Introduction

Jet den Hollander

What does a secretary-slave in first century Corinth discover when he visits the citizens' meeting of God? What happens to him as these citizens chant "Maranatha", remember their Lord in bread and wine, translate Paul's admonitions into solidarity and protest action, and struggle with what it means to live and die with Christ in the complexity of a cosmopolitan, bustling harbour town in the Roman empire?

In his classic story, "Conflict in Corinth", which appears here in abridged form, Walter Hollenweger takes us back to our roots. Notwithstanding a distance of 20 centuries, the scenes look strangely familiar: quarrels over the interpretation of the text; differences of class, race and gender; clashes of culture, temperament and musical taste. But there is also the search for identity, the need for community, the longing for a world that is radically different from the present. And then there is the Spirit who has empowered a diverse group of believers to become "body of Christ" in Corinth.

What does "Conflict in Corinth" say about mission in unity? Like all good narrative, the story is open to many interpretations, and questions and answers depend on the reader as much as the writer. But two things may be noted. On the one hand, Chloe the ex-prostitute and Gaius the city administrator find each other in their common commitment to solidarity action. Mission engagement generates (comm)unity, though at times the opposite happens too. On the other hand, (comm)unity is required if the body is to function optimally, for how - Paul reminds the believers - can any member of the body carry out its mission if it is not integrally connected to the others.

Revisiting eschatology

As Bert Hoedemaker reminds us, however, mission and unity are not innocent words. In his contribution to this issue, he reviews the ecumenical learning process of the twentieth century in order to trace its effect on our contemporary understanding of mission and unity and the relationship between them. Given the present impasse in which much ecumenical and missiological thinking and practice finds itself, Hoedemaker suggests a thorough rethinking of the mission-unity connection in the context of postmodernism, pluralism and globalization, in which revisiting eschatology is crucial.

This kind of rethinking is going on at present all over the world. In certain contexts it is intensified under the acute pressure of crisis. Thus André Karamaga reflects on Rwanda after the genocide and the subsequent violence, and how step by step the churches there develop new insights into what the new missional challenges are and how these can be approached cross-denominationally. Likewise, old divisions in Indonesia have become so explosive that Karel Phil Erari believes that a new understanding of unity - between Reformed churches, yes, but also between Reformed and Lutherans, Protestants and Catholics, and Christians and Muslims - is urgently needed if there is to be peace.

More gradual processes of profound change also demand a reinterpretation of the old key concepts of the Christian faith. In her article, Claudia Währisch-Oblau describes elements of the exciting adventure she is involved with in the Rhineland. Prompted by the changing demography of Germany, the old-established Landeskirchen (territorial churches) and the newer immigrant churches are beginning to see themselves, one another, and their context and mission with new eyes. A whole range of missiological questions is involved: why mainline churches often seem more interested in the "other" who is far away than in the "other" who is living on their doorstep; lingering colonial perspectives and attitudes; and whether established churches are interested only in developing bilateral relations with individual immigrant churches, or whether they will be ready to become one of the many partners in a multilateral framework where all the churches, immigrant and established, relate on an equal basis. In Germany, as in Rwanda and Indonesia, new frontiers are being crossed with regard to "who do I consider as my partner in mission and whose partner do I need to be".

What is important is that the rethinking required should not occur in a vacuum, but in the context of doing things together, where reflection and action inform each other in a continuous process of reinvention.

The Mission in Unity Project 1999-2002

It is in the context of this worldwide search for new expressions of mission in unity that the World Alliance of Reformed Churches has joined with the John Knox International Reformed Centre to set up the Mission in Unity Project 1999-2002. The project is meant to be a catalyst, a helping hand for those churches and communities which believe that "life in its fullness for all" requires a thorough rethinking of mission, a new practice of mission, and an urgent attack on all that keeps our myriad divisions alive.¹ Years of research have made clear that in the Reformed family disunity is particularly prominent, and that some specific Reformed features, when overemphasized, can easily contribute to further splits.²

One of the current MIU programmes is an inquiry with Reformed theologians and theological colleges worldwide into which aspects of Reformed ecclesiologies and missiologies (for there are many - "semper reformanda"!) have been found to be helpful or to be a hindrance in maintaining the unity of the church in particular contexts. Other MIU programmes aim to assist groups of Reformed churches - in Bolivia, Korea, the Netherlands, Southern Africa, Uganda and the USA, for example - to develop new models of working together in mission. Included in this issue is the "Common Statement of the Southern Africa Association of Reformed Churches" which resulted from SAARC's recent consultation on mission in unity. Increasingly we realize that our search for mission in unity as Reformed churches is an integral part of a larger process, which has as its horizon the unity of all humankind, the oikoumene reconciled in God.

The story from Corinth takes us - in more ways than one - back to our roots, and may provide us with new inspiration to be body of Christ in the place where we are, united in mission. It is not only our past, however, but also the beckoning perspective of the future we envisage - the new world already inaugurated in Christ - that inspires us to search for new expressions of mission in unity. If we really expect a world where all will live and work in true interdependence, in "reconciled diversity", then we cannot but begin to practise that future today. The Mission in Unity Project hopes, in modest ways, to stimulate such practising of God's future today.³

You are warmly invited to respond to the articles in this part of our site, thus contributing to the ongoing exploration of these issues.

Jet den Hollander of the Uniting Protestant Churches in the Netherlands is the executive secretary of the Mission in Unity Project 1999-2005.

Notes