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By Martin Conway (*)
"A very thin woman stood up, walked to the middle, sat beside the candle and told us a long story of suffering. Her name was Alexandrina. We called her Adina. When she was about 6 years old, her parents were arrested by the Indonesian soldiers. She never saw them again. She was left behind with her elder brother, who had joined the Fretelin freedom fighters struggling for the independence of East Timor.
"Some years later he too was captured by the Indonesian soldiers. They tortured him and let him slowly die a horrible death. When Adina was in senior high school, the military arrested her while giving food to a young man. They accused her of being a collaborator of Fretelin. They tortured her until she was half-conscious and raped her.
"At this point Adina could not finish her story. There was a long silence. Then Adina gathered all her strength, looked at me, and said in a faint voice: 'Father, where is that salvation promised by the Lord?'
"Again there was silence. I could not answer her question. Tears flowed. Slowly I raised my eyes and saw a wooden cross on the wall. I saw it and understood the solidarity of the crucified one, but I could not utter a single word. Adina needed my solidarity, not my words. For several years I have been living with her question.”
This story was recounted by Fr Leo Kleden, of Indonesia, a member of the Society of the Divine Word. He told it at a meeting of the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS) in Port Dickson, Malaysia, from 31 July to 7 August, 2004, a gathering which brought together more than 200 people from 44 countries and a wide range of church traditions.
The story was used as an illustration of the importance of "listening with full respect to what God has done for different people, in various cultures and religions – an awareness which will slowly, but radically, transform our way of thinking and doing mission.”
Only afterwards did he mention that, since writing his paper for the meeting, he had had a middle-of-the-night phone call from that same Adina, to tell him she was now happily married and had built a new life, longing to thank him for the new hope and vitality which the Holy Spirit had communicated to her on that unforgettable evening in the chapel.
Understanding mission today
The IAMS meeting was an in-depth personal and theological encounter between missiologists of a kind which is rarely seen. Entitled "The Integrity of Mission in the Light of the Gospel - Bearing the witness of the Spirit," its tone was set by two addresses by experienced theologians.
Rev. Dr Hwa Yung, of Trinity Theological College in Singapore, identified Asian mission factors such as the acceptance of "signs and wonders" in regard to healing and exorcism, both responding to the needs of people feeling themselves trapped by supernatural powers Westerners have ceased to be aware of.
Professor Dr Pablo Suess, outgoing IAMS president and a Brazilian Catholic, focused in his presidential address on what the Holy Spirit is saying to today’s Christians as "they encounter the Spirit side by side with the oppressed, the excluded and the marginalized.
"The universality of mission today”, he said, "has to be understood as an alternative to globalization under the dictates of a social-Darwinistic liberalism…" He continued: "It is because of the universality of victims that our mission is universal. Mission follows the suffering servant of God into the most remote areas of the world."
Other presentations included contributions from Africa, Latin America and Europe. Dr Philomena Mwaura, a university teacher at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, offered, after a careful survey of the current troubles of Africa - the "bleeding continent" - suggestions to enhance the integrity of mission in the light of the gospel. She spoke of the church as a mediator of peace, healing and reconciliation, providing visionary leadership and discipling the nations, and stressed the need for courageous, empowered and effective leadership committed to evangelization and ecumenism.
European contributors - a Bulgarian Baptist, Dr Parush Parushev, and a French Catholic laywoman, Edith Bernard - presented similar perceptions of mission. Obedience to God's call, they said, consists in serving the needy, in the discovery of friendship across human and social barriers, in pointing to the cross and rising of Jesus of Nazareth as signs of an unconquerable hope.
Another contributor was Prof. Chun Chae Ok, president of the IAMS from 1986–2000, and now professor emeritus of Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea. She spoke of the "Missiology of Emptiness – mission from the poor to the poor” – as a distinctive contribution of women in Asia.
"The reality is that women in mission without names and in most cases without writings have been vehicles of the gospel in the Korean churches and throughout Asia," she said "The existence of a female majority in the world church must no longer be ignored. Rather it should be celebrated and become a source of inspiration for a more authentic form of mission.”
The conference spent two days in "exposure visits", including trips to a Buddhist temple and a Catholic centre to meet groups of migrant workers from nearby Asian countries. Visits were also made to the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation in Kuala Lumpur, and to the International Islamic University of Malaysia.
Since the gathering coincided partially with the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Faith and Order plenary commission meeting in Kuala Lumpur, and was held only about 150 kilometres away, some participants spent time at both meetings. And one of the conference study groups focused on a paper on mission and reconciliation prepared for the next WCC Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, to be held in Athens, Greece, on 9-16 May 2005.
* Dr Martin Conway, from the Church of England, is a former president of the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, UK.