2012-09-28 Mission articles Fr Hugh McMahon SSC
If
the October 7-27 Synod, or any other group, needs practical material for their
discussions on Mission, the following articles by Fr Hugh McMahon SSC are
excellent.
Fr Hugh recently returned to Ireland to be CEO of the Irish Missionary Union,
after nearly 50 years in Asia.
What
it means to be a missionary
My search has moved from "Is there still a need for mission?" to
"What should the new focus for mission be?" to "Where can we
find examples for this new direction?"
Completing
the missionary task
Once in charge, the indigenous leadership felt its duty was to continue and
stabilize the system they had inherited. It had not been made clear to them
that they were expected to move out of their foreign shell and bridge the gap
with the wider population by developing a church more suited to the local
situation.
Why
the lack of excitement?
For over 400 years missionaries took a confident faith from the west to the
east. It may be time for modern missionaries to take that faith, refined and
renewed, back to their home Churches and rekindle enthusiasm there
Refocusing
for the future
With the dramatic decrease in clerical and religious missionary vocations, the
challenge of preparing lay missionaries to take a leading role in mission is
an obvious concern that has yet to be faced
Mission
institutes - adapting to the new reality?
The new missionary situation is challenging, but it can be a wake-up call for
mission institutes rather than their death knell. In a divided world where
hope, concern for others and regard for the non-materialist is fading, the Ad
Gentes mission institutes can show their worth
We
need to work more on our identity
In the 1980s and 90s tens of thousands of young Koreans were drawn to the
Church in a search to satisfy their deeper yearnings. I believe only
Christianity has the answers to this search
Whatever
happened to Mission?
I just felt that something was missing and wondered what it might be. It was
only when I moved to China and a new missionary situation, that I began to see
where the crux
of the problem lay. Somewhere along the line missionaries had wandered from
their original task
Why
the lack of excitement?
For over 400 years missionaries took a confident
faith from the west to the east. It may be time for modern missionaries to
take that faith, refined and renewed, back to their home Churches and rekindle
enthusiasm there
Refocusing
for the future
With the dramatic decrease in clerical and
religious missionary vocations,
the challenge of preparing lay missionaries to take a leading role in mission
is an obvious concern that has yet to be faced
Mission
institutes - adapting to the new reality?
The new missionary situation is
challenging, but it can be a wake-up call for mission institutes rather than
their death knell. In a divided world where hope, concern for others and
regard for the non-materialist is fading, the Ad Gentes mission institutes can
show their worth
We
need to work more on our identity
In the 1980s and 90s tens of
thousands of young Koreans were drawn to the Church in a search to satisfy
their deeper yearnings. I believe only Christianity has the answers to
this search
Whatever
happened to Mission?
I just felt that something was missing and
wondered what it might be.
It was only when I moved to
A
lack of confidence
The biggest obstacle to the proclamation of the
gospel is the lack of confidence in those who want to evangelize.
Our formation was designed for life within
traditional parish structures. Those who saw the need to move out beyond those
limits in order to engage the unreached had to find their own way by
trial and error. Some of the most valuable insights were gained, not from
books, but from working with people
A
great time to be a missionary!
There was once a moment in human history when transport changed
from horses to engines. However, there were those who believed that this
happened only because there were not enough horses. We are at such a
moment. Diminishing vocations and less need for
traditional apostolates indicate that mission, as we knew it, is finished.
But there is a new buzz in mission circles about the energizing
possibilities being opened for the Church by a wider understanding
of the missionary task. The
Eastern Churches (like the Syrian) were larger and showed greater
diversity by presenting themselves in the languages and forms of the
cultures they encountered. It was only after they were virtually wiped out
by Islam that variety diminished and the predominance of the Roman Church,
especially its liturgies and theologies, became a reality
A
modern missionary success story
This is a brilliant article, a "must
read" for members of missionary
congregations.
We draw
attention to something we call, ‘A Third Stage of Mission’ or ‘Third
Generation of Mission’
Why
would a Confucianist
become a Christian?
It
was the possibility that Christianity could underpin and invigorate
Confucianism which attracted Xu Guangqi, and the dialogue needs to be
continued today
Religion
you can feel
Today, Christianity in many countries is losing its attraction
because it is too left-brained: it seeks to be relevant by being
knowledgeable on world issues and urging social responsibility but fails
to take people out of their ordinary world and help them experience a
higher reality. The Wats and shrines of
Rethinking
Mission
The original role of frontline missionaries was to
sow the gospel seed, form local leaders and hand over to them the
responsibility for the growing Church. Then they moved on. It was
only later that they saw their task as that of establishing churches on
the Roman model and taking on the responsibility for running those
churches till, soon or later, a local clergy could share that
responsibility with them. Often that took many generations and there
was a reluctance to leave at all. Mission became “ministry in another
culture”.
Are
we really God's entrepreneurs?
The first generation of Columbans broke new ground in the unfamiliar
cultural landscape of China, the second generation built up the churches
of Asia and Latin America, and now the third generation is called to help
those churches make the Christian message more their own
Good
reading on Mission
He recognizes the inevitable tension between those who
preserve truth and unity and those who bring the Christian message to a
variety of cultures and situations. The tendency of the first is to seek
uniformity in expression and practice. The task of the latter is to
promote variety. At present, emphasis is on the first & attention to
the second is sacrificed
New
insights into the birth of the modern Chinese Church
Using Liam Brockey's Journey
to the East: The Jesuit Mission to China 1579-1724,
Hugh draws lessons from the efforts of Jesuits who laid the foundations of
the Church in China, Korea and Japan
The
new look Confucius
For Christians the goals and methods of Confucian
self-cultivation have a familiar ring. They spell out practical steps of
practicing love of neighbor in everyday life. Those who participate in
life in