Orthodox Mission

You are at » Mission » Orthodox Mission

Register · Login

18.05.2012 Web Site Search

Orthodox Churches in Mission a long history of cross-cultural mission
THE LITURGY AFTER THE LITURGY 2000 years of Orthodox Mission Despite the fact that most Orthodox churches have a rich history of mission activity, this subject is rarely mentioned in mission schools in the West. In fact, even the Orthodox themselves sometimes deny the fact that they are "into mission" - in places like the Middle East or Eastern Europe the word 'mission' has a strong association with recent attempts to evangelise locals by Western (and increasingly Korean) Christian groups. But not all Orthodox mission has happened in the past only - with the newly-found freedom the Orthodox churches in Russia and Eastern Europe are engaging once again with what the mission of the church should be. Cross-cultural Orthodox mission happens from Russia to Albania (see report below), from USA to Mexico and from Greece and Cyprus to Central Africa and Madagascar - and it is exciting! There is a real effort to re-discover the ethos and fervour of Orthodox mission in North America by learning about the Orthodox mission to Alaska by Russian missionaries in the 19th century. And there is a remarkable growth of indigenous Orthodox churches in non-Western world, in places like Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia. Faith2Share is committed to partner ecumenically and we are privileged to work alongside, encourage and learn from our Orthodox brothers and sisters in countries like Armenia, Bulgaria, Albania, USA, Russia, Finland and many others. RUSSIAN ORTHODOX MISSION TO ALBANIA reporting on an Orthodox mission trip from Russia to Albania in 2011 "From 29 May till 10 June 2011 we, a group of students from St Tikhon's University were in Albania on a mission trip together with American students from St Vladimir's Seminary, Holy Cross Seminary and St Tikhon's Seminary. The openness of Albanian Orthodox community, meeting lots of people and constant interacting with Albanian youth and OCMC missionaries made our stay in Albania an incredibly joyous and important life experience. I am sure that all people from my group would feel the same way. Our days were full of activities - meeting Archbishop Anastasios, listening to missionaries as they were sharing with us their knowledge and were always ready to answer any of our questions, a number of meetings with young people from Albania, Bible studies, visiting schools and social projects, spending a day on a beach with orphaned children from the House of Hope in Durrës, all-night vigil in a monastery in Elbasan, a 20-km trek in the mountains with Metropolitan John, traditional Albanian dancing in our last evening… Albania welcomed us in such a special way that we felt sadness that we had to go back to Russia so quickly, especially as we knew we were going to miss Fr Luke Veronis who organised this trip and his tireless spirit and wonderful sense of humour. "What has made our trip a real gift and blessing from God was an opportunity to see Albania during the time of revival of Orthodox faith, to feel for ourselves unique Albanian openness, to learn so much new about mission and find out from our own experience that mission is possible. We were touched by what one of the Albanian girls wrote in her farewell card: ".. and to know you all and all the others from your group, was a special gift and a great blessing from God!" ORTHODOX MISSION DOCUMENTS Here are a few useful documents about Orthodox mission Repot on the meeting of the Orthodox Mission Network in Helsinki, October 2011 (meeting sponsored by Faith2Share) Concept of missionary activity in the Russian Orthodox Church (in Russian) Concept of missionary activity in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (in English) Mission Handbook (Orthodox Church in America) Everything in Love (by Fr Luke