World Missionary Conference Research Articles

Empowering Women in Ecclesiastical Spaces: Insights from the World Council of Churches

This study delves into the responses of women amidst the dynamic shifts within the ecumenical movement from 1910 to 1948. Two pivotal developments marked the burgeoning presence of women in missions during the early 20th century. The Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910 emerged as a cornerstone event within the ecumenical movement, attracting numerous women missionaries representing diverse missionary societies and church mission boards. Concurrently, the Woman's Missionary Jubilee (1910-11) underscored the fostering of camaraderie among women across First World and Third World churches. These events catalyzed the integration of women into the fabric of Protestant missions, leading to the formation of women's communities and their significant contributions to church establishment, development, and expansion. However, the establishment of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948 ushered in a period of diminished opportunities for women's participation. The predominant presence of male policy makers within the WCC, particularly within the influential Central Committee, which steered the Council between assemblies, reflected a systemic gender disparity. This shift prompted women to devise strategic approaches to bolster their roles within both churchand society. Consequently, this paper aims to delineate the strategic initiatives undertaken by pioneering women leaders of the early 20th century to enhance the status of women leaders within the ecclesiastical and societal domains.

Tambaram, 1938: Christianity's shift to the Global South

The World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh in 1910 was followed in 1928 by a Conference in Jerusalem. Jerusalem emphasised ‘the younger churches’, the term then used for the churches that had resulted from missionary work. This article examines the International Missionary Council's conference of 1938, held at the Madras Christian College, Tambaram, near Madras. It had over 470 participants from 70 nations. A feature of great significance was that participants from what we now call the Global South were in the majority. This aspect has been noted, but not explored in detail. A book that was produced for the Conference, Evangelism for the World Today, edited by John Mott, which included many contributors from the Global South, has received virtually no coverage. This article examines Mott's neglected book, the role of Africans at Tambaram, the voices of women and the ongoing influence of the Conference.

Contemporary Ecumenical Missiology and the Renewal of Christian Theology

There is a symbiotic relationship between mission and theology – they need each other. Just as the conception and practice of Christian mission have been renewed and refreshed through theological creativity, this article explores how Christian theology might be enriched by insights from contemporary ecumenical missiology. It makes particular reference to the World Council of Churches 2012 mission affirmation Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes and the Arusha Call to Discipleship issued by the 2018 WCC World Mission Conference held at Arusha, Tanzania. Drawing on these seminal texts, the article considers what it means to do theology with life itself at stake, the question of agency in theology, and the role of spirituality, discipleship and transformation in the construction of theology. It concludes by turning to the question of education and formation, proposing that in today's context, theologians need to be formed as “organic intellectuals.”

Disciples and Pilgrims, Arusha, and Karlsruhe

AbstractA striking feature of the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), held at Karlsruhe in Germany in 2022, was its lack of attention to the “Arusha Call to Discipleship” issued by the WCC World Mission Conference held in Tanzania four years earlier. Further ecumenical amnesia was evident in the Assembly's neglect of the centenary of the formation of the International Missionary Council (IMC) in 1921. It is therefore timely to recall the purpose of the integration of the IMC and the WCC in 1961. This was driven, above all, by the theological imperative that mission and unity can never be separated from one another in the ecumenical movement. On the contrary, these two essential evangelical impulses must continuously inform and energize one another. It was in expectation of such synergy that the integration of the IMC and WCC was enacted. Today, a new opportunity to fulfil this ecumenical hope presents itself. Currently, the “unity strand” in the WCC has a preference for the language of pilgrimage when it comes to expressing the nature of the ecumenical journey, while the “mission strand” has opted for the language of discipleship. The opportunity missed at Karlsruhe was to draw the two into conversation with one another. Enabling the two motifs of disciple and pilgrim to inform and enrich one another could prove to be a vital source of renewal for the ecumenical movement in the next phase of its journey.

Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature

Missionary Cosmopolitanism in Nineteenth-Century British Literature

The International Missionary Council and Mission Cooperation in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands, 1916–28

AbstractHealthy mission cooperation between Scottish and German missions around the northern end of Lake Malawi was a feature of the period from 1891, when the German missions were establishing themselves in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. This happy collaboration was shattered by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, which led to the internment of the German missionaries and the cream of the local church leadership. In this context, the Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, which took permanent form as the International Missionary Council (IMC) from 1921, played a critical role as broker. It first negotiated a caretaker role for British missions in regard to the “derelict” German missions and later facilitated the return of the German missionaries. While European missionaries held centre stage in the international discussions, on the ground, the decisive role was played by Malawian evangelists and Tanzanian church leaders – a case of mission from the margins. At the same time, the supra‐national understanding of mission championed by the IMC enabled it to exercise a highly influential role in facilitating the mission cooperation that ultimately overcame the division, suspicion, and mistrust that had arisen during the war.

The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission) ed. by Frieder Ludwig

Reviewed by: The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission) ed. by Frieder Ludwig Marcus Felde The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission). Edited by Frieder Ludwig. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2020. 236 pp. This book originated in a symposium in Hermannsburg on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. The purpose was to consider the impact of that war on German missions overseas and the churches planted by their work. These writings are of personal interest because I served fourteen years in the part of Papua New Guinea (PNG) which once was known as "Kaiser-Wilhelmsland." It is not difficult to see in the PNG church the effects of actions taken against German missions during the First World War and again during the Second World War. German missionaries in New Guinea were from Rhenisch and Neuendettelsau organizations rather than the Hermannsburg Mission, but they faced similar difficulties and had similar outcomes. "New World" missionaries were one answer to the dilemmas created in the "Third World" when the "Old World" went to war. Philip Jenkins opens the volume by showing how people and their governments made use of religion during World War I both for legitimation and for comfort; it was pervasive and powerful. But he ends his essay with an aphoristic quip (a play on the title of a Goya painting) which seems to contradict his thesis: "The sleep of religion brings forth monsters" (48). Is he blaming the horrors of World War I on a dearth of religion, after arguing that religion was pervasive throughout? Is he advocating for any and all religions? One declaration made me wince: "The good news for the churches was that the war did not kill religion" (38). Perhaps his 2014 book The Great and Holy War made clearer distinctions? Perhaps in it he had room to explore also the faith-based revulsion many Christians felt and feel about warfare? Martin Tamcke, Volker Metzler, and Rolf Hosfeld opened my eyes to a neglected part of history: troops, local officials, and citizens massacred about 200,000 Christians in the Urmia region of Assyria (now parts of Iran and Turkey) during World War I. (This is distinct from the better known massacre of Armenians.) What [End Page 96] a horrible dilemma Germans faced. They had a relationship with those "Nestorian" Christians through mission work. Their government was allied in war with a largely Muslim nation (the Ottoman Empire) which used the cover of war to purge violently Christians who traced their faith heritage back to the fourth century. Kevin Ward brings a British perspective on the nexus of war and mission and its ramifications for Anglican missions in Africa. "The war called into question 'German' assumptions of European cultural superiority and 'British' delusions of imperial splendour, but it certainly did not automatically end them" (122). He points out that the war followed closely the 1910 World Missionary Conference, damaging (perhaps fatally?) its high aspirations for the Christianization of the world. Adam Jones and Fritz Hasselhorn perceive a silver lining to the deleterious effect of the war on German missions in Africa. During and after the war, at first of necessity and then intentionally, missionaries were moved to yield authority to the people they had come to serve. A new and necessary trend had only begun. "While the missionaries were used to be[ing] 'in the position of little kings with their congregations,' in the future they should feel 'part of the whole.'" (140) [Emphasis is in the 1903 letter of Egmont Harms, director of the Hermannsburg Mission.] Essays by Hagos Abrha, Iris Leung Chui Wa, Pui Yee Pong, and Jayabalan Murthy ensure some balance, representing not the mission societies but the churches that grew from (and despite) their efforts. Two of those essays look at Hong Kong and one at India, British territories where German missionaries were regarded as hostiles. Like the other essays, they offer both "facts on the ground" and thoughtful reflection about mission work...

