Education, religion, and risk in Peshawar: A missional self-examination

Abstract

Religious freedom is at stake as the Church of Pakistan and its Diocese of Peshawar struggle to regain oversight of Edwardes College in Peshawar, an institution the church founded and managed for almost 75 years, and to resist the attempt of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government to complete the seizure it began in 1974. As the missionary principal of the college since 2011, I was inevitably affected by the conflict and became a player in it. This study is an effort in missionary self-examination as I interrogate my motives and actions as a mission companion with the church and as a partner in education with the community at large. The inquiry is conducted under six headings: missionary motivation, national identity, change dynamics, religious relations, missionary predecessors, and the church–state conflict. While a self-interrogation cannot claim to be completely objective, the attempt is to be both honest and fair. The issues are important for missionary work and identity generally, but most acutely for mission work in Muslim-majority settings in the increasingly conflicted relations between Muslims and Christians in the 21st century.