Christians from all continents and the largest confessional families gathered Wednesday for the third day of one of the largest gatherings of church representatives and mission organisations in the 21st century.
The 13th Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), held May 9-16 by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Athens, Greece, has called delegates from Orthodox, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches or mission bodies "to recognise the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in all of them." Participants of the CWME include young people, women and men working at the frontiers of Christian witness, church and mission leaders, theologians and missiologists.
As this year’s conference coincides with the mid-point of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010), a special plenary on Thursday intended as a mid-term celebration was dedicated to the complex relationship between mission and violence.
The plenary began with a liturgical procession of symbols of violence brought to the altar by young people from various regions followed by an audio-visual presentation of the first half of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence. The short video-clip included the moment when a young German delegate to the Harare assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1998 made the initial proposal for the Decade to Overcome Violence.
Participants also heard personal testimonies witnessing to the ambivalent relationship between mission and violence.
"For us in Colombia [...] violence (or the sword) has been a constant companion to mission (or the cross)," stated Alix Lozano, a Mennonite pastor from Colombia whose testimony that had to be read in her absence because she was denied a visa to attend the conference.
Lozano believes that "mission" and "violence" are words that are almost interchangeable.
After the testimonies, the experiences such as those of Lozano's were reflected on by a round table with the participation of Janice Love, educator in political science and Methodist church leader from the USA, Tinyiko Maluleke, a leading African missiologist from South Africa, Janet Plenert, Executive Director of International Ministries, Mennonite Church Canada and Viola Raheb, Lutheran theologian and Christian educator from Palestine.
"We can't close our eyes to the violence that people suffer 24 hours a day, day after day," said Raheb, as reported by the WCC.
Describing the situation of the occupied Palestinian territories, she said "It's not enough that the churches name the causes of violence, but they have actively to address them with a non-violent approach."
