|
The Global ChurchA vision for the Global Church explores God’s mission for the world and how that might be said to be unfolding in the 21st century. Several BTI schools have “Centers” that work to explore the nature of the Global Church. BTI schools are joining together to acknowledge the centennial of the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910. For participation and details of programming see: www.2010boston.org. An advance brochure can be found on the website.
1. Academic Centers in the BTI Schools• The Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University School of Theology • The Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary • The Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard Divinity School and University
2. BTI Cooperation Through the International Mission and Ecumenism Faculty CommitteeOne of the continuing and sustaining BTI faculty committees is that of the International Mission and Ecumenism Committee, representative of all of the BTI schools. Students and faculty are always welcome to become engaged with the ongoing work of the IME committee. Examples of their work include the following:
a) Research and Publication Projects such as the following:
b) The Atlas of Global Christianity
c) Annual Workshops in Comparative Christianity These workshops focus on issues facing the global church and have included the following as listed below. Often films, publications or other educational products result from these workshops that are then used in the classes of the BTI schools. For the annual workshop in any given calendar year, consult the "Events" page on this website.
1) The Challenge of Ecumenism • 1991-1992 Protestantism and the Ecumenical Movement (Switzerland)
2) Mission as Reconciliation • 1996-1997 Reconciliation: Roman Catholic and Ecumenical Witness (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) Documentaries on the topic of “Religion and Conflict” have been made by Étoile Productions based on the seminar-workshop experiences of these workshops. They have appeared on various PBS stations and are available for classroom use.
3) Building Cultures of Reconciliation
4) Issues for World Christianity
Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the law and prophets.” Matt 22:37-40 Great Commission: 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 Ecumenical Imperative: 20 “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou has sent me.” John 17:20-21 “It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left behind Him was not a book, not a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community…. He committed the entire work of salvation to that community. It was not that a community gathered around an idea, so that the idea was primary and the community secondary. It was that a community called together by the deliberate choice of the Lord Himself, and re-created in Him, gradually sought – and is seeking – to make explicit who He is and what He has done. The actual community is primary; the understanding of what it is comes second.” Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God, 1954 (Kerr Lectures) |
|
© 2010 The Boston Theological Institute - 197 Herrick Rd. Newton Centre, MA 02459 - (617) 527-4880 |