To whom does the church belong? What is church even for?
These are the bigger questions underlying the caution
voiced by progressive Episcopal organizations as the 20/20
movement gathers steam leading to General Convention 2003.
Church growth—doubling the average attendance in
the Episcopal Church by 2020—for its own sake cannot
be enough if the first questions are not answered. So
I am delighted that the Urban Caucus will be focusing
on 20/20 and questions related to mission at its national
assembly early next year.
The first thing to know about 20/20
is that it is a movement in evolution. Whatever impressions
formed two years ago may not be on target today as the
circle of people participating has widened.
What is 20/20 today? It is the
reorientation and re-engagement of the Episcopal Church
on all levels for mission in the 21st century. Our prayer
book says the mission of the church is “to restore
all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”
Another way to say that is that we the church are called
to transform the world to the Reign of God, the beloved
community—knowing of course, that we are not messiahs
but workers, “profetas de un futuro que no es
nuestro,” as Oscar Romero tells us.
What 20/20 asks of every congregation
and institution in the church is—how, in this time,
in this multicultural, multifaith and diverse world, can
we proclaim the Gospel of Christ Jesus that has set our
own hearts on fire? How can we enact Christ’s beloved
community in our neighborhoods and cities and throughout
our terribly broken and warring planet?
There is no single answer to these
questions. But we are convinced that evangelism and social
concern must be matched together; they are two sides of
the same coin of outward-focused mission. So, to name
a tiny example, we are proposing that any national matching
funds raised for new churches must support infrastructure
or programs that can serve the wider community in some
way as well as the new congregation.
Another conviction is the sense that
we should each be prepared to share our own faith story
and how it connects with how we live our lives, as a key
part of discipleship.
Another common conviction in 20/20,
shared across political lines, is that all congregations
and institutions will need to address the following major
shifts of the 21st century:
* Our world is now radically multicultural.
* We are surrounded by a large portion of
two generations that has been raised outside the Church,
outside any religious tradition. We are calling for greater
investment in college ministry and youth programs in all
provinces of the Church, and also for inter-cultural internship
programs for youth that can help form vocation for all
kinds of mission.
Finally, I assert that
there is a major place at the table for peace and justice
concerns in thinking about 20/20. If the point is to focus
outward on all levels, how can we fail to see the inequities
and alienations of the world that continue to deepen?
Even those of us who carry privilege with us face the
social dislocations of a transient and demanding world
that bases success on things that do not ultimately matter.
Part of proclaiming the Gospel is to act in our communities
and the world to restore and to heal and also to advocate
for that beloved community when we shall all be free at
last. One of our hopes for 20/20 is that—not underestimating
the degree of difference and debate in the Episcopal Church
today—we might teach each other across some of the
lines of division about how to bring all these pieces
of mission together.
This is a summary. The full text of Sarah
Lawton’s thoughtful article is available online
at www.episcopalurbancaucus.org
