How NOT to do mission

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I came across this textbook example about how not to do mission on the Elizaphanian blog recently. If you want to see a compendium of missiological errors, it’s almost all here — arrogance, condescension, cultural insensitivity and rank injustice.

What saddened me especially was that this particular example, the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, claims to be linked with the Orthodox Church.

The SSG Trust is apparently buying redundant churches in Britain and turning them into Orthodox Churches. But this has apparently caused problems for some Orthodox congregations, as reported by the OrthodoxWiki site:

St Osmund’s Church in Poole, acquired by the SSG in 2005, became mired in controversy in August 2007, when the Orthodox congregation there, led by Fr Chrysostom MacDonnell, walked out of the Church and decamped over to St Edmund Campion Roman Catholic Church in Bournemouth. Fr MacDonnell stated “We parted company with Mr Brewer and his organisation, as we found that the way in which they operated was contrary to our deanery statutes regarding the control of parishes.”

Even worse, however, was their takeover of the SPCK bookshops in England, and then attempting to foist employment contracts on the staff that would have made Mr Gradgrind look like a saint. Many of the staff were fired, and the bookshops were allowed to run down and many of them were closed.

British bloggers started to comment on the situation, and the head honcho of the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust, J. Mark Brewer of Texas, in a fine display of imperialist arrogance, started issuing threatening “cease and desist” notices against them — including Elizaphanian.

One Anglican commentator put the situation in a nutshell:

What I am surprised about is that the powers that be apparently can’t see that the approach taken is counterproductive. As a missionary organisation, what they do represents Orthodoxy to those they encounter and they’re making the Orthodox look like a bunch of fundamentalist – in the modern sense of the word – control freaks. It’s undermining the work they do restoring redundant churches to (Orthodox) worship too, I’ll bet. If I was a Bishop with jurisdiction over them, I’d be inclined to have a quiet word involving urgent courses in the pastoral care of staff and effective management of publicity. Using a big stick if necessary.

To avoid doing any further damage to the good name of the Orthodox Church, Orthodox mission, and the Orthodox Christian faith, I suggest that J. Mark Brewer cease and desist from claiming any connection with them, as well as from his immoral and illegal employment practices.

PS

For more informatrion on the legal aspect of this, see Ministry of Truth.

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Filed under Christianity, Christianity and culture, Orthodoxy, religion

Tags: British Christianity, Christian bookshops, missiology, mission methods, Orthodoxy, SPCK