Introduction

This Handbook is for key persons in a member diocese of the Global Episcopal Mission Network (GEM). It is designed to help focus and integrate the work of the diocese as it engages in ministry beyond its borders. This handbook consists of four sections, each of which addresses a “how to” aspect of diocesan world mission.

· How can a diocese benefit for the witness and ministry of Christians from another culture -- receiving missionaries?

The context for this handbook is a network of dioceses of The Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) which share a desire and commitment to be responsibly involved in the Divine Commission, commonly understood as “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” This is a Church that has primarily fulfilled this mandate through the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) which represents every baptized member of The Episcopal Church. In recent years, the rapid growth of the Anglican Communion around the world has created opportunities for outreach and growth which far exceed the resources of the DFMS. Parishes and individuals have auspices because their own Church has limited resources, and all the time new opportunities for ministry and witness within the Anglican family are increasing.

In Episcopal ecclesiology, the diocese is the primary instrument of evangelism and mission. Mission is being carried out by Episcopalians in many ways. Each diocese has its own form of missionary outreach to others and diocesan organizations facilitate the work that is done in evangelism, advocacy, and service. Until quite recently, diocesan “Mission” has been limited to the missionary work of the diocese within its borders dimension of mission as well - seeing it as integral to their vision of faithfulness to the instruments of world mission already at work. Each has its own special contribution. But the diocese needs a structure to help dioceses in this Calling.

A Vision for what our Church can become on a global scale was expressed in a document produced out of the 1963 Anglican Congress with the title Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ. Using the Pauline image of the Church as a body made up of many members - different, necessary to each other, and interrelated - the MRI document, as it was called, showed how all of us have something to share with others, and all of us, no matter how affluent, need something from the other. “Missionary work,” which had traditionally been understood as the sending of clergy and lay missionaries to other, less civilized areas, was transformed into “Partners in Mission.” It is the work of the whole church to Send and Receive.

When Christians move form one part of the world to another the cross several boundaries:

All three need to be respected. This handbook is especially devoted to the last two. The church that receives a mission partner is the host church. This handbook is based on the assumption that there will be a diocesan bishop in the host diocese who has invited, a bishop in the sending diocese, and the assumption that these two bishops are in accord. A particular concern in today’s Church is cultural sensitivity and this handbook will attempt to help mission partners respect the culture to which they go and, in the process of crossing cultural boundaries, understand more of their own culture.

The Global Episcopal Mission Network was born at the General Convention of 1994 when it appeared that cuts in the budget of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society were going to eliminate the global mission budget. Two bishops, Richard Grein of New York and Herbert Thompson of Southern Ohio, took the initiative to call together a group of other bishops in Indianapolis to begin the GEM network. Their purpose was to raise the awareness in the Church about the importance of its global outreach and to get the diocese involved. In no way is GEM in competition with the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) nor with any of the voluntary missionary societies that send mission workers. Rather, it serves as a catalyst to facilitate the relationship between bishops, missionary candidates and sending agencies, and others who want to be responsibly involved in cross-cultural Christian witness and service.

This book is available to all who visit this web site. Originally, three people in each Member Diocese received copies of this handbook - the Diocesan and the two official representatives to GEM. This book was intentionally produced in a loose-leaf format. Individual pages could be copied and shared with others who may benefit from them. Those who will find this Handbook useful may include, among others:

Anglicans: A Missionary Church

The Anglican Communion - 38 Self-Governing Churches

· 70,000,000 members

· Over 500 dioceses

· 34 Autonomous Anglican Provinces

· 4 United Churches

The Episcopal Church - one of autonomous provinces

· 2,400,000 baptized members

· 99 Domestic Dioceses

· 10 overseas and extraprovincial jurisdictions

Today’s Church - heirs of a missionary tradition that began with the apostles and continues to this day.