International Association
of Catholic Missiologists
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Recapitulation by John Gorski, MM (IACM President) “Hear what the Spirit says to the Churches” (Cf. Rev. 2, 7)
Sharing
Diversity in Missiological Research and Education: The underlying hypothesis: We start with the hypothesis that missiologists in their research and educational activities experience serious issues related to differences in what may be called “theological language”. The long-term apostolic aspect: Of course the long-term issue relates to praxis of mission, particularly in the areas of interreligious dialogue, dialogue with modern and post-modern secularities, making the Gospel understandable in different cultural areas and situations, the inculturation of the Christian faith among the diverse peoples and the birth of local Churches among them, Churches which express faithfully their Christian identity and apostolic vitality in different cultural “languages”. It is the issue of how to be faithful to the once-and-for-all revelation of God in Jesus Christ and also faithful to how the diverse peoples experience paschal gift of the Spirit (GS 22) in their own histories and contexts and how they express this encounter with God in their own diverse cultural and religious “languages”. The immediate aspect: Intercultural communication among Catholic missiologists: But also in undertaking research and in our educational efforts, we Catholic missiologists experience differences among ourselves in the methodologies and paradigms we employ, in the contents of our teaching, in mental perspectives, our points of emphasis and perhaps zones of silence, etc. Even when we are from the same or similar macro-cultural area (e.g., Western European), we experience differences in our “missiological language”. Even more pronounced are the differences among the new “theological languages” emerging in Africa, Asia and Latin America, differences based not only on the use of different dominant world-languages but also on different cultural mind-sets. It is the issue of how to communicate among ourselves in the world of Catholic and Christian missiology, so that we can enrich each other and challenge each other to a greater fidelity and efficacy. Proposed methodology to explore the issue of diversity in missiological language: We propose not a pretentious and lengthy “World Congress” but rather a “Workshop Encounter” in which the papers read will not be lengthy and in which all can participate interactively. The President has already taken steps to investigate the feasibility of organizing this encounter in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and suggests that a good time of the year would be late September and early October of 2004. The Executive Board accepted this offer and has chosen Cochabamba as the venue for the workshop encounter. The workshop will be followed by the IACM general assembly at the same venue. The two events will last 4 days (September 29 – October 2, 2004). In other words, the Executive Board proposed a study workshop of two full days with an optimum number of 40 participants, distributed thus: Latin America 14 (+1 Executive); Africa 5 (+ 2 Execs.); Asia 5 (+ 1 Exec.); Europe 5 (+ 1 Exec.), North America 5 (+ 1 Exec.). However, since the Workshop and Assembly are open to all IACM members, adjustments may have to be made to accommodate all who wish to attend. Each half-day will have to start with a 30 minute presentation, followed by two others, 15 minutes each from the same continent (1st a.m. Latin America; p.m. Europe and North America: 2nd a.m. Africa and Asia, p.m. students and missionaries, and a session for recapitulation. The presenters will explain how they experience theological diversity in their given context. Through small group work and plenary sessions we shall try to surface and identify the issues for further study. It is expected that this theme can be further explored in the coming Workshop-Encounters (Africa, 2005; Asia-Oceania, 2006; Europe, 2007; North America (Canada), 2008). |
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