Veronis) Missionaries, Monks and Martyrs (by Fr Luke Veronis) Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa (by Fr S Hayes) Orthodoxy in Indonesia (interview with Fr Daniel Byantoro) Orthodox Mission Method Bibiliography	Some links to current orthodox church mission In English Orthodox Christian Information Centre Orthodox Christian Mission Centre Orthodox Research Institute Malankara Church, missiological pages Orthodox Mission in the 21st Century by Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) In Russian Orthodox Missionary page Missionary Department of Moscow Patriarchate Mission in the Russian Orthodox Church In Bulgarian Orthodox Faith page In Spanish Orthodox mission in Chile
A BIBLOGRAPHY OF ORTHODOX MISSION Anon ‘”Salvation in Orthodox Theology” report of a consultation in Greece 1972’ in Orthodox Contributions to Nairobi WCC: Geneva 1975 Anon, ‘"Thy Will be Done": Mission in Christ's Way for Orthodoxy Today', in Sourozh, 38 (Nov 89), p35 Anon, ‘The Orthodox Church in Chile', in Sourozh, 12 (May 83), p49 Anon, ‘Birth of an Orthodox Church in Ghana', in Sourozh, 16 (May 84), p48 Argenti, C., Unité et Mission, Syndesmos, 1982 (French) Arletti, G., ‘A Short Outline of Orthodoxy in Italy', in Sourozh, 44 (Jun 91), p47 Aslanadis, D., Apostle to Zaire: The life and legacy of Blessed Father Cosmos of Grigoriou, Uncut Mountain Press, Thessalonica, 2001 Baxter, A., ‘The Orthodox Community in Ghana, West Africa', in Sourozh, 78 (Dec 99), p43 Bayego, N., ‘Father Kyrillos Pasha Kasule of Uganda, Man of God', in Sourozh, 45 (Aug 91), p41 Bria, I. Go forth in peace: Orthodox perspectives on mission WCC: Geneva 1989 Bria, I. ‘The Church’s role in evangelism: icon or platform’ in International Review of Mission Vol. 64 1975 pp243-250 Bria, I. ‘Reflections on mission theology and methodology’ in International Review of Mission Vol. 73 no. 289 1984 pp66-72 Bria, I. ‘Mission and secularisation in Europe’ in International Review of Mission Vol. 77 no. 305 1988 pp117-130 Bria, I. & Vasileiadis, P. Orthodox Christian Martyria Tertios: Katerini 1989 Bria, I. ‘Renewal in Mission’ in International Review of Mission Vol. 80 no. 317 1991 pp55-59 Federov, V. ‘Orthodox Mission Today’ in Together in Mission CMS: London 2001 Forest, J. Resurrection of the Church in Albania: Voices of Orthodox Christians WCC: Geneva 2002 Forest, J., ‘Albanian resurrection’, in Sourozh, 85 (Aug 01) 39 Frank, C., Orthodoxy in South Africa: A Missed Opportunity?', in Sourozh, 36 (May 89), p17 Fueter, P. ‘Confessing Christ through Liturgy: an Orthodox challenge to Protestants’ in Lutheran World Vol. 23 no. 3 1976 pp180-86 Garrett, PD. St. Innocent: Apostle to America St. Vladimir’s Press: Crestwood, NY Gillquist, P., Becoming Orthodox, Conciliar Press, Ben Lomand, 1992 (2nd Ed.) Gorodetsky, N., ‘The Missionary Expansion of the Russian Orthodox Church', in Sourozh, 32 (May 88), p22 Graves, M., ‘Report on the Orthodox Church in the Caribbean Islands', in Sourozh, 37 (Aug 89), p34 Hayes, S., ‘Orthodox Mission in Tropical Africa', in Sourozh, 65 (Aug 96), p30 Headley, S., ’Report on the Javanese Orthodox Church' (Part 1), in Sourozh, p43 (Feb 91), 5 Headley, S., ‘Report on the Javanese Orthodox Church' (Part 2) in Sourozh, p44 (May 91), 27 Hilborn, D. (Ed.) Orthodoxy and Evangelicals EA: London 2002 Hoppe, L., Resurrection: The Orthodox Autocephalous church of Albania 1991-2003, Ngjallja Press, Tirana, 2004 Iasi, Daniel of, Confessing the truth in love: Orthodox perceptions of life, mission and unity. Trinitas, 2001 Ioann, Bshp. ‘Ecclesiological and Canonical foundations of mission’ in Together in Mission CMS: London 2001 pp53-59 Khodre, G. Church and Mission, Syndesmos, 1961 Kinnamon, M. (Ed.) ‘The report of the Orthodox-Evangelical consultation in Stuttgart (Feb 1993)’ in International Review of Mission Vol. 83 no. 331 1994 pp631-34 Koumbarelis, M., Mission: Nature and current challenges, Syndesmos, 2001 