Vol. 22, No.2 nternatlona• April 1998 etln• Lesslie Ncwbigin, 1909-1998 ishop Lesslie Newbigin, a contributing editor of the travelers in rural India,who sometimes set off down jungle paths B INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN, died in London on January 30, before dawn. Those traveling eastward, toward the rising sun, 1998. He was 88. Widely recognized as one of the foremost were generally unaware that the glow of coming daylight was missionary statesmen of the twentieth century, he was an ardent already reflected upon their faces; at the same time, it was proponent of Christian unity. He was the youngest bishop to be strikingly evident to travelers coming from the opposite direc­ elected when the Church of South India was formed in 1947. In tion. Authentic Christian witness, Newbigin liked to say, is like this issue of the IBMR, his friend Dan Beeby, former Presbyterian that. Christians who travel toward the coming kingdom reflect missionary in Taiwan, shares his reflections given at Bishop its light in their countenances, as they live in the faith of God's Newbigin's funeral. story, focused on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The Beginning with "Cross-Currents in Ecumenical and Evan­ metaphor fits Newbigin himself as, in one of his most important gelical Understandings of Mission" (October 1982), Newbigin's books, he ·challenged all of us to live out the Gospel in a pluralist essays appeared seven times as the opening feature of this society. journal. His final contribution, "The Dialogue of Gospel and Culture," appeared in April 1997. Several other offerings and book reviews also filled these pages. Newbigin made it abundantly clear by his lifelong ministry On Page and in such essays as "Cross-Currents ... " that evangelism, no 50 The Church of South India Golden Jubilee less than unity in Christ, must be at the top of the church's John C. B. Webster agenda. Maintaining that word and deed are inseparable, he 52 Lesslie Newbigin Remembered resisted the urge to prop up evangelism with adjectives like H. Dan Beeby "holistic" (IBMR, October 1982, pp. 146, 149). He emphasized that evangelism is "a joyful exercise to which we are all invited," 56 Evangelical Foreign Missionaries in Russia and "There cannot be any greater task, or any deeper joy, than to PeterDeyneka and Anita Deyneka tell the world what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and to 58 Noteworthy enable others to know, love, and serve him as Lord and Savior" 62 The Building of the Protestant Church in (April 1997, pp. 52,50). Shandong, China In the 1980s Newbigin set a fresh agenda for the witnessing Norman Cliff church with his "Can the West be Converted?" (IBMR, January 1987). He spoke from the perspective of an active retirement, 66 Readers' Response serving as pastor to an inner-city, interracial parish in Birming­ 69 My Pilgrimage in Mission ham, England. There he found "a paganism born out of the Jacob A. Loewen rejection of Christianity [which] is far tougher and more resistant 73 The Legacy of Robert Morrison to the Gospel than the pre-Christian paganisms with which foreign missionaries have been in contact during the past 200 J. Barton 5tarr years. [Itis] the mostchallengingmissionaryfrontier of ourtime" 77 The Legacy of James Legge (January 1987, p. 7). His touchstone question was this: "What Lauren F. Pfister would it meanif, instead of trying to understand theGospel from 83 Book Reviews the point of view of our culture, we tried to understand our culture from the point of view of the Gospel?" (p. 5). 94 Dissertation Notices Bishop Newbigin liked to recount the experience of village 96 Book Notes of issionaryResearch The Church of South India Golden Jubilee John C. B. Webster n September 27,1947, just six weeks after India became economic imbalances globalization had created.while the latter O an independent country, the Church of South India saw it, in terms of the vision in the Twenty-Third Psalm, as (CSI) came into existence. This new church, a union of former challenging globalization at the conceptual and programmatic Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches, levels of what we want to achieve through development. was an event of great ecumenical significance, providing both a After lunch the crowds began to gather, and the processions model and much inspiration for union negotiations elsewhere in began to move toward the cathedral, where the first mass gath­ the world.' On September26-28,1997, the Churchof SouthIndia ering took place at 5:00 p.m. There was a long line of school celebrated its golden jubilee in Madras (now Chennai) around children, diocesan delegates, bands, buses, trucks, placards, and the theme "Unite, Liberate, Celebrate." Each of the twenty-one floats. There was a lot of noise, decorations, cheer, and milling dioceses was invited to send 200 delegates to this