{"id":8640,"date":"2010-05-15T14:30:15","date_gmt":"2010-05-15T18:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=8640"},"modified":"2010-05-15T14:30:15","modified_gmt":"2010-05-15T18:30:15","slug":"the-diocese-of-new-westminster-redefines-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/the-diocese-of-new-westminster-redefines-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"The Diocese of New Westminster redefines \u201cmission\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It now means \u201cdilution\u201d. \u00a0Bishop Michael Ingham enlightens the faithful<\/a> at the 2010 synod of the Diocese of New Westminster:<\/p>\n

Mission simply means \u2018being sent.\u2019 Put it another way – it\u2019s where God already is and we are sent to help. There is an old view of mission that saw the world outside the church as a godless place, mired in darkness. Christians were to take the light of Christ into the darkness. But we no longer hold that triumphalist view. Many of us would agree with something the Persian poet Rumi wrote eight centuries ago: \u201cwe are all different lamps, but the light is the same.\u201d In other words, the light is all around. All light comes from God. We have to find ways to join our light with those of others so we can illuminate the world with a great brightness, a great hope. This is our mission\u2026.<\/p>\n

But the missional church is about much more than numbers. Alan Roxburgh is trying to teach us to get out of our buildings and find out where the light of God is already shining in our neighbourhoods. The purpose is not to grow the church but to join the light. That can mean forming partnerships with social service agencies, schools, hospitals, community organizations, other Christians, and other people of faith like Jews, Sikhs and Muslims. Mission is first and foremost about imagination. It\u2019s a mindset. It\u2019s about seeing God already in the world and joining in willingly to help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Ingham, the view that Christ has something unique to offer \u2013 salvation, for example \u2013 is \u201cold\u201d <\/em>and \u201ctriumphalist\u201d. <\/em>The enlightened Anglican should throw his lot in with those who are outside the church \u2013 it doesn\u2019t seem to matter much who \u2013 to \u201cjoin their light\u201d<\/em>, whatever that means. It\u2019s hard to believe that anyone could fall for such twaddle; why was there no outcry, no mass walkout, no booing? The only explanation I can think of is that the delegates were all sound asleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It now means \u201cdilution\u201d. \u00a0Bishop Michael Ingham enlightens the faithful at the 2010 synod of the Diocese of New Westminster: Mission simply means \u2018being sent.\u2019 Put it another way – it\u2019s where God already is and we are sent to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,1],"tags":[503,2110],"class_list":["post-8640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diocese-of-new-westminster","category-uncategorized","tag-bishop-michael-ingham","tag-diocese-of-new-westminster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}