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CWM Welcomes the New Year with Staff Holy Communion Service
Keynote speech on “Ecumenical Perspective of Mission Today” a highlight at CWM’s First All-Staff Meeting of the Year
Metropolitan Dr Geevarghese Mor Coorilos, the Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church, Moderator of Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) of the World Council of Churches and president of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) and a global leader in the ecumenical movement in various capacities, gave a keynote speech on “Ecumenical Perspective of Mission Today” during Council for World Mission (CWM)’s first All-Staff Meeting of the year on 13 January 4:00 P.M Singapore Time. As part of CWM staff development plan, the General Secretary, Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum introduced a bi-monthly All-Staff meeting to equip the staff with various elements including providing them missional reflections by prominent global missiologists and professional training sessions on various skills. In this meeting the global staff of CWM were edified in his lecture by Metropolitan Dr Geevarghese Mor Coorilos, a renowned missiologist. The Bishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in India underscored two main points – subverting the colonial, imperialistic model of mission, and reimagining mission of God as missio agape (Mission as love).
-David Bosch
Firstly, the essence of transforming discipleship is to turn to God. In that process, we turn to the world, to which God has turned in Christ, with the intention of transforming the world by “turning it upside down”. In Acts 17:8-9, Paul and Silas were disciples who were branded as subversive, or rebels. Being a disciple during that time meant to be revolutionary, and their announcing a king of different dispensations was blasphemous to ‘empire’ during that time.
Raising contemporary forms of ‘empire’ – capitalism, xenophobia, militarism, and technological absolutism, Metropolitan Dr Geevarghese Mor Coorilos equated transforming
Image courtesy of Dr Geevarghese Mor Coorilos Facebook Page.
discipleship to confronting and resisting modern empire and its logic and practice. In suggesting a radical paradigm shift in doing mission, he highlighted how “mission from the margins” meant the margins – the oppressed, the Global South and so on – leading mission, rather than “leading mission from the centre”.
Mission from the margins is about the ones and zeroes of the world – the last, least and lost- coming together in solidarity, affirming the world of its value, and leading the discipleship journey from the front, he explained.
“Missio dei must be understood as missio agape”
In today’s context where the ideology of fear of and hatred towards the ‘other’ is manifested in racism, sexism, exclusivism, fascism, and stigmatisation of people, mission as transforming discipleship has to be understood as “mission of love”, or missio agape. When Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment in John 13:34-35, he said that everyone will know that they are his disciples if they love one another.
The Bishop closed his impactful sermon by sharing about how Mary, a daily wage labourer in India, gave half of all the money she had in response to the appeal for food supplies in the wake of the Kerala floods. She gave not out of abundance, but out of poverty, half of all she had, and this was an example of “spirituality of the poor”, mission from the margins, missio agape, and transforming discipleship.
Following the lecture, it was announced that Mr. Charlie Yee, who has served as Accountant in CWM’s U.K Office for 20 years, has been promoted to the position of Finance Manager. The meeting officially came to a close after Rev Nikotemo Sopepa, Mission Secretary to Pacific prayed for all to “seek blessing and guidance as we prepare for wonderful possibilities of service and total surrender to God”.
Guyana Congregational Union (GCU) renovates and dedicates Quamina House Complex as GCU’s mission outreach centre
By Rev. Keith Haley, GCU General Secretary
Coming out of mission consultations regarding the need for Guyana Congregational Union (GCU) to transition from engaging ministry in maintenance mode to ‘missional congregations,’ it was clear that the condition of the building (Quamina House) which was home to the church’s headquarters was unsuitable for supporting the mission work of the church. It was recommended that an upper floor should be constructed on the Clarkson Congregational Church building – which is on the same property as Quamina House – and the secretariat be relocated there.
Through the CWM Mission Support Programmme (MSP 2) grant, the construction of the upper floor, renovation and repair of the church building and renovation to Quamina House commenced on March 04, 2021. The Clarkson Congregational Church building is now transformed into the GCU secretariat on the upper floor and the sanctuary on the ground floor. Quamina House will now be utilised as the GCU’s mission outreach centre. The newly refurbished Quamina House Complex was dedicated for use to the Glory of God, in a Worship Service held on Tuesday, December 07, 2021. Mrs. Jennifer Martin, Education In Mission Secretary, represented the Caribbean and North America Council for Mission (CANACOM); the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands (UCJCI) was represented by Rev. Norbert Stephens, General Secretary. Rev. Dr. Jooseop Keum, General Secretary, brought Greetings on behalf of the Council for World Mission (CWM) – pre-recorded. The pre-recorded Sermon was delivered by Rev. Dr. Michael Jagessar, Mission Secretary (Europe and Caribbean Regions).
Guyana Congregational Union gives God thanks for all His gracious mercies, as we express sincere gratitude to everyone who played a role in the execution of the project and to the Council for World Mission for providing the funding to make it a reality. GCU commits to using these facilities to advance God’s work of satisfying the needs of the people He brings into our daily path, through faithful and committed service in mission.
