Mission leaders from seven European national churches met in Liestal and Basel, Switzerland, for the annual gathering of ECOM, the European Methodist mission commission, to reconsider how mission partnerships work in a world still shaped by colonial history. The programme included two walks through the two cities, intended to open participants' eyes to the ways mission and colonialism have been bound up with one another — both long ago and in living memory.
ECOM is the body in which those responsible for international mission in Europe's Methodist churches meet each year. This year's conversations turned on how money, decisions and voices are shared between European churches and their partners elsewhere. Among the proposals put forward were regular joint consultations that bring representatives of several sister churches and partners together at once, so that everyone listens to everyone; creating the conditions for other people's voices to be heard rather than speaking on their behalf; and letting sister churches and partners define for themselves what financial support from Europe should be used for. Some of these ideas are already practised by member churches; others remain hopes for the future.
The gathering was one of three international meetings involving the Swedish Uniting Church (Equmeniakyrkan) within a fortnight. In the same week the church took part in the annual council and conference of the European Baptist Federation in Durrës, Albania, and this week its representatives join the quadrennial global gathering of the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches (IFFEC) in Nairobi, Kenya. "It means a great deal to be part of larger networks — to seek guidance together, to support one another and to dream new dreams," the church wrote in a reflection on the meetings.
(Originally published in Swedish. Summary translated by CC / Connexion.)
Source: Equmeniakyrkan (Uniting Church of Sweden) — https://equmeniakyrkan.se/vi-gar-tillsammans/
