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“As mission belongs to the being of the church, the church cannot, and must not, avoid its missionary engagement with the world,” editor Risto Jukko writes in his introduction to the issue. “Churches cannot escape this engagement, but they cannot fulfil it in isolation; they need one another to do that, thus emphasizing the need for authentic, credible, and common witness.”
Mission in unity, and unity in mission, he continues, “serve not only the church but the whole of humankind, manifesting the cosmic rule of Christ.”
One article in the issue looks to mission in the 21st century, discussing recent WCC mission statements, arguing they have shifted thinking about mission and unity toward a vision that extends to humanity as a whole and the entire creation.
Other articles deal with recent approaches to mission and Christian unity in the Orthodox Church; Christian mission as a pursuit of relational anthropology; links between mission perspectives and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; and the need of global “social nearness” in light of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti.
There are also detailed studies on competing visions of mission and unity among Japanese Protestants and missionaries in the 19th and early 20th century; the Catholic missionary renewal of the early 20th century; the Common Word between Muslims and Christians; and tributes to missiologist Robert J. Schreiter, who died in June, and Desmond Tutu, who turned 90 in October.
International Review of Mission is published twice a year by Wiley on behalf of the WCC.
Open article from the latest issue:
“Draw the Circle Wide: Mission and Unity in the 21st Century,” by Kenneth Ross
Contents of the latest issue (November 2021): "Mission in Unity"
