A present vocation in mission and service: the challenge to united and uniting churches

The title suggested for this presentation implies that the vocation of united and uniting churches is to be found in their practice of mission and service. Rooted in this understanding are two assumptions about their self-understanding:

1. They have a very special contribution to offer to the witness of the church throughout the world.

2. There is a need to rethink their mission and service priorities because of the sociopolitical, economic and religious realities shaping today's world agenda.

In order to explore the issues that are giving shape to the present vocation in mission and service of united and uniting churches, I will draw on my experiences with some of these churches at three different levels. Three signposts will be identified as constituting relevant pointers.

The first experience is shaped through my Christian nurturing in the ministry of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the church to which I later responded by becoming a part of its ordained ministry. The union saw the coming together of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches. However, the new body remained a mainstream church having to face issues of survival, diminishing members, money, influence and importance within a culture that is increasingly resistant to the gospel. Two contrasting developmental features dominate its expression of ministry and mission. One is a perennial struggle to come to terms with its inherited missionary model and pattern of ministry, and the other is the contemporary thrust of the church to restructure and equip itself to become more responsive to the mission challenges of the local context. The ultimate challenge for this church is whether it can renew, restructure and re-equip itself for effective engagement in mission and service.

The second pointer emerges from sharing in the ministry of two local united churches in the cities of Birmingham and London in the United Kingdom. Both congregations are struggling creatively to give genuine expression to the impact of migration within their local communities. Migration constitutes a potent issue that is challenging the ministry and mission of churches within inner cities. The presence of united churches within multicultural communities experiencing intense social and economic pressures represents a direct challenge to their understanding of their vocation. Will the hallmark of their mission and service emerge as one that values the celebration of diversity of gifts and the building of inclusive communities?

The third pointer relates to my experiences with the involvement of united churches within the Council for World Mission (CWM). This is a community of thirty churches which seek to challenge and equip each other and share resources for world mission. Although most of the CWM member churches have a common heritage in the Reformed tradition, there are nine united churches which include other ecclesial traditions.(1) These united churches are playing a crucial leading role in determining the mission priorities of the Council and the use of financial resources to support them. Vital to this CWM fellowship of churches is their commitment to supporting mission and unity efforts beyond themselves. Together they pledge 5 percent of their common resources to wider ecumenical work.

In addition to the presence of intraconfessional and transconfessional united churches, there are within CWM a large number of Congregational and Presbyterian churches. Although a few of these churches have a very narrow ecumenical outlook and show very little commitment to mission and unity, the vast majority are rooted in a heritage that places great value on unity in mission. Those that emerged from the London Missionary Society (LMS) tradition are shaped by an ecclesial commitment to a central principle that states:

As the union of Christians of various denominations, in carrying on this great work, is a most desirable object: so to prevent, if possible, any cause of future dissension, it is declared to be a fundamental principle of the Missionary Society, that its design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of church order and government... but the glorious gospel of the blessed God, to the "heathen"; and that it shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the minds of the persons whom God may call into the fellowship of his Son from among them to assume for themselves such form of church government as to them shall appear most agreeable to the word of God.(2)

While CWM has to acknowledge that its former identity included attitudes that identified people of other cultures as "heathens", its present ethos is one that gives priority to the LMS's vision of unity in mission. The presence of united churches within the CWM fellowship helps to ensure that concrete expressions are given to this vision for the sake of the world.

Are you the one... or should we look for another?

The coming together of so many representatives from united and uniting churches for this sixth international consultation constitutes proof that the advocates of organic unity and the wider concerns of mission and unity are not a passing phenomenon. Rather, this gathering is an affirmation of the oneness of the body of Christ and a potent reminder and challenge to the continuing disunity of churches which refuse to move beyond their walls of denominational self-preservation. Our presence should send a clear and simple message that, in spite of the risks and pitfalls of pledging commitment to the oneness of the body of Christ, such a commitment constitutes a more authentic witness to the gospel than the preservation of separate denominational identities.