Mission is a channel of communication – communication between God and people: communication between people and people. Christian Mission is at the heart of the Gospel. It is a response to God’s calling.
“If you are not involved in mission and evangelism you cannot call yourself a Christian” Archbishop of Canterbury

“e-mission”. This word takes in several facets.
“Embraces” is a word which may be defined as “to take or clasp in the arms lovingly”. Who would argue that this definition doesn’t have particular meaning within the context of Christian mission? Surely it is the foremost attribute – one that is firmly grounded in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

“evangelism”. This word incorporates the activities in which each of us must be involved if we are to be faithful to God’s calling. Evangelism involves action. It causes us to respond to the needs of others.

“Encompassing”: Christian Mission does not promote one particular activity over another. Mission encompasses everything that is a response to the Holy Spirit. Within our dioceses there are many mission activities within our parishes. These range from local concerns to concerns for the wider world, to relations with world faiths.

“Engaging”: Christians are engaging in dialogue with the other major World Faiths – for example Muslim / Christian dialogue. Christians are engaging with other cultures. No longer have we to travel overseas to experience cultural diversity. Cultural diversity has come to our own back-yard as those seeking asylum arrive within our shores. Many of these people come from strong Christian backgrounds and they have much to offer parishes in our country.
A challenge. We have been guilty of sitting within our comfort zones. We happily supported mission activities as long as we didn’t have to become too committed. This is no longer the situation. A response to missionary challenge involves movement on our part. Movement may involve going places where we may not have been before. It may involve taking risks and, above all, it permits the Holy Spirit to take charge of our actions. It means becoming involved in things that we may not have considered before.

We have to recognise that “out there” the Spirit is moving, but, why does the Spirit have to be moving “out there”? Why is the Spirit not moving “in here”?

Mission is recognised as being “everywhere to everywhere” so it cannot be compartmentalised. “Every movement of the People of God, every communal expression of the Body, is Church. Movements in the Church, whether local, national or international which have as their aim the furtherance of the Gospel can also be Church”. Bishop Nazir Ali.

The Church, as we know it, is changing. Everything, that the Church has traditionally offered, is being subjected to scrutiny and to question. It is essential that we are able to demonstrate our commitment to God in our lives and through our actions.

Young people in the Church. The very issues that are dear to the heart of Our Lord, – anxiety for others, environmental issues, honesty and integrity, and so on – are the very issues that concern our young people. Take, for example, the Campaign for Third World Debt Relief. Here young people are at the forefront. Indeed young people frequently take the lead in concerns for environmental destruction. Where do these issues stand in the list of priorities of our Dioceses? These are concerns that have enormous impact on the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Many people have dismissed the established Church as irrelevant, but the remarkable thing is that mission is not being dismissed in the same way. More and more people are choosing to exercise their response to mission in ways that do not involve the church. We can see this perhaps most clearly in the support given to the many appeals for help that are publicised in the media.

Christian Mission is established when the Church stands with the world at large - when we “live the Gospel”. This means putting ourselves last which is not something that we are used to doing very often. Mission is not an optional extra. It is an essential ingredient of Christian living. Christian Mission opens up many exciting opportunities in which we can go forward embracing the whole of God’s world and living fully in the power of His Spirit.

If we do not rise to this challenge as the reality - “empty”– empty churches.