Nordic Missiological Discourses following Together towards Life and the Arusha World Mission Conference

AbstractThe article gives an overview of recent discussions on international ecumenical missiology in a Nordic, and particularly Norwegian, context. A short background on historical disagreements between churches and mission agents gives the backdrop for more recent theological discussions following the Edinburgh 2010 anniversary. Two WCC events in particular have contributed to the discussions. First, the publishing of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism's Together Towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes has fuelled the discussions with new insights. A pneumatological entry point into missiology prompted churches and mission agents to renew their talks about the main reasons for engaging in mission. A central part of these discussions has been the question of what “mission from the margins” may mean. Second, the Arusha World Mission Conference gave an opportunity for a broad ecumenical encounter, also from within the Nordic region. The many stories and witnesses from the margins that were presented in Arusha gave new insights into a Norwegian (and partly Nordic) understanding of who the marginalized are, also within a Nordic context. The article concludes that the Arusha conference contributed to understanding storytelling as crucial to the meaning of the term “mission from the margins.”

Mission Rediscovered: Transforming Discipleship; A Commentary on the Arusha Call to Discipleship

This review locates Kenneth Ross’s book Mission Rediscovered in the context of the history of World Mission Conferences of the World Council of Churches’ Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, the latest of which took place in Arusha, Tanzania, in March 2018. The book is a commentary on “The Arusha Call to Discipleship,” a twelve-point call to mission that was approved unanimously by the conference participants. This is an ideal book to be discussed by local congregations who want to know the latest thinking about the mission of the church.

Racism Awareness in Mission: Touchstone or Cultural Blind Spot?

In his history of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, Brian Stanley suggests that contemporary use of “culture” in mission may be vulnerable to the same critique as was the use of “race” in the colonial missions. However, sensitivity to culture and context in postwar and postcolonial missiology has encouraged diversity, interculturality, and movements for greater equity. Drawing from contemporary missiology and critical race theory, this article asks whether attention to “culture” and “context” has mitigated racism in mission or tended to obscure it.

HOW WORLD CHRISTIANITY SAVED THE ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT

The following article examines how the expansion of world Christianity in the course of the twentieth century contributed to change and renew the ecumenical movement. This article argues that an expanded notion of the oikoumene and the ecumenical which takes into account social, economic, and cultural differences is crucial for the future of the ecumenical movement. The article highlights the challenges faced by the modern ecumenical movement and examines its historical roots in eurocentric conceptions of mission and unity, which informed, among others, the World Missionary Congress in Edinburgh (1910), and its subsequent ramifications, including the 1916 Panama Congress on Christian Work in Latin America. Bringing attention to a decolonial shift in world Christianity that challenges the hegemonic approach to ecumenism, the article diachronically points concrete cases such as the Tambaram World Missionary Conference, Vatican II, the formation of EATWOT, the Global Christian Forum (GCF), and Pope Francis’ declaration “Querida Amazonia” to illustrate an alternative ecumenical model impacted by what was once seen as the margins. By looking at these examples, the article attempts to show that the turn to the indigenous in world Christianity offers another possible ecumenical path, carved through an intercultural hermeneutics that decenters colonial Christendom, relocates the Christian loci of enunciation, and engages dialectically with multiple cultures, traditions, and religions as they manifest their own pretension to universal truth.

Reconciliation as Expression of Christ's Love

AbstractThis paper discusses the theme of the upcoming World Council of Churches' assembly from the perspective of mission as reconciliation as it has been formulated in ecumenical discussions around the World Missionary Conference at Athens 2005 and since. It argues that the intersecting of reconciliation and healing disclosed theological and ethical dimensions in both concepts that have been picked up in ecumenical mission theology while they had been less prominent in earlier decades. The emphasis on the Holy Spirit as agent of mission (Athens, Arusha) is then used to interpret Christ's love as the outpouring of the inner dynamic of the Trinity into the world.

