In Gratitude for Emilio Castro's Ministry with the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME)

Abstract

Thanks to God for having sent Emilio Castro to CWME as director. mourn Emilio's death but are comforted by his testimony and teaching that the kingdom of God, manifested in the crucified and resurrected Christ, will embrace all reality and realize our deepest hope that life overcomes death. three years I was privileged to work with Emilio (1) proved to be among the most influential on my own theological development. Only a few people I have known have had a really strong impact on my spirituality and vision: definitely, Emilio was one of these. I learnt from him not to divide what God unites and to hold in creative tension the most universal-the kingdom of God-and the most particular and personal. The topic of the kingdom invited us to take a look at the whole of creation, he wrote in his reflections at the end of the 1980 Melbourne conference. (2) Preaching during my ordination service in Geneva, he urged me and the congregation to consider the smallest relations in a local parish as key to God's reign: perspective of the kingdom and the concrete love for the neighbour whom God gives us-their union is necessary to make start the engine of any historical transformation. There is in the third age a power for the transformation of society that waits to be organised. In each parish event, be it a child's baptism, the announcement of the Gospel of eternal life during a funeral service, a marriage celebration, or a pastoral visit, there is always the potential, the power, to share the vision of the coming kingdom. (3) As a Methodist preacher, Emilio was able to raise enthusiasm for the gospel and speak quite convincingly--even when unprepared. There was at that time a story about him arriving on a Monday morning at the Ecumenical Centre, being met at the door by a worried colleague (the one responsible for worship that day) who said, Emilio, we have no preacher!--Give me a Bible?' was his answer. It is thanks to him that I was led to develop an appreciation of evangelism--sharing the good news and naming the Name (as he liked to say)--as a key element of global mission. Coming from the Swiss development scene, I had started my work with CWME with much scepticism as to the evangelistic task of the church--as many of my generation--and had told him this when we sat in his office reflecting about my future task. He just smiled. Emilio was a charismatic champion of the need to link evangelism and solidarity with the poor for justice and liberation. Nowhere else is this better formulated than in the 1982 ecumenical affirmation on mission and evangelism, Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation, which is one of Emilio's most important legacies to the ecumenical movement. This document owes its style and much of its content and inspiration to this exceptional mission leader. Of course, the text harvests insights of the theological debates of the 1970s, including many affirmations of Melbourne. But we must credit Emilio for formulating this in a way to distil the best of prophetic passion of liberation theology, evangelical concern for the unreached, and Roman Catholic and Orthodox missiological wisdom, and to draft quite a coherent text that was to have lasting influence. We cannot pray for the kingdom to come without announcing to the world the knowledge of the King whose kingdom we hope for ... without calling everybody, everywhere, to recognize this servant kingship of Jesus Christ. (4) That is the reason why mission in general and evangelism in particular must not fall into the trap of conquest and triumphalistic crusade, because the one to be named came to serve and give his life for all. …