Some of the 500 official participants to the World Council of Churches (WCC) Urban Rural Mission programme (URM) have been selected to gather in Accra, Ghana, for a weeklong mission event beginning May 1. Through the event, the participants will gain a holistic vision of mission in preparation for the 2005 Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME).
The participants, who represent grassroots mission networks, indigenous and other marginalized groups, will mostly share time together in Bible study and dialogue. They will also visit local communities at the conference’s start, so that the participants will gain greater understanding of contemporary missiological challenges in the region prior to the 2005 CWME.
The upcoming CWME conference has seven main objectives, according to the WCC: to enthuse participants with new vision, energy, tools and skills to bring the holistic mission imperative alive again; to enable the conference to be a living community of reconciliation and healing; to experience healing and reconciliation that leads to the transformation of persons; to offer safe/sacred spaces where reflections, theories and stories can be heard, and dialogue take place; to strive to be a sign of reconciliation and healing among the churches; to celebrate our unity in Christ and our God-given diversity; to enable participants to commit themselves to be agents/multipliers of reconciliation and healing in their own churches, communities and contexts.
Some 50% of the 500 participants will be selected from among names submitted by WCC member churches. Another 25% will be selected from names submitted by the CWME conference. The rest of the participants will come from the Roman Catholic Church, Pentecostal and evangelical churches and mission bodies.