churchwide around on the well-illumined cathedral premises at refreshment celebration (2,600 actually registered), while the host diocese stands, bookstores, and handicraft stalls. The opening service of planned to send 20 from each of its 110 pastorates. They were praise and thanksgiving was followed by welcoming guests as joined by guests from sister churches in India and abroad, well as receiving greetings from some of them and then by a including the archbishop of York, the moderators of the Church cultural program. By this time over 5,000 people were present, of Scotland, the United Reformed Church (U.K.), the Presbyte­ and the emphasis was clearly on celebration. rian Church (USA), the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, the Association of Churches and Missions in Southwest Ger­ Message from Lesslie Newbigin many (EMS), the Church of North India, the vice-moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, the president of the Uniting Saturday, September 27, began with a service of Holy Commun­ Church in Australia, and the metropolitan of the Mar Thoma ion, the first part of which was held in the pandal before shifting SyrianChurch.The maineventswereheld in an enormous pandal to the cathedral itself for Communion. As people settled into (tent) alongside St. George's Cathedral, where the initial union their seats, a six-minute recorded message was played from had taken place. Lesslie Newbigin, who had been consecrated fifty years ago and Those three days of celebration were the culmination of a was the only one of the original CSI bishops still alive. He series of earlier events. A study booklet on the jubilee theme was described the service of unification and acknowledged that "the published in English and the four South Indian languages. There reason for union was simply obedience to our risen Lord, to his were separate retreats for bishops, clergy, and laity as well as a prayer that his people should be one." In commenting further on theological conference, rallies for children and youth, and re­ John 17, he pointed out that "it is not unity of any sort, for any gional gatherings of the Women's Fellowship.' September14 was reason" that Christ prayed for "but this very specific unity in the celebrated as Jubilee Sunday throughout the CSI. A Commission Truth, and the Truth is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ consecrat­ on Evaluation was also appointed and mandated to report on the ing himself to the Father." He then urged upon all present a state of the church to the CSI Synod at its regular biannual deeper consecration to the cross of Jesus Christ, the Truth who meeting in January 1998. had consecrated himself to the Father so that, in the face of the The festivities in Madras began on Friday morning, Septem­ ber 26, with a flag-raising in the cathedral compound, the open­ ing of an exhibition of Dalit paintings at a nearby CSI school, and A long line of children, the dedication of the Golden Jubilee Auditoriumat the CSIsynod headquarters. Several hundred people were present for this diocesan delegates, bands, service of dedication and for the seminar that followed, entitled buses, trucks, and floats "Rethinking the Church's Role in Development in the Context of Globalization." Michael H. Taylor, director of Christian Aid in emphasized that this was Great Britain, began by contrasting oikoumene, a global habitat clearly a celebration. that is a "hospitable place for everyone," with globalization, a competitive marketplace. "Our mission," he said, "is to convert 'globalization' into 'ecumenism.'" This is to be carried out by temptations of these changed times, that loyalty would tran­ concerted efforts both to reform the global economic orderand to scend every other possible loyalty and we would be, would be resist the institutions of globalization at the local, national, and seen to be, and would remain, one. In his sermon, David M. international levels . To do this, we need a global rather than a Hope, archbishop of York, also recalled the service of unification colonial or paternalistic church addressing the principalities and and, picking up on the jubilee theme, spoke of the church as powers of globalization in the name of the Gospel and of the herald ("celebrate"), servant ("liberate"), and communion poor. The two other speakers, K. Rajaratnam and Ninan Koshy, ("unite"). also saw globalization as negative in its premises and conse­ On Saturday afternoon there wa s a huge public meeting, quences. The former saw the church's role as redressing the which drew an estimated 10,000 people to the pandal. Most of the meeting was devoted to the presidential address of the CSI John C. B. Webster, a member ofthe Presbyterian Church (USA)delegation to moderator and to greetings from many of the guests. Bishop theChurch ofSouthIndia GoldenJubilee,has beenamissionary in India 1960­Vasant P.