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A “Mission from the Margins” group gathered recently to explore how to discern God’s mission in a fractured and unjust world. The working group of the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism comprised 13 commissioners, as well as members of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network (EDAN).
The group also reflected deeply on the theme for the upcoming WCC 11th Assembly, “Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity.”
Rev. Michael Blair, executive minister of Church in Mission for the United Church of Canada, also serves as moderator for Mission from the Margins. "The Mission from the Margins working group of the CWME met at Bossey along with representatives of EDAN to explore options of how the network can work together to strengthen and deepen the programmatic approach to the concept of mission from the margins,” said Blair. "We are seeking to understand the need for an intersectional approach, rooted in a common commitment to justice and interrogation of power and privilege."
Gertrude Fefoame, vice moderator of the working group, said: "The working group strengthened the appreciation of intersectionality and how it relates with the work of EDAN, highlighting the twin-track approach in achieving its objective strategies.”
Eva Christina Nilsson, director for the Department for Mission and Development and the Department for Theology and Public Witness of the Lutheran World Federation, also reflected on intersectionality. “It’s important to see that complexity, how a person or a group may be marginalized along one dimension but privileged along another,” said Nilsson. “We had an in-depth conversation, which was very inspiring.”
