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THE EDINBURGH 2010
MISSION CONFERENCE
Witnessing to Christ Today
By Sr Elizabeth Moran
In 1910 in Edinburgh there was a remarkable
Conference of 1200 delegates. They were church and mission leaders
meeting to pray and think together about the world-wide mission
of the Christian church. Many of them had experience of living
as a missionary in another land, but most of them were English-speaking
men coming from the Protestant churches of the West. Their gathering,
with its prayerful process of study and reflection, is still
recognised today as one of the most important occasions in the
growth of the modern ecumenical movement.
Now, 100 years later, as efforts to build dialogue
and cooperation towards unity among Christian churches continue,
a centenary Conference in Edinburgh, from June 2 to June 6,
2010, will bring to Scotland about 250 delegates who will once
more meet to pray and think together about Christian mission
in today’s world. This time the Conference members will
include representatives from a much wider range of Christian
churches and communities, including the Orthodox Churches, the
Roman Catholic Church and the Pentecostal communities. The attention
of the Conference will be focussed on the meaning and the challenge
of Witnessing to Christ together in the world of today.
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It will be a time for celebration and for grateful
worship together, as well as for scholarly reflection. For several
years, in preparation, a great international conversation on
nine themes of mission has been happening in study centres around
the world. It will conclude and be shared in the 4-day June
Conference, with the final Sunday, June 6, as a wider celebration
of Mission shared with the local churches. We are not casual
bystanders. We are asked to be involved in this work of the
Lord in our times. The leaflet “2010 Local” suggests
how we might do that in our own place and time. You can find
it on the Conference Website at www.edinburgh2010.org.uk
, or at www.scot2010.
org.uk. (go to ‘resources, leaflets’) There is
also a Newsletter (go to ‘news’) which gives you plenty
of information on events and resources. We are asked to inform
ourselves, and to share our reflections.
Most important of all is the realisation that
we are asked to pray for this Conference, for all those
who share in the preparation and in the actual days in Edinburgh.
Please include this intention in all the prayer group meetings
and in all your own prayers.
Please consider using the prayer below so
that the whole country will be asking the Lord for renewed inspiration
for his mission. The Newsletter also includes a ‘pray
with us’ guide each month, helpful for personal prayer.
Pray for missionaries who cross cultures for the sake of the
Gospel. Pray for all of us, whose mission is in families, parishes,
schools, workplaces, hospitals, prisons, streets, offices –
that we may carry the Gospel into all our relationships, in
all we do and say, and that we may grow in love and respect
for all our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Sr Elizabeth Moran, a Catholic sister, is
the intercession coordinator for the event.
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The
search for Christian Unity was an important theme in the Second
Vatican Council, and the Catholic Church made an “irrevocable
commitment” to undertake the journey with our brothers
and sisters in other parts of the body of Christ. It is not
an easy journey, and there have been many ups and downs since
those days of the early 1960s. But there is a determination
on all sides to keep going, and significant progress has been
made in many areas. Jesus prayed for unity in John 17, and the
Holy Spirit is working to bring us together.