Moderatorial Moments: Council for World Mission

Good friends in Christ

From Monday 15^th to Friday 19^th November, I am writing to you from Lilongwe, Malawi, where representatives of five churches in southern Africa are meeting:

The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar;

The Churches of Christ in Malawi;

The United Church of Zambia;

The United Congregational Church in Southern Africa

(Nambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique); and

The Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa).

John Vieira, Marcia Tleane and I are representing the UPCSA at the Africa region of the Council for World Mission. The five member denominations were all in some way initiated by the missionary activity of the London Missionary Society (LMS). In 1973, the LMS became the Council for World Mission (CWM) and sought to assist it’s member churches in becoming more mission focussed. In 1994, CWM sold a property in Hong Kong and the organisation’s assets rose by GB£100 million. This “gift of grace” changed the scope of opportunity available to CWM and its 31 member churches.

The African region meeting held this week will receive inputs from the five southern African denominations about the projects each church has undertaken in the last two and a half years. We are hearing stories about these churches’ response to the AIDS pandemic, how they are addressing Africa’s great challenge – poverty. It’s our way of peer review. We use the time to encourage one another and to check that our colleagues are keeping good books and assuring checks and balances. On Wednesday, our hosts (the Churches of Christ in Malawi) took us around to see some of their projects. It is exciting to see Churches doing things well, ministering in difficult circumstances.