poor" and objects of economic development, or "pagans" and objects of mission, indigenous peoples are now claiming the status of partners, of "the poor" in the sense of "God’s poor", bearers of a revelation for the world, because God has been journeying with them for centuries before and after the "physical" arrival of the gospel brought by missionary churches. 2.6 BY WAY OF CONCLUSION Many issues have not been dealt with in this article. It has only been possible to highlight certain issues in full awareness that others could equally well have been chosen. At this time when the WCC has celebrated its fiftieth anniversary it is confronted with demons similar to those which it has had to face several times already. Mention can be made of the tendency of the world market, and the flow of forces and ideologies profiting from it, to regard themselves as having absolute value, to deify themselves. There is the temptation facing each church to retreat snugly into its own denomination or its own way of expressing the gospel and condemn others as "sects" or "heretics". There is the lack of understanding between those who defend a very wide freedom of organization for each church and those who desire a minimum of agreement in doctrinal statements. There is the debate about the presence of God in Christ, or by the Spirit, among men and women who do not know Jesus of Nazareth or who do not wish to make conscious reference to him. There is the continuing inequality of resources which harms the unity of the body of Christ, an inequality made worse by the reduction of funds being made available to missionary movements which are ecumenical in spirit, that is, which have respect both for the gospel and for all the men, women and children to whom its promises are addressed. (22) * Like the previous one, this article appeared in French in Perspectives missionnaires 1998/2, p. 50-65. It has been translated by the Language Service of the WCC and then edited and enlarged by the author. Jacques Matthey is executive secretary for Ecumenical Mission Study in the WCC. ________________________________________________________________ Translated
from the French NOTES 1. The Hebrew word "shalom" is usually translated "peace", but its meaning is wider than that. In the Bible, "shalom" also has the meanings "just relationships", "reconciliation", "development", "well-being". 2. Bangkok assembly 1973: Minutes and Report of the Assembly of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, Geneva, WCC, 1973, p. 72 (section I report). 3. At that time the so-called "contextual theology" was an attempt to take into account the social, economic and political context of witness, and not simply its introduction into or pertinence within a culture, as happened, for example, in theologies of adaptation or inculturation. Later, the widening of the concept of culture itself has made the distinction less clear. 4. The author has not investigated when or where precisely the term "moratorium" was used for the first time. Suffice it to say that strong criticism of the role of missionaries, with a view to their total withdrawal, was made in 1971 in the East Asia Christian Conference (as it then was), particularly in the writings of Emerito Nacpil, a teacher at the Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines. This thinking emerged at world level at a joint meeting of the Mission and Inter-Church Aid Departments of the WCC on ecumenical personnel exchange at Geneva in October 1971. 5. cf. the theories of Donald McGavran and the Church Growth Movement. 6. The Lausanne Covenant was signed by a majority of the participants at the Congress. It has been widely translated and distributed and has often been used since as a sort of missionary confession of faith. Those wishing to become members of certain groups or societies are invited to sign the Lausanne Covenant personally. 7. The term "messianism" refers here to theological trends which see certain popular or social movements as God’s or Christ’s action in the world to bring about the kingdom of God. In such cases there is a real risk of treating political movements as sacred. 8. Paul VI. "Evangelization in the Modern World", London, Catholic Truth Society, 1976. This Apostolic Exhortation is also known by its Latin name "Evangelii Nuntiandi". 9. The theme of the kingdom of God appears in the most radical texts and traditions included in the New Testament. 10. cf. "Your Kingdom Come. Mission Perspectives", Geneva, WCC, 1980. 11. The terminology "centre-periphery" arises out of the debate on development , reinterpreted and corrected by those critical of theories of growth. In face of the rigid classification of the world into "developed" and "under-developed" countries, this approach asserts that in every country and every society there are centres of growth and/or power and regions afflicted by unemployment, poor infra-structure and increasing poverty. 12. In the Pattaya texts, the term "unreached people" indicates a population group in which there are fewer than 20% practising Christians. A population group is defined by its shared (sub-)culture, history and language. Examples are: Urdu-speaking Muslim peasants in the Punjab; Cantonese-speaking Chinese refugees from Vietnam resident in France; Tamil-speaking Indian workers employed in rubber plantations in Malaysia. For further details cf. Edward R. Dayton, "That everyone may hear. Reaching the Unreached", Monrovia, MARC, 1979. 13. The English word "(w)holistic" is often used in ecumenical missiological writing and can have several meanings. Sometimes it is used polemically in criticism of a type of mission which is limited to spoken witness or evangelism. It then takes on an exclusive social and political connotation. Another meaning, which is the one used here, refers to an understanding of mission which includes all facets of Christian witness without excluding any. 14. On the importance of the WCC Affirmation and its relations with Lausanne and Rome, cf. Jacques Matthey, "Mission et évangelisation dans l’optique de Lausanne, Rome et Genève, in Perspectives missionnaires (PM) no. 10, 1985, pp. 36-50. 15. Mission and Evangelism - An Ecumenical Affirmation. Geneva, WCC, 1982, p. 34. 16. The complete text of the findings of the Stuttgart meeting are published in the WCC’s "Monthly Letter on Evangelism", October 1987. 17. cf. Wilson, F.R. (ed): The San Antonio Report, Geneva, WCC, 1990, appendix 8, pp 190-94. 18. Stott, J. (ed.): Making Christ known. Historic Documents from the Lausanne Movement 1974-89. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans; Carlisle, Paternoster Press, 1997, 264 p. 19. Wang, Th. (ed.) Countdown to AD 2000. The officila Compendium of ht eGlobal Consultation on World Evangelization by AD 2000 adn Beyond, Singapore, January 5-8, 1989. Pasadena, AD 2000 Movement, Inc. and W.Carey Library, 1989, 236 p. 20. cf. van Butselaar, J.: San Antonio et Manille: Deux cultures missionnaires, in: Perspectives missionnaires no 20, 1990, p. 19- 21. For Salvador, cf. Christopher Duraisingh (ed.), "Called to One Hope. The Gospel in Diverse Cultures", Geneva, WCC, 1998. 22. cf. IRM Vol. LXXXVIII No. 348/349, January/April 1999, dedicated totally??? to mission as seen through and after the Harare assemly of the WCC.
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