Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has issued a video encouraging observance of World Mission Sunday on Feb. 14, which is available here. Noting that this year World Mission Sunday coincides with Valentine’s Day, Curry relates the love of God shown forth in the ministry of Jesus and his invitation to love one another to Jesus’ charge, “You will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth.”
“Global Mission Sunday is about our being sent out into the world as witnesses to the way of love that Jesus taught us,” Curry says, “witnesses to the way of love by works of compassion, works of mercy, works of justice, witnesses to love by working together with fellow Christians and all peoples of good will of any stripe and type to help this world to resemble something close to what God has dreamed and intended from the very beginning when God said, ‘Let there be . . .’ – anything at all.
“Global Mission Sunday is about our witnessing to that love,” Curry continues. “What was true for [Jesus’ followers] in the first century is true for us now in the twenty-first century. . . . We are members of that movement, that Jesus Movement, bearing witness to that love.”
Global mission resources from GEMN can be found here.
Resources from the Office of Global Partnerships (OGP) can be found here.
Current Episcopal Church Young Adult Service Corp members are introduced here.
Information about the Episcopal Volunteers in Mission program is here.
A World Mission Sunday sermon by the Rev. Paul Feheley, interim partnership officer for Africa at OGP is here.
World Mission Sunday will also launch the Global Mission Digital Toolkit, a collaboration among GEMN, the Office of Global Partnerships, and the Standing Commission on World Mission. The toolkit is intended for individuals, small groups, congregations, dioceses, and mission companions across the Anglican Communion.
The lens of the toolkit focuses on The Way of Love, Practices for a Jesus-Centered Life and the Standing Commission’s Guiding Principles for World Mission. The project collaboration is supported by a generous grant from the Constable Fund. The toolkit resources of webinars, videos, downloadable PDFs and articles will be publicized by GEMN when they go live online.
World Mission Sunday was established by Resolution A205 of the 1997 General Convention:
Resolved, That the last Sunday of Epiphany of each year be designated World Mission Sunday; and be it further
Resolved, That educational opportunities be provided at every level of the church in preparation for the celebration of World Mission Sunday to increase awareness of and participation in world mission; and be it further
Resolved, That mission networks such as Companion Dioceses, parish linkages, voluntary missionary societies, and the Anglican and Global Relations Office of the Episcopal Church Center be urged to develop and promote resources for the celebration of World Mission Sunday.