The Scottish Episcopal Church takes the call to share in the Mission of God seriously and has over many years engaged with a wide range of mission initiatives, the most recent of which is Journey of the Baptised (JotB) and Mission 21 (M21).
Journey of the Baptised
Journey of the Baptised is the Provincial Mission policy agreed by General Synod in 2003 and is based on the premise that all the baptised are called through their baptism to share in Christ's ministry and to respond to God's call to reach out.
Mission 21
Mission 21, which is woven through JotB, and which was influential in the development of that policy, began in 1996 when the former Primus Richard Holloway invited Canon Alice Mann, from the Alban Institute in the USA, to lead a series of Provincial think-tanks and seminars on the future of mission in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Mission 21 (mission for the 21st century) grew out of these meetings. Mission 21 was the name given to a raft of resources, programmes and people used to revitalise congregations and individuals in their approach to mission. Over a number of years a large group of facilitators have been trained to deliver a variety of mission based programmes building upon the M21 Foundation Phase 'Making Your Church More Inviting' (MYCMI).
MYCMI, which is still used today either in whole or part, encourages congregations to look at themselves from the perspective of someone coming in new to the congregation.
Congregations have been challenged to ask many questions including:
- Are you really a welcoming church?
- Are there things in your congregation's history that needed to be addressed before you can move on?
- How good is your outreach to the young, the elderly, those with families, those living alone etc?
Congregations have then been further challenged to ask what it is they needed to do or change or become in order to better reach out to all God's people in the bit of God's Kingdom they are in.
Goals are set and worked upon over the ensuing years; with facilitators returning periodically to help the congregation assess how well they are doing and what they need to review further. This review process led to the development of Continuing Congregational Development (CCD).
Continuing Congregational Development
CCD is not a single programme or interaction, but a process that tailors resources and people to the needs of a congregation as it tries to discern its vocation to mission and ministry. It draws widely upon the skills of its companions (facilitators) to match resources, activities and exercises to these discerned needs.
The companions and facilitators are supported in every diocese by a Diocesan Co-ordinator or Mission Advisor. (Please contact your local Diocesan Office for details.) The Mission Advisor is also available to work alongside individual clergy, congregations, or dioceses as they explore what mission means for them.