Scottish Fulfilment Theory and Friendship: Lived Religion at Edinburgh 1910

Employing the perspective of ‘lived religion’, this article examines how Scottish missionary practices influenced the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. Scottish intellectual and worship traditions intersected with commitment to cross-cultural relationships in the missional practices of J. N. Farquhar, Nicol Macnicol, and Annie Small. The juxtaposition of ‘fulfilment theory’ and ‘friendship’ reflected missionary openness to personal engagement with Indian religious and cultural traditions. Instead of being merely an intellectual preparation for ‘comparative religion’, Scottish fulfilment theory signalled an embodied missionary spirituality that emerged as implicit criticism of colonial hierarchies in India.

Die Ligdraer as a Grassroots Engagement on URCSA’s Church Unification and Reconciliation between 1990-1997

One of the pre-occupations of God’s mission on earth ( missio Dei ) includes unity and reconciliation. This is well documented in the work of the catholic missiologist, Robert Schreiter (reconciliation), David J Bosch (unity) as well as the ecumenical World Mission Conferences (New Delhi, 1961; Athens, 2005). Unification processes of all the South African Churches (especially between traditionally/originally black and white race-based Churches) coincided with the transition period since 1990. The Churches, including the DRMC and the DRCA, went on a path of unification. This did not come without a wide range of “stumbling blocks.” Die Ligdraer , as the official newspaper of the DRMC, announced the date of the founding Synod between 14-17 April 1994 using the metaphor of a ‘wedding’ to reflect on the union between the two separate, racially-based Churches (NGSK, 1993) . From a missiological perspective, this paper deals with the case of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) in presenting the perspectives and sentiments on the ‘stumbling blocks’ experienced, particularly the informal conversations and discussions that are mostly presented in the Church’s newspaper ( Die Ligdraer/Ligstraal ). It focuses specifically on the 1990-1997 period of the Church, where most of the letters from members of the congregations, emotions and sensitive issues on the road towards unity were discussed. The paper limits itself to the newspaper of the DRMC, with a focus on the discussions and voices from members at the grassroots but also ministers that were listening to members in congregations to reflect on the ‘sacrifices’, compromises, accommodation and mutual trust that was at play and the strategies of the leadership of these Churches to facilitate reconciliation.

The Apostolic Faith Mission

AbstractThe Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) is a classical Pentecostal church born in May 1908, influenced by the April 1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. It was also born two years before the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference. Between then and now, the AFM followed a lone mission and evangelism journey outside the World Missionary conferences and the conferences on World Mission and Evangelism. Although the AFM grew from South Africa to six continents, its growth was encumbered by racist and colonial perspectives of mission and evangelism. Its first wave of missions was led by Indigenous South Africans at the Revival in Doornfontein and those from the neighbouring countries who worked in mines in South Africa. The second wave included organized missions by white South Africans, who unfortunately had to pull back from Southern African countries because of intensified struggles for liberation. The third wave was by local congregations that formed hubs for missions to specific countries (India and Pakistan). The fourth wave was by Zimbabweans who left their country because of difficult economic conditions. The isolation of the black churches in South Africa based on the influence of apartheid policies allowed black members to develop their own local ecumenical perspectives, which enabled them to have a broader understanding of mission and evangelism. This helped the church to move into the ecumenical world following the unity of the church.

When Jesus speaks colloquial Egyptian Arabic: an incarnational understanding of translation

ABSTRACTAl-Khabar al-Ṭayyib bitāʿ Yasūʿ al-Masīḥ (the Good News of Jesus Christ, 1927) is one of the earliest, if not the first, translation of the New Testament into colloquial Arabic. Initiated by the British missionary and civil engineer William Willcocks, the translation responds to different linguistic and ideological tensions at a time when Egypt endeavoured to configure its national identity. In using colloquial Egyptian Arabic, the translation was motivated by the then dominant missionary ethos of translating into the vernaculars, which was propagated at the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. This article has two aims: first to understand Willcocks’ translation in light of two competing conceptualisations of ‘sacred language’ among speakers of Arabic in Egypt; second, to explore the synergy between theology and translation studies and test the viability of theological concepts such as that of ‘incarnation’ in explaining translation phenomena in the sacred context.

