Church Communions and Mission
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Vol. 33, No. 1 January 2009 Church Communions and Mission he missiometrics report on global mission in the January T2006 IBMR drew our attention to 350 Christian World Communions (CWCs) representing some 39,000 distinct de- On Page nominations worldwide. In this issue the authors of the report, 3 Equipping for God’s Mission: The David Barrett, Todd Johnson, and Peter Crossing, return to the Missiological Vision of the 2008 Lambeth subject of CWCs with their article “Five Overviews of Global Conference of Anglican Bishops Christianity, AD 1800–2025.” Ian T. Douglas Threeoftheessaysinthisissuereferencethehighlypublicized theological and ethical challenges that threaten to fragment the 8 Anglicans and Reconciling Mission: An worldwide Anglican Communion. Once the privileged religion Assessment of Two Anglican International Gatherings Mark Oxbrow 11 The Impact of the Sexuality Controversy on Mission: The Case of the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion Titus Presler 14 Noteworthy 18 The International Impact of the Formation of the Church of South India: Bishop Newbigin Versus the Anglican Fathers Mark Laing 24 U.S. Catholic Missioners: More Laity, Greater Focus on North America 25 Christian World Communions: Five Overviews of Global Christianity, AD 1800–2025 David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing 33 The Computer Revolution and Its Impact on Evangelical Mission Research and Strategy Michael Jaffarian of a proudly and literally Anglican hegemonic empire, the com- 38 The Roman Catholic Church’s Southward Shift munion now consists of some 80 million members of 44 differ- ent churches in 34 provinces worldwide. In this communion, 39 My Pilgrimage in Mission “English” and American members are a shrinking minority. Lawrence Nemer Fractiously complex issues arising from the encounter of the 42 Book Reviews biblical text with practices and values issuing from disparate cultural contexts are steadily chipping away at the communion 54 Dissertation Notices Continued next page 56 Book Notes of Anglicans worldwide. What might be the missiological im- body of doctrine on which entire populations could agree. But plications of these tensions, as mirrored in the 008 Lambeth not surprisingly, it has never been possible to achieve worldwide Conference? The editors posed this question to three Anglican Christian consensus.They—likeall of us—wereproducts oftheir missiologists, whose answers appear below. unique cultural intellectual milieus, and today their posterity Theimageoftranquilcommonalityevokedbytheword“com- remainsdeeplydivided.TheseparationbetweenGreekandLatin munion” has often been belied by church councils themselves. Christianity formalized in 1054 remains unbridged. In addition, From the beginning—when the very first council was convened Arians trace their ejection from mainstream Christianity to the in Jerusalem to resolve a “sharp dispute and debate” (Acts 15: Council of Constantine in 381; Assyrians (Nestorians) split off NIV)overwhetherGentilefollowersofJesusshouldcomplywith as a result of the Council of Ephesus fifty years later; then in 451 Jewishceremoniallaw,inparticular,circumcision—councilshave the Council of Chalcedon adopted positions on the person of been the only known way to tackle controversial issues of great Christ that were incompatible with the distinctive theologies of complexity on which communions strongly disagree. groups that became known as the Oriental Orthodox: the non- Notallchurchcouncilshavebeenabletoachieveasatisfactory Chalcedonian Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Indian Orthodox, consensus, of course. In Voting About God in Early Church Councils and Syrians (Jacobites). (Yale Univ. Press, 006), Ramsay MacMullen draws on extensive As impossible as it seems to achieve agreement within, let verbatim stenographic records to analyze some 50 ecumenical alone between, communions, the nature of human identity itself councils from A.D. 35 to 553 in which doctrinal orthodoxy was points to the indispensability of communions. It is from the decided by majority vote. It was by means of an estimated 15,000 intimate communion of two persons that each human existence councilsconvenedduringthistwo-centuryperiod—mostsignifi- begins; it is from nurturing communities that each of us derives cantlytheoneatNicaeain35(representedabove)andanotherat a name, a sense of self, a language, social statuses with their Chalcedon in 451—that Christendom Christians came to “agree” corresponding roles, and a sense of place within a story that is on an acceptable theological formulation of their triune Supreme bigger and grander than our puny selves. It is not surprising, Being. Not surprisingly, emperors played a significant, often then, that the Oxford English Dictionary should find it necessary decisive role both in staging the major councils and in influenc- to devote nearly fifty-one columns to words deriving from “com- ing their outcomes. Then as now, for any would-be synthesizer mon” and “commune.” Without communion, we simply cannot the Bible was an inconveniently untidy book. Since the divine exist. No matter how difficult relationships between or within mathematics of Trinitarian formulas were not easily extracted communions might be, we still need each other. For without you, from the pages of Scripture, achieving doctrinal consensus was a there can be no me. formidabletask,involvingimmenseintellectuallaborandnolittle —Jonathan J. Bonk ingenuity. Frequently these debates were won, not by argument alone, but by legal compulsion and the threat of arms. Front cover: The First Oecumenical Council of Nicaea, by Michael Damaskinos, Thishistorydoesnotdiminishourforefathers’admirableand sixteenth century, now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris. Pho- hard-wonaccomplishmentofdistillingfromtheScripturesacore tograph copyright by Sonia Halliday Photographs. InternatIonal BulletIn of MIssIonary research Established 1950 by R. Pierce BeaveR as Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research in 1977. Renamed InternatIonal BulletIn of MIssIonary research in 1981. Published quarterly in January, April, July, and OctobeR by the Editor overseas MInIstrIes study center, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A. Jonathan J. Bonk (203) 624-6672 • Fax (203) 865-2857 • [email protected] • www.InternationalBulletin.org Associate Editor Contributing Editors Dwight P. Baker Catalino G. Arévalo, S.J. Philip Jenkins Gary B. McGee Brian Stanley Assistant Editor David B. 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(ISSN 0272-6122) INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH, Vol. 33, No. 1 Equipping for God’s Mission: The Missiological Vision of the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops Ian T. Douglas hedecennialmeetingofbishopsoftheworldwideAngli- London in 1908, Minneapolis in