Representatives of the Anglican Communion churches in the Americas will be gathering next week to share with each other what they are doing in mission in this hemisphere and to see how they might most effectively cooperate with each other.
The eight provinces working in concert with the Anglican Communion Office of Mission and Evangelism will gather for a five day meeting in San José, Costa Rica.
The full release follows:
via Email:
Anglicans in the Americas plan mission gathering
Mary Frances Schjonberg
Episcopal News Service
February 19, 2009 – Members of the six Anglican Communion provinces in
the Americas will gather February 22-27 in San José, Costa Rica, for
the Conference of the Anglican Churches in the Americas in Mutual
Responsibility and Mission.
The February meeting will allow participants to tell their colleagues
about their mission and ministry along with training opportunities. In
addition, conference participants will spend Ash Wednesday working at
various ministry sites with Costa Rican Anglicans.
John Kafwanka, project officer on the Anglican Communion Office’s
Mission and Evangelism desk at the Anglican Communion Office, will be
the conference’s keynote speaker. Kafwanka will ground his remarks and
subsequent workshop in the communion’s “checklist” for mission known
as the Five Marks of Mission.
The eight provinces that have been invited to send participants to the
conference are the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, the Anglican
Church of Canada, theAnglican Church of the Central America Region,
the Anglican Church of Mexico,Church in the Province of the West
Indies, the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone of the Americas, and
the Episcopal Church of Cuba, along with The Episcopal Church.
Each province was invited to send two clergy and four lay
representatives to the gathering, along with its primate and
provincial secretary or designated representatives. Registered
participants will come from each of the invited provinces, with the
exception of the West Indies.
The idea for the gathering grew out of a November 2006 proposal for an
Anglican regional convocation of the Americas that Bonnie Anderson,
president of the House of Deputies and Executive Council vice
president, made to the council.Resolution INC005 from that council
meeting authorized a work group, appointed by Anderson and Presiding
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, to develop the idea. The resolution
said that the goal of such convocation would be “to equip better our
churches for mutuality and interdependence in God’s mission.”
Anderson told Executive Council during its recent meeting that the
hope is that “deep engagement with each other on a personal level”
about mission and ministry will result in the development of new
networks for regional mission efforts.