05 August 2011

Mission must seek to ‘heal hurts of world’

The Church of Ireland Gazette in its current edition [5 August 2011] publishes this photograph and half-page news report on Page 5:

Canon Patrick Comerford (extreme right) is pictured at the Affirming Catholicism conference with (from left) Canon Charlotte Methuen, Keble College, Oxford, and Ripon College, Cuddesdon; the author, Janet Morley; and Bishop William Mchombo of Eastern Zambia.

Mission must ‘seek to heal hurts of world’ –
C.ofI. theologian tells London conference


Mission cannot be reduced to personal evangelism and one-to-one encounters and has no purpose “unless we have an understanding of what Good News is and have a vision of what the Kingdom may be like,” Canon Patrick Comerford, lecturer in Anglicanism and Liturgy at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, Dublin, told the recent annual conference of Affirming Catholicism held in St Matthew’s, Westminster, London.

He continued: “If the Church is to have an integrated approach to proclamation, then it must be in both Word and Sacrament; it must provide example in discipleship; it must seek not only to invite people to be Christians but also to invite them into the Church; and it must have a vision of the Church as a foretaste of the Kingdom.”

Canon Comerford told the conference that, in its mission, the Church must “seek to heal the hurts of the world and to reconcile its brokenness.”

A member of various USPG boards, he went on to say a major portion of the mission agency’s financial resources was devoted to health care and educational projects because it was a “part of Christian responsibility to share our resources.”

Referring to the fourth and fifth points of mission as defined by the Anglican Communion, Canon Comerford told conference delegates that people who “seek to transform unjust structures of society” and who “strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth” need to be affirmed “as engaging in mission, as missionaries.”

Affirming Catholicism is a movement existing in almost every English diocese – with provincial groups in Scotland, Wales and Ireland – which seeks to bring together and strengthen lay and ordained people who recognise the positive and inclusive elements in the Catholic tradition of Christianity.

The website says that the organisation is “working to make the Catholic element within Anglicanism a positive force for the Gospel and a model for effective mission today.”

Its president is the Rt Revd Michael Perham, Bishop of Gloucester.

7 August 2011:

The August 2011 edition of the
Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough carries the same photograph and the following report on page 10:


Mission must ‘seek to heal hurts of world’
Irish theologian tells London conference


Mission cannot be reduced to personal evangelism and one-to-one encounters and has no purpose “unless we have an understanding of what Good News is and have a vision of what the Kingdom may be like,” Canon Patrick Comerford told the annual conference of Affirming Catholicism in London.

Speaking about prayer, mission and the work of USPG – Anglicans in World Mission, Canon Comerford said: “If the Church is to have an integrated approach to Proclamation, then it must be in both Word and Sacrament; it must provide example in Discipleship; it must seek not only to invite people to be Christians but to invite them into the Church too; and it must have a vision of the Church as a foretaste of the Kingdom.”

He told the conference in Saint Matthew’s, Westminster, that in its mission the Church must “seek to heal the hurts of the world and to reconcile its brokenness. As Christians we are called to share our relationships in the mission of God to the wider world, bearing witness to the kingdom of love, justice and joy that Jesus inaugurated.”

Canon Comerford, who is a member of the boards of USPG Ireland and USPG Northern Ireland and of the council of USPG, said a major portion of USPG’s financial resources are devoted to health care and educational projects, “not because we are a charitable giver in some way that makes us an Anglican Oxfam or an Affirming Catholicism version of Christian Aid,” but because it is a “part of Christian responsibility to share our resources,” and because this “is an expression of the priorities of Christ and the priorities of the Church.”

Turning to the fourth and fifth points of mission defined by the Anglican Communion, he said that people who “seek to transform unjust structures of society” and who “strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth” need to be affirmed “as engaging in mission, as missionaries.”

Canon Comerford’s paper was entitled “Prayer, mission and building the kingdom: the work of USPG.” The conference – ‘Thy Kingdom Come! Prayer and Mission in the building of The Kingdom’ – was also addressed by Bishop Musonda Trevor Mwamba of Botswana; Janet Morley, author of All Desires Known and Bread of Tomorrow; and Bishop William Mchombo of Eastern Zambia.

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