News

Introducing Global Mission Network

May 18 , 2006

'A bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other': that was the challenge brought by Dr Carlos Ham of the World Council of Churches to leaders of UK Churches and Mission Agencies at the launch of the Global Mission Network. He stressed the importance of doing theology grounded in life and in the Bible.

The meeting marked a significant moment as the ecumenical Churches' Commission on Mission became the Global Mission Network. The Commission, a part of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI) has its roots in the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh.

Global Mission Network (GMN) will be an ecumenical space where the theme is mission. ‘We need to listen to different and diverse ways that God is at work and allow that to enrich our new ways of working,’ said Janice Price, GMN Executive Secretary. The change reflects the need for new ways of working in response to changed church and social contexts in which mission is developed.

The Churches' Commission on Mission of CTBI was formed in 1991 as part of the renewal of ecumenical co-operation in Britain and Ireland. It succeeded the Conference for World Mission (British Council of Churches) and was created in consultation with the former National Missionary Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is also the successor to the former Conference of British Missionary Societies, founded after the historic Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference.

The GMN launch highlighted the Building Bridges of Hope project as a major achievement for the Churches working together through CCOM. The project had provided many skilful outsiders to be a listening and challenging presence to join congregations to more effectively negotiate change. The lessons learned from BBH will be published in a Local Church Pack for Mission Accompaniment and a ‘virtual’ Centre for Mission Accompaniment will be developed, designed to enthuse and encourage local churches to look at mission in the light of BBH.

Along with the new looking GMN, gone are the divisions between home and overseas mission. ‘For GMN global means the whole of God’s world, including the four nations of Britain and Ireland’, says Stephen Lyon, GMN Moderator. There’s a new emphasis on the web site to be developed, and a new newsletter. Work by the China Desk flourishes and develops understanding between Christians in the UK and China. Forums will continue to bring together Christians from Churches and Mission Agencies with expertise on many areas of the world, including Africa and the Middle East.

The Revd Dr Carlos Ham, who is working as evangelism secretary and mission coordinator for the World Council of Churches (WCC), encouraged GMN in its new start.  He reflected on a message from the recent WCC Assembly, which had been attended by around 40 representatives from British and Irish Churches among nearly 700 delegates from the WCC’s 348 member Churches. The message set out the importance of ecumenical mission in a time of globalization, violence, ideological polarization, fragmentation and exclusion. ‘We are called to be agents of healing and reconciliation in the midst of illness and disease, conflict and tension, crisis and suffering,’ he said. ‘The road to reconciliation and healing is not an easy one. It involves listening, truth telling, repentance, forgiveness and a sincere commitment to Christ and his justice. It involves reconciling communities and churches in conflict…and proclaiming the gospel of transforming grace where people are desperately looking for spiritual meaning,’ he continued.