The Trinity Grants Program convened the "Walking to Emmaus Consultation," bringing together bishops and deans from the United States and countries in Africa who are actively engaged in ongoing mission partnerships. Read more about the conference in these press releases. To deepen our understanding of the theology of mission and the role of current mission partnerships in the Anglican Communion, site editor Nathan Brockman recently spoke with Ian Douglas, Angus Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School.

NB: What is the theology of Mission?

ID: In the early 19th century, mission was understood as "missions" -- outposts of the Western Church in some far-flung place. As Christian witness became more incarnated on six continents, there has been a movement from the church's missions, to the mission of the Church, and now to the mission of God or missio Dei.

NB: The success of the 19th-century missions has something to do with the current conflict over human sexuality in the Anglican Communion, correct?

ID: Oh, absolutely. But I don't see it necessarily as a conflict.

NB: Why not?

ID: Well, there are indeed conflicts with respect to the particular differences over human sexuality. But the real question has to do with the plurality cultural contexts in which Anglicanism is now located. I tend to see our present situation as the logical outgrowth of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Anglican Communion is moving from a historically mono-cultural, Christian experience of a North Atlantic Alliance, to a radically multi-cultural, diverse family of churches.

NB: Does controversy in the Communion right now affect every-day life in the pews?

ID: God works in mysterious ways. I would say the attention being paid to such matters has in some ways been a positive force for furthering the cause of mission in the Anglican Communion. Today more Episcopalians are knowledgeable about and committed to the life of the Anglican Communion than ever before in our history. A few years ago, if we had 25 people at a legislative committee meeting on world mission at the General Convention, we would've felt we're making headway. At the last General Convention we had over 2,000 people attending the legislative committee hearing on The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

NB: I've heard more than one Episcopalian say of late people are being forced to make a decision between unity and truth. What's your perspective on such a characterization?

ID: I think sometimes when people say unity and truth, their presentation of truth is often understood as a once-and-for-all closed system, rather than understood as God's ongoing revelation, and the ongoing spread and growth of the Body of Christ in the world. Genuine unity comes as the truth continues to be revealed. As Max Warren once said: "It takes the whole world to know the whole Gospel."

NB: You and others in the field often talk of "God's mission." How do you piece together exactly what that is?

ID: In the mid-20th century theologians began to see mission as God's mission in the world, in which the Church participates. The mission of God is God's action to bring about reconciliation in the face of division, sinfulness, alienation and broken relationship, which is what we understand as the sinful human condition. God seeks right relationship.

NB: What role are contemporary mission partnerships playing today?

ID: Those who have been blessed to be engaged in cross-cultural mission activities have discovered Christ in the other such that they see Christ in themselves in new ways.

NB: Have you seen people who fundamentally disagree about certain things working together?

ID: Happens all the time. At the level of primatial politics, the Diocese of Massachusetts and dioceses in East Africa are not supposed to be talking to each other. Yet in common action together, particularly in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, mission relationships have been nurtured and gone into very deep places of mutuality, while not compromising beliefs.

NB: There appears to be a lot of energy and enthusiasm within the church around the Millennium Development Goals.

ID: My hope, particularly for Christians, is for us not to hide our light under a bushel, but rather say why it is that we are participating in the advancing the Millennium Development Goals. I think as Christians we need to be much more articulate about we're doing this because God in Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit wants us to do this because it's about God's mission.

NB: What's your favorite of the goals?

ID: I spend more of my time working with others on the eighth goal -- building a partnership to advance the other seven goals.

NB: Let's say you have a magic wand that you can wave and have a single wish for the Communion fulfilled.

ID: I would wish for us all to say, "Get thee behind me Satan." I believe so much in the possibility of this incredibly diverse and plural global family of churches called the Anglican communion. The Devil is going to spend more time trying to rent division or bring about division because the Anglican Communion, in all our plurality, has never been better poised to serve God's mission. There's nothing the Evil One wants more than for us to get concerned with matters of the Church and thus neglect matters of God's mission of reconciliation and restoration in the wider world.

Press Releases

• Walking to Emmaus Consultation Press Release 7/20/07 (doc)
• Walking to Emmaus Consultation Press Release 7/23/07 (doc)