International Association of Catholic Missiologists

 

The following themes were delineated during the plenary session on group discussions:

1. Dialogue
2. The Contextualization of the local church
3. Interculturality
4. Globalization
5. Inculturation in the local churches
6. Gender issues & evangelization
7. Accompanying emergent theologies
8. Inculturation in time of globalization
9. Evangelization in big cities
10. Mission in conflict situations
11. Theological missionary formation
12. Mission ad gentes in European context
13. Mission and new areopagus
14. Mission and human mobility\migration
15. The need for inter-cultural missionary spirituality
16. Toward one vision of salvation history of creation
17. A missionary language for dialogue with the sciences
18. Christian image
19. The human being in his situation
20. Mission frontiers
21. A clear meeting criteria for inculturation
22. Popular religiosity: benefits & dangers
23. Priority of human experience of God
24. Healing and reconciliation
25. Prayer and healing – cure – caring
26. Ecumenism & macro ecumenical dialogue

The Assembly summarized the above themes and identified the following as the three Core Elements that should be prioritized in the future: 

I.    In the midst of the challenges of the globalized world we are called to rethink missiology in terms of: the growing urban centers, situations of conflict, de-Christianized groups, secularism, migration, stigmatization of a particular group. 

II.   To rethink missiology as we confront the urgent needs of the Indigenous peoples who have been denied (among them; women, Africans, Afro-Americans, Indo-Americans, etc.) as well as the human diversity: new protagonists, new languages, new areópagus, popular religiosity, gender, etc. 

III. To determine what Church we want to be and to build: inculturated, local, without frontiers, in ecumenical and macro-ecumenical dialogue with other religions and with science, and enlarge “mission ad gentes”.