TELLING THE STORY: THE ROLE OF INFORMATION‐SHARING IN URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL MISSION

Abstract

I This age of global telecommunication and information exchange has set a unique challenge and opportunity to the churches: how can they use the global information network in telling the story of peoples' struggles for their dignity and rights? What role can information exchange play in strengthening the churches' work for justice in the world? What follows is the story of the role that information exchange has played in one area of the churches' ministry: the work of urban-industrial mission in the latter part of this century. In 1961, the World Council of Churches (WCC) held its Third Assembly in New Delhi, India - the first such gathering to take place in the developing world. Within this context, the New Delhi Assembly focused on issues facing the churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America. One concern to receive major attention was the impact of rapid social change - particularly in terms of growth in the urban and industrial sectors - on the countries of the developing world. Assembly delegates from the industrialized West shared this concern. When the WCC's Division of World Mission and Evangelism (DWME) met in Mexico City in 1963, the churches' response to worldwide urbanization and industrialization was given high priority. A central theme there was Churches and the Cities,(1) and one of the actions taken was the decision to create an Office for Urban and Industrial Mission within the Division of World Mission and Evangelism.(2) Paul Loeffler, a missionary from Germany working in India, was called to be the first secretary of that office.(3) In July 1965, under Loeffler, the DWME set up an Advisory Group on Urban and Industrial Mission (AGUIM), whose tasks included providing assistance and guidance for strengthening and developing urban and industrial projects, and promoting ecumenical study and dialogue about the goals, presuppositions and methods of urban-industrial work as it was being undertaken in different parts of the world.(4) From the time of its creation, the Advisory Group concentrated on the concerns of the churches in the developing world. These younger churches were facing dramatic changes: the rural people they had been serving were now crowding into burgeoning cities, while migrants were becoming the new industrial class that was being formed in the growing industrial sector. The Advisory Group saw its immediate task in terms of encouraging the direction of urban industrial mission. During its early meetings the AGUIM set itself an agenda with the aim of developing: (1) sound presuppositions on which to build urban industrial ministry; (2) a coherent interpretation of the work of the Advisory Group on Urban Industrial Mission; (3) a wider strategy based on the activities of the various isolated urban industrial ministries in the regions; (4) the discussion of long-term common issues involved in urban industrial mission work; (5) a means for exchange of information and inter-communication between those engaged in different projects around the world.(5) It was the last of these - the exchange of information and the expediting of communication among those engaged in urban industrial mission - that received the Group's increasing attention. II The groundwork had already been laid at the First Asian Conference on Industrial Evangelism(6) held in June 1958 in Manila, Philippines. This was the first major regional meeting to give consideration to urban industrial mission work in the developing world. Delegates from fifteen Asian countries reported on their churches' efforts to develop ministries in workers' communities in their particular contexts. Thus, communication and the exchange of information between those engaged in urban industrial mission became a top priority at the Manila conference. The Second Industrial Mission Conference for those engaged in urban industrial mission in Asia was held in Kyoto, Japan, in May 1966, bringing together over 60 delegates and observers from sixteen countries in the Asian region. …