DROPPING THE S

Abstract

Dropping the s from the title of the International Review of Mission(s) was the implementation of the missio Dei concept in IRM. Source: IRM 58:2 (1969): 1-5. With this issue of the IRM we change the name of the oldest ecumenical journal in existence from International Review of Missions International Review of Mission. Authority for this decision was granted by the divisional committee of the Division of World Mission and Evangelism in its meeting at Odense, Denmark, in November 1968. This brings the title of the IRM into line with the designation of the division itself, with the thinking of the 1963 Mexico City meeting of the Commission of World Mission and Evangelism which gave wide currency the concept of Mission in Six Continents, and with the broad consensus of missionary thinking of most of the member churches of the World Council of Churches. We hope that the change from in the plural in the singular will make the IRM more palatable Asian, African and Latin American readers, for many of whom the old title must have been uncomfortably reminiscent of an era in which their continents were the only targets of the inexorable thrust of one-way from north south, and an era in which was primarily the business of professional, dedicated expatriate Christians from the north rather than the primary business of all Christians, in every country in every continent. We hope too that the change will also make the IRM more palatable for many of our traditional subscribers in Europe and North America, many of whom must be troubled by the contradiction between what has until now been printed on the cover as the name of the journal and what is published inside as the content of the growing consensus that the is one for the church wherever it may be. For some time now the IRM has been publishing articles that reflect this conviction about the of the Church the whole inhabited earth, and we do not do justice the growing conviction about that transcendent, universal, excitingly diverse and amazingly unique by the host of outdated images which are perpetuated by the old title. Missions in the plural have a certain justification in the diplomatic, political, and economic spheres of international relations where their nature, scope and authority are defined by the interests of both those who initiate and those who receive them, but the of the Church is singular in that it issues from the One Triune God and His intention for the salvation of all men. His commission the Church is one, even though the ministries given the Church for this mission, and the given responses of particular churches in particular situations the commission, are manifold. The various studies and programmes initiated by the Division of World Mission and Evangelism in the past few years since integration into the life of the World Council of Churches, also reflect this concern for the one of the Church in six continents rather than the traditional concern for from three continents the other three. These include: the study of the theology of mission, the study of churches in missionary situations, the missionary structure of the congregation, urban-industrial mission, joint action for mission, the Christian encounter with men of other faiths, and now the study of missionary participation in human institutions. All of these studies and programmes already undertaken make imperative the recovery within every congregation of the missionary dynamic which will enable Christians, as individuals and as communities, break out of their walls of self-concern witness the love of Christ within every level of the institutions which govern their activities, in their neighbourhoods, in the market-place, in the home, as well as the ends of the earth. It is that last phrase to the ends of the earth that troubles many for whom the shift from missions mission raises the question of missionary priorities. …