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Study paper - "Converting Discipleship: Dissidence and Metanoia”

The study paper has been produced by the commission’s Working Group on Transforming Discipleship, which has been engaged since 2019 in a study process on the document “Arusha call to discipleship" in affirmation of the key place that discipleship holds across all levels of ecumenical work or denominational church work.

The paper "Converting Discipleship: Dissidence and Metanoia” aspires to move churches towards a transformation effected through discipleship. Addressing churches and communities locally, the document aims to inspire them to re-examine and finally re-shape their missional commitment.

Commission on World Mission and Evangelism

Ephesians 2:11-21 "A pilgrimage of unity", by Susan Durber

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul addresses the particular faith journey that the early Christians found themselves walking. Their pilgrimage is a journey of discovering the unity between Jews and the Gentiles, in which the Gentiles are welcomed into the covenant of promise. It invites us to wonder where God might be doing the work of reconciliation and building bridges today. God’s purpose is to lead all of us into unity with one another and to welcome those who were once strangers into the household. The reconciling love of God reaches beyond any borders.

WCC Programmes

The Church: Towards a Common Vision

What can we say together about the Church of the Triune God in order to grow in communion, to struggle together for justice and peace in the world, and to overcome together our past and present divisions? The Church: Towards a Common Vision a remarkable answer to this question. Produced by theologians from the widest range of Christian traditions and cultures, The Church addresses first the Church’s mission, unity, and its being in the Trinitarian life of God. It then addresses our growth in communion – in apostolic faith, sacramental life, and ministry – as churches called to live in and for the world.

Commission on Faith and Order

One Baptism: Towards Mutual Recognition

One Baptism: Towards Mutual Recognition is an official study text of the Commission on Faith and Order. It is a further development and explication of the insights of Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry. It links questions of Christian initiation with ecclesiology, mutual recognition of baptism, and the basic bonds of Christian unity. The study text also deals with ongoing and more recent issues that prevent mutual recognition of baptism that impede the visible unity of the Church in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship.

Commission on Faith and Order

Preparatory Paper N° 13: Religious plurality and Christian self-understanding

The present document is the result of a study process started in response to strong suggestions made during the 2002 meeting of the WCC Central Committee to the three staff teams on Faith & Order, Interreligious Relations, Mission & Evangelism and their respective commissions or advisory bodies. The question of the theological approach to religious plurality had been on the agenda of the WCC many times, reaching some consensus in 1989 and in 1990. In recent years, it was felt that a new approach to this difficult and controversial issue was needed.

Conference on World Mission and Evangelism

Documento preparatorio No 10: La misión como ministerio de reconciliación

En elpresente documento se hacen reflexiones sobre la misión comoministerio de reconciliación desde un punto de vista ecuménicoy lo distribuye la Comisión de Misión Mundial yEvangelización (CMME) del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias como undocumento de reflexión y estudio en preparación de laconferencia mundial sobre misión que se celebrará enAtenas en mayo de 2005.

Conference on World Mission and Evangelism

Preparatory Paper N° 7: Mission in the 21st Century

The Conference "Mission in the 21st Century. Mission as Evangelism in Tension with Mission as Development", was held from 25 March to 1 April 2004 and was organised by the United Theological College of Zambia (UTCZ).

The purpose of the Conference was to explore and examine the commonalities and tensions between mission as evangelism and mission as development as it has been, and is being, experienced in many of the once politically colonised and the presently economically colonised countries of the south.

The goals were to understand and appreciate the gift of mission as evangelism and the gift of mission as development from a variety of contexts; to identify, and begin to understand and grapple with the complexities of the issues that we face as a world church; to hear from each of the continents, and begin to understand their focus for mission as evangelism, as we discern the relevance of this understanding for our own work and to interact with a wide variety of people and understandings of mission as evangelism.

Conference on World Mission and Evangelism

Preparatory Paper N° 11: The Healing Mission 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.

Conference on World Mission and Evangelism

Preparatory Paper N° 8: Young missiologists' consultation

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).

Conference on World Mission and Evangelism

Preparatory Paper N° 2: Worksheet on social reconciliation

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.

Conference on World Mission and Evangelism

Preparatory Paper N° 4: Statement on mission as reconciliation

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.

Conference on World Mission and Evangelism

A Treasure in Earthen Vessels: An Instrument for an Ecumenical Reflection on Hermeneutics

This text (Faith and Order Paper No. 182) explores the complex but often creative field of hermeneutics - the interpretation of texts, symbols, and rites - and its role in the search for visible church unity. It invites us to reflect on how we approach and evaluate one another's language and symbols, as a contribution to mutual understanding among Christians and churches.

Commission on Faith and Order