“Go forth …”

Abstract

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (Matt. 28:19) was one of the early golden verses from the Bible I memorized when I was in elementary school at the Armenian Evangelical School in Lebanon. (1) Who was being addressed? I asked myself. The church, my missionary teachers or me as a girl? The question remained with me until I learned the theology of mission of my church and became involved in the ecumenical movement. Mission: An ecumenical journey While at the Evangelical School, I faced a dilemma: On Sunday I attended the liturgy in the Armenian Orthodox church with my family, and during the week, I attended Bible studies and memorized golden verses at school. My parents explained to me the missionary nature of our church as the eucharistic community where discipleship meant internal conversion, commitment to Christian values of love and justice, and serving the world. My parents' explanation of God's mission contrasted with the school's message of repentance and personal salvation. In my mind, I was a sinner during the week and God's child growing up to serve humanity on Sundays. This different understanding of mission made me question the theology of mission of my church. In our history classes we learned that Armenians were the first people to adopt Christianity as national religion in 301 CE. How could the founders of our faith, the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew, who evangelized Armenia, and our church fathers be wrong? How about our Muslim neighbours and friends? While my parents assured me that my neighbours and friends were not doomed to go to hell, yet I always feared for them. My role as a girl-child having received the message "go forth" was clarified later when I joined the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) respectively as staff. My ecumenical quest, which led to the creation of the European Project for Interreligious Learning (EPIL), began with my work at the Ecumenical Youth and Students Secretariat of the Middle East in Beirut (2) and as development secretary. The next step was my appointment as executive secretary for Inter-Church Aid and Development Programme, the only woman executive in the newly constituted Middle East Council of Churches in 1974. During the 1970s Paulo Freire was a staff member at the WCC and his pedagogy (3)--based on "conscientization"/"awareness building" and liberation of the poor and the oppressed through reflection and action in the liberational methodological rhythm of See, Judge, and Act-guided our work. As head of the development department, I was further inspired by the WCC Commission on Churches Participation in Development (CCPD) with its emphasis on development as a process to promote social justice, self-reliance, and economic growth. The 1980s brought a new understanding of mission to the ecumenical movement through the WCC central committee's approval in 1982 of the document "Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation." (4) The document included the Orthodox pneumatology and showed the interrelationship between Christololgy and the Holy Spirit, as later explained by the current Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram I: The Triune God is the source of life. The Holy Spirit is the giver of life, the life-giving presence of the Triune God. Like breath, the Holy Spirit inspires and empowers life in human beings and in the whole creation. Without the presence of the Spirit all things in creation "die and return to dust" (Psalm 104:29). The Holy Spirit is not only the generator of life, but the one who sustains it. (5) The clarification that God is Trinity and the risen Christ is active in the Spirit as manifested through the Pentecost emphasized the cosmic nature of salvation and opened a new way of reflecting on creation, reconciliation, and healing. …