This month it is a great pleasure for me to play a part in hosting Michael Biehl and Marina Ngursangzeli Behera who are spending three weeks at Zomba Theological University. One high point of their stay was the opportunity to launch our co-authored book, Hope in Times of Crisis: Reimagining Ecumenical Mission. We are especially keen that it should get into circulation in the Global South so we could not miss the opportunity to present it in Zomba.
Our final paragraph gives a flavour of what the book aims to offer:
“Such is the depth of our contemporary crisis that we hesitate to suggest that it can be understood as an opportunity. The clouds above us are too dark and threatening, and the storms already too devastating in many contexts, to allow for any glib confidence that a positive outcome is on the horizon.
Where we believe that the times of crisis do present an opportunity, however, is in regard to the retrieval and deployment of the ecumenical mission tradition. This, we hope, might be the distinctive contribution of this book.
We have attempted to review this particular stream of thinking and action in a spirit of metanoia (repentance), recognizing that churches and missions have often been part of the problem. Yet we find that the unprecedented collaboration in the interests of Christian witness that developed during the twentieth century includes strands that hold enduring value and contemporary relevance.
And we have been inspired by elements of renewal in thinking about mission—cherishing of life, environmental responsibility, action for justice, deepening of spirituality. Taken together, we propose that these open up a fresh vision of human identity and vocation that can be a vital resource in meeting the crisis of our times in hope.”
Thinking Mission Blog 