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Edinburgh 2010
This project was an ecumenical initiative to reflect on a century of missions, celebrate past achievements and plan for a new mission paradigm.
About the project
Based at New College in Edinburgh, where the famous World Missionary Conference that gave birth to the ecumenical movement was held in 1910, the project aimed to engage with a number of theological and mission related institutions around the world in preparing a series of study materials.
These were generated from nine commissions of study that will look at issues such as mission and power, mission in relation to other faiths, biblical foundations, spirituality, unity and reconciliation.
Edinburgh 2010 brought together representatives of many different strands of mission and church life for a well focussed and well organised process of preparation for the centenary.
Expanding the conference
The celebration of Edinburgh 2010 and the process leading towards it was different from the Edinburgh 1910 Conference and study process by aiming to be truly worldwide in its scope.
Rather than being centred in Edinburgh, a polycentric approach was taken, both for the study process and for 2010 events which took place in many locations around the world including Edinburgh.
In 1910 few if any from Africa or Latin America were involved in the Edinburgh conference, neither were Catholics, Orthodox or Pentecostal Christians invited.
This changed remarkably this time around as more people today profess Christianity in the global south than in the north.
Participants in 2010 were drawn from the whole range of Christian traditions and confessions.
Initiation of learning
The project was not limited to an academic focus. It sought to include non-formal ways of creating action based learning.
Pilot projects were organised and encouraged in select countries that engaged Christians in ecumenical mission in such action reflection processes.
This article was published on Apr 20, 2011