Engendering Christian Mission in Asia: Understanding Women's Works in the History of Mission

Abstract

Despite the selfless and devoted service of women, their continuous contributions to the Church and its mission, have been largely neglected and many of their efforts unacknowledged. In the modern history of mission, we find that women in Asia understand their tasks in mission very differently. In fact, they undertook action for the “mission of God” in everything they did in terms of their social involvement or service, mostly via their participation in the struggle for a new society. In actual practice, they reinterpreted Christian mission as a co-mission of humans and God in seeking and communicating the divine truth, and taking on the shared responsibility of working for peace and justice. The understanding of “mission” in the actual day-to-day practices and in people's living and sharing together as people in relation has grounded Christianity in the concrete needs of women in Asia. Placing this understanding within the debate and the transformation of the mission's concept in the history of ecumenism, one might say that women have displayed an integrative “worldly” approach to it.