British World Protestant Children, Young People, Education and the Missionary Movement, c.1840s–1930s

This article considers the evolving relationship between Protestant children, pedagogy and the missionary movement across the British world. From the 1840s, children were a central focus of missionary society philanthropy. By the time of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, missionary and denominational thinkers were consistently highlighting their strategic importance and the need for clear policy that was focused on children's education. This article traces the ways in which this emphasis developed, and the impact that it had among the children involved. It argues that the children's missionary movement was educational at heart, wherein philanthropy and pedagogy went hand in hand. In particular, over the long nineteenth century all the players consistently emphasized the importance of nurturing a ‘missionary spirit’, a notion that was primarily religious in intent but which in practice moved from pragmatic philanthropy to a more formalized emphasis on education and identity formation. The article introduces representative ways by which this was articulated, drawing on examples from a range of British world contexts in which different communities of Protestant children were engaged educationally and philanthropically in very similar ways.

WCC/CWME World Mission Conference – Arusha, Tanzania, 8–13 March 2018

International Review of MissionVolume 107, Issue 2 p. 311-319 Article WCC/CWME World Mission Conference – Arusha, Tanzania, 8–13 March 2018 Moderator's Address Metropolitan Geevarghese Coorilos, Corresponding Author geecoorilos@gmail.com Corresponding author mail id: geecoorilos@gmail.comSearch for more papers by this author Metropolitan Geevarghese Coorilos, Corresponding Author geecoorilos@gmail.com Corresponding author mail id: geecoorilos@gmail.comSearch for more papers by this author First published: 06 December 2018 https://doi.org/10.1111/irom.12232Citations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume107, Issue2December 2018Pages 311-319 RelatedInformation

Mission and Its Three Pillars

AbstractThe missionary movement in the 20th century started with the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference in 1910. At that time the aim was to evangelize the world in that generation. Examining the next Conferences on World Mission and Evangelism, especially Willingen (1952), reveals a paradigm shift in the understanding of mission. Mission is not about conversion, but about the three Ts: translation, transmission, and transformation. Since Arusha (2018) it has become even more obvious that mission theology needs to translate the gospel – also figuratively – into different contexts and cultures, including subcultures in our own culture and in secular contexts. It needs to transmit the gospel. Being witnesses of Christ in our world by being able to speak about our own faith is crucial when we consider the Western contexts and the distancing of the younger generation. The third T defining mission is transformation – a far more radical term than we may have wished, as it is about “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17.6). By focusing on these three Ts, mission becomes “a way of life” (Together towards Life 29).

Discipleship in Creative (Un)Certainty

The theme of the World Mission Conference 2018 brings together theological terms that do not link with each other easily: mission under the main agency of the Spirit of God, transforming discipleship that involves human participation in God’s mission, and, last but not least, mission from the margins. The article highlights some marks that this tension has left on the conference in Arusha and especially on the final declaration of the mission conference, “The Arusha Call to Discipleship,” and notes an apparent move to a new “messianic” understanding of mission. This article suggests that this understanding presents a one-sided interpretation of mission and strongly contrasts the idea developed in the last decades that the Holy Spirit is the main agent in mission. It continues by exploring how the theology of discipleship, with its wider and stricter interpretation deriving from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the inspirations of Pentecostal pneumatology, and finally the paradigm of the mission from the margins as epistemological shift all have the potential to correct misleading concepts of mission and give new impulses for the understanding of mission today. The paper concludes by proposing creative (un)certainty as an attitude that keeps the balance between the agency of the Holy Spirit in mission – including unforeseen disruptions evoked by the free blow of the Spirit – and human discipleship.