Tuesday, 19 December 2006
Missionary Order 2
Why do we need something new (or a revived usage of something old) to "enable" mission?
In our diocese, we have people called Ministry Enablers. These work with mutual ministry parishes (where their aren't professional ministers in the traditional sense) to do ministry. I guess this suggests that we think that mutual ministry needs enabling.
Why is missional activity not the natural state of things? Am I right in thinking it's not? The authors of Mission-shaped Church seem to think that mission needs enabling. Where ministry is mostly done in the context of a parish, it can be very hard to start something that involves crossing boundaries. Do we need to distinguish between ministry and mission? I normally think of ministry as what we do for Christians and mission as what we do for other people, whether making them Christians is the overt purpose or not. However, the church also talks abut doing stuff for poor Christians in the third World as mission too.
So, a Missionary Order is a way of enabling missionary activity. It creates a formal structure in which individuals can do things that might otherwise be too hard in the context of a parish.
In our diocese, we have people called Ministry Enablers. These work with mutual ministry parishes (where their aren't professional ministers in the traditional sense) to do ministry. I guess this suggests that we think that mutual ministry needs enabling.
Why is missional activity not the natural state of things? Am I right in thinking it's not? The authors of Mission-shaped Church seem to think that mission needs enabling. Where ministry is mostly done in the context of a parish, it can be very hard to start something that involves crossing boundaries. Do we need to distinguish between ministry and mission? I normally think of ministry as what we do for Christians and mission as what we do for other people, whether making them Christians is the overt purpose or not. However, the church also talks abut doing stuff for poor Christians in the third World as mission too.
So, a Missionary Order is a way of enabling missionary activity. It creates a formal structure in which individuals can do things that might otherwise be too hard in the context of a parish.
Labels: Missionary Order
Monday, 18 December 2006
Missionary Order 1
Mission-shaped Church, the Church of England report on emerging missional expressions of church, commends some particular ideas for consideration by dioceses. One suggestion is the creation of "Bishops' Orders" to enable missionary activity inside the diocesean boundries. It suggests that the orders (a historical grouping of nuns/monks, knights, etc) be accountable to the bishop and be outside the parochial system.
The working title for my Missionary Order is The Order of Henry Williams, or the Williams Order for short. The title is deliberately not exciting as the structure is not the important thing and shouldn't detract from the actual work of the members. The name does continue the tradition of naming the order after something or someone (a patron saint) that reflects something of the values of the order. Williams changed the focus of missionary activity in New Zealand. Peviously, missionaries had hoped to pave the way for the gospel by engaging Maori with outreach activities such as education with little success. Williams made the gospel an upfront part of missionary work as well as continuing the outreach.
Clergy and laity could be licensed/authorised in the order itself rather than in a parish. This would permit them to engage in mission activities without reference to parishes (unless there was a clear overlap/conflict with an existing ministry). Some of this work would result in some "fresh expressions of church" which the order could help nuture and might grow into a parish in the future or that might fit well with an existing parish.
This structure doesn't solve the problem of what to actually do, but it does free mission-minded people from one perceived challenge in the Anglican church. Members of the order would not be tied to a parish and the maintenance and congregation-tending that parishes necessarily are focussed on to a greater or lesser degree. This also keeps mission-minded individials inside the church, maintaining episcopal oversight. This doesn't answer all the questions, or address every challenge.
The working title for my Missionary Order is The Order of Henry Williams, or the Williams Order for short. The title is deliberately not exciting as the structure is not the important thing and shouldn't detract from the actual work of the members. The name does continue the tradition of naming the order after something or someone (a patron saint) that reflects something of the values of the order. Williams changed the focus of missionary activity in New Zealand. Peviously, missionaries had hoped to pave the way for the gospel by engaging Maori with outreach activities such as education with little success. Williams made the gospel an upfront part of missionary work as well as continuing the outreach.
Clergy and laity could be licensed/authorised in the order itself rather than in a parish. This would permit them to engage in mission activities without reference to parishes (unless there was a clear overlap/conflict with an existing ministry). Some of this work would result in some "fresh expressions of church" which the order could help nuture and might grow into a parish in the future or that might fit well with an existing parish.
This structure doesn't solve the problem of what to actually do, but it does free mission-minded people from one perceived challenge in the Anglican church. Members of the order would not be tied to a parish and the maintenance and congregation-tending that parishes necessarily are focussed on to a greater or lesser degree. This also keeps mission-minded individials inside the church, maintaining episcopal oversight. This doesn't answer all the questions, or address every challenge.
Labels: Missionary Order
