Edinburgh 2010,Ecumenism,and a Contemporary Challenge to the Roman Catholic Mission Movement

Abstract

The Edinburgh 2010 centennial celebrations offer an opportunity to all churches to urgently review the many implications of ‘mission’ as a ‘theological note of church’ over the past one hundred years. Given that the World Council of Churches indirectly owes its origins and inspiration to ‘Edinburgh 1910’ (and the WCC retains ‘mission’ as a core ecclesial value), it is incumbent on all Christian churches to reflect seriously on the implications of their joint service of the one missio Dei. The Roman Catholic Church, not present at Edinburgh 1910, is now a player in the centennial conference and has much to bring to the table as well as to receive from it. The Irish missionary movement has often been seen as irrelevant to the daily workings of the Catholic Church in Ireland and being merely representative of it: the reciprocity of the mission movement in all its dimensions now becomes one of many important theological questions that need to be addressed.