“Still We Need Friends!”: “Partnership in Mission” in the History of the World Council of Churches, 1948–2018

Abstract

AbstractThis article aims to investigate the missiological development and conceptual understanding of “partnership in mission,” a major subject of inquiry through the history of the World Council of Churches (WCC), and to consider how ecumenical partners can enter into authentic friendship by embracing one another in the era of World Christianity. In ecumenical movements, the issue of the partner relationship has been illuminated through diverse missiological notions and themes based on profound reflections on missionary imperialism of the past. Since the 20th century, partnership in mission has provided a crucial practical and strategic framework for repositioning the unequal relationships between global South countries, as well as between the global North and South. Tracing a genealogy of partnership of the WCC, this paper discusses its deeper significance as “sharing life” articulated in the terminology of the Ecumenical Sharing of Resources (ESR). Furthermore, it proposes a model of “partnership in mission as incarnation” by relating debates about the ESR to God’s incarnation and crucifixion.