Bishop Nazir Ali addresses Global Mission
The retired Bishop of Rochester (Church of England), speaking at The Falls Church on Oct. 10, described evangelism in both individual and communal terms.
The Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali said his understanding of evangelism is “in opposition to” that of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, noting that at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in July, Bishop Jefferts Schori referred to the notion of individual salvation as a “great Western heresy.”
“The spiritual journey, at least in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is about holy living in community,” she wrote in a subsequent column for Episcopal Life. “When Jesus was asked to summarize the Torah, he said, ‘love God and love your neighbor as yourself.’ That means our task is to be in relationship with God and with our neighbors. If salvation is understood only as ‘getting right with God’ without considering ‘getting right with (all) our neighbors,’ then we’ve got a heresy (an unorthodox belief) on our hands.”
Bishop Nazir-Ali called personal evangelism essential. Although communities are important and Christians are to serve one another, people respond to the gospel on an individual basis, he said.
Asked whether divisions within the Church create a problem for evangelism, Bishop Nazir-Ali said he lamented fragmentation in the Anglican Communion, and that he is only an Anglican because “through [Anglicanism] … I came to the faith of the Apostles.”
If Anglicanism ever became an unsuitable vessel for the Christian faith, he said, some fundamental issues would need to be resolved. “I don’t know at this time where the story will end,” he said.
Bishop Nazir-Ali was appointed to the Diocese of Rochester in 1994. When he announced his resignation in late March, Bishop Nazir-Ali said that he intended to help persecuted Christians.
In an address on “Global Christian Mission Today: Threats and Possibilities,” Bishop Nazir-Ali discussed the history of, foundations of, and implications for Christian mission.
The bishop said the scattering of Christians from one location, which occurred sporadically, provided three positive mission results in the early centuries of the Church. First, it led Christians to evangelize intensely in their local area and relatively nearby areas. Second, Christians of the East (in particular) communicated the gospel in ways accessible to Muslims. Finally, Christians served as an embodied “presence” of the Christian faith to the pagans around them.
After the Reformation, Protestants developed a new vision of humanity that led not only to evangelism, but also to social action. This vision saw human beings as created in the image of God, truly human only in the light of Christ (because Christ is the perfect image of God) and transformed by the Holy Spirit. This vision of a new humanity provides a critical foundation of Christian mission. Because all human beings are made in God’s image, what we believe about God is universal.
“That’s the starting point of Christian mission,” Bishop Nazir-Ali said. “And since they are made in the image of God, human beings can respond to God, given the light of Christ providing them illumination and the Holy Spirit convicting them of their need for God.”
The bishop then offered a cautionary word. “Almost any innovation these days is justified by the Holy Spirit,” he said, adding that Scripture is specific about the Holy Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus, reminds us of what Jesus said and brings to mind how God has revealed himself to us.
Christian mission, the bishop said, involves presence, engagement, dialogue and prophetic words. He added that the gospel must be communicated in a way that makes sense to those who hear it.
Ralph Webb
If you have stumbled onto this blog please do take a few moments to read the following piece:- Echoes of God
Tags: Christian Life