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When the Apostle Paul stood in front of the Areopagus, he began by connecting with the spirituality of the ancient Athenians, affirming their search for God and the spiritual awareness of their poets. Paul attempted to use the Athenians' spiritual language to tell about the Creator God and about Jesus and his resurrection. At the same time he discerned a spirit of idolatry which prevented repentance and practical obedience to the Holy Spirit of God (Acts 17:16-34).

As We Begin…

During the one-hundred years of the modern Pentecostal-charismatic movement, it has made many impacts on Christianity in general, but its role in mission is extremely significant. The explosive growth of churches, particularly in the non-western continents, is but one example. As discussed below, there are several important roles of the Holy Sprit that are evident in the mission practices of Pentecostal-charismatic believers.

Report and communiqué of the Urban Rural Mission Conference in Accra, Ghana, 1-7 May 2004

The renewed concern and awareness towards healing in a new world context raises for the churches fundamental theological, missiological, ethical and pastoral questions that require critical scrutiny. My approach will be missiological. I will discuss healing as the transforming, empowering and reconciling missionary action of the church.

The present document has been prepared by a multicultural and interdenominational group of missiologists, medical doctors and health professionals. It builds upon the tradition of the WCC's Christian Medical Commission (CMC) and its most fruitful contribution to an understanding of the healing ministry of the church. This document does not repeat what remains well formulated in earlier texts of the World Council of Churches, such as the document "Healing and Wholeness. The churches' Role in Health", adopted in 1990 by the Central Committee.

The theme of the 2005 Conference on Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches leads us to reflect on the spirit of Jesus Christ as healer and reconciler. Pastoral counselling as a ministry of healing and reconciliation is among the most important aspects of the church's work.

The "young missiologists consultation" was organised by the Mission and Ecumenical Formation Team of the World Council of Churches, on behalf of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, following a suggestion formulated during a session of the Central Committee of the WCC. 32 young theologians, coming from seven regions, many denominations and interested in missiology, learnt to know each other and worked on themes related to the forthcoming world mission conference in Athens (May 9-16, 2005).

This worksheet is intended to be a tool to reflect and/or prepare a discussion on reconciliation and in particular social reconciliation and its relevance for churches in mission.

It is based mainly on reflections taken from Robert Schreiter's book The Ministry of Reconciliation. Spirituality and Strategies. Maryknoll, Orbis, 1998, pp. 105 ff., and the experience of WCC colleagues, in particular Guillermo Kerber Mas, from the WCC team on International Affairs, Peace and Human Security.

This paper offers reflections on mission as reconciliation from an ecumenical point of view and is shared as part of the preparatory process for the 2005 Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME). It is the result of a consultation attended by ten missiologists coming from five continents, rooted in their own contextual spiritualities and coming from various church traditions such as Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic. They worked hard to reach and express some common convictions. The statement was received as a study document by the CWME Conference Planning Committee (CPC) during its meeting near Athens in March 2004. The CPC decided to share it widely, in order to receive reactions, comments, critiques, suggestions for modification and improvement. The paper will then be presented, possibly in a revised version, to the WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism meeting later in autumn this year.