Episcopal Press and News
Consultation Says Partnership Is Key to Mideast Mission
Episcopal News Service. November 8, 1991 [91222M]
A consultation was held in Limassol, Cyprus, to inform Western evangelicals about the challenges facing Christian presence and witness in the Middle East in the light of the region's political, social, and economic realities. Over 130 people from the Mideast, the United States, Canada, and Europe attended the gathering, jointly sponsored by the Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding and the Middle East Council of Churches, from September 28 to October 4. Carlos Sintado, representing the World Council of Churches, underscored the consultation's recurrent theme when he said that churches from outside the area could best realize their mission by striving for closer cooperation with the region's local churches. "The consultation, involvement, and full participation of the local churches...is the key for mission," Sintado said.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.
This is a new council. We have begun a new life together, and God is with us. I am delighted that we meet today on All Saints' Day, and grateful for the "newness," the joy, and the wonder of our life in Christ.
I would like to close with the words of a woman in a religious order on the holy island of Iona, Sister Dorothy Stella. She said:
A vision without a task is a dream. A task without a vision is drudgery. When we have a vision and a task -- it is the hope of the world.
My friends, I think this says something about what it means to be one of the saints of God. We have a vision -- a very clear and challenging vision. We have a task, a very large task. And we -- members of one fellowship in the mystical body of Christ the Lord -- are the hope of the world. Let us be about God's plans for us.