Lemopoulos, G. Your will be done: Orthodoxy in mission WCC: Geneva 1989 Liacopulos, GP. Lights of the Modern World: Orthodox Christian Mission and Evangelism in the United States Light and Life: Minneapolis 2000 Lossky, N., ‘The Urgency of Proclaiming the Gospel: Witnessing or Proselytising', in Sourozh, 61 (Aug 95), p19 McNeill, J. Western Saints in Holy Russia Mandate Press:Pasadena 2002 Mar Chrysostom, P. Mission in the Market Place Christava Sahitya Samithy: Tiruvalla 2002 Meyendorff, J. ‘Christ as Word: Gospel and Culture’ in International Review of Mission Vol. 74 no. 294 1985 pp32-43 Meyendorff, J., Mission, Unity & Diaspora, Syndesmos, 1995 Mousalimas, S., ‘Russian Orthodox Missionaries and Southern Alaskan Shamans: Two Examples of Fruitful Interaction', in Sourozh, 30 (Nov 87), p10 Nassif, B. (Ed.), Three views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 2004 Nikolaj, Archbshp., ‘Analytical Report on the Religious Situation in Eastern Slovakia', in Sourozh, 45 (Aug 91), p17 Oleksa, M. Orthodox Alaska St. Vladimir’s Press: Crestwood, NY Oleksa, M. Alaskan Missionary Spirituality Paulist Press: New York Oleksa, M., ‘Native Alaskan Resistance to Assimilation', in Sourozh, 47 (Feb 92), p4 Papathanasiou, AN., Is mission a consequence of the Catholicity of the church? Syndesmos, 2000 Papathanasiou, A.N., Future, the background of History: Essays on Church mission in an age of globalization Alexander Press, Montreal, 2005 Papathomas, Internal Orthodox Church Mission, Syndesmos, 1999 Purmonen, V., Orthodoxy in Finland: An Historical Introduction', in Sourozh, 19 (Feb 85), p44 Remortel, M. van, Saint Nikolai Kasatkin and the Orthodox Mission in Japan, Divine Ascent Press, Point Reyes Station CA, 2003 Ritsi, M., A Mission without a Missionary, OCMC, Florida, 2001 Robertson, R. The Eastern Christian Churches Orientalia Christiana: Rome 1999 Schemann, A., The Mission of Orthodoxy, Conciliar Press, Ben Lomand CA Schemann, A., Church, World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, 1979 Spiller, V. ‘Missionary aims and the Orthodox Church’ in International Review of Mission 1963 pp195-205 Stamoolis, JJ. ‘The imperative of mission in Orthodox theology’ in Orthodoxy Vol. 33 no 1. Spring 1988 pp63-80 Syndesmos, Work of Mission: 1953 statement, 1953 Tachiaos, A-E N. Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica: The Acculturation of the Slavs St. Vladimir’s Press: Crestwood, NY 2001 Tillyrides, M., Adventures in the Unseen: The Silent Witness, Orthodox Research Institute, Rollinsford, 2004 Yannoulatos, A. Facing the World: Orthodox Christian Essays on Global Concerns St. Vladimir’s Press: Crestwood 2003 Vassiliadis, P., Eucharist and Witness: Orthodox perspectives on the Unity and Mission of the Church, WCC/Holy Cross, Geneva, 1998 Vassiliadis, P., ‘Towards Eucharistic understanding of mission – Russia facing evangelicals’, (Year?) Veronis, L. Missionaries, Monks, and Martyrs: Making Disciples of All Nations Light and Life: Minneapolis 1994 Veronis, L., Now is the time! Missionary Challenges and Opportunities for the next century, OCMC Magazine, 2000 Veronis, L., The Biblical Foundations of Mission, OICS, Cambridge, 2005 Ware, T. Orthodoxy Penguin: London Ware, T. The Orthodox Way Penguin: London Ware, T., Orthodox Mission, Syndesmos, 1983 Yannoulatos, A., The Missionary activity of the Orthodox Church, Syndesmos, 1964 Yannoulatos, A., ‘The Purpose and Motive of Mission’, in IRM, 1965 Yannoulatos, A., Theology, Mission & Pastoral Care, 1976 Yannoulatos, A., Confessing Christ today, 1977 Yannoulatos, A., Mission: Past and Present, 1988 Yannoulatos, A. ‘Thy will be done: mission in Christ’s Way’ in Scherer & Bevans, S. New Directions in Mission and Evangelization Orbis: Maryknoll 1994 Yannoulatos, A., The Apostolic responsibility & worldwide dimension of Orthodoxy, Syndesmos, 2001 Yannoulatos, A., Rediscovering our apostolic identity, Syndesmos, 2003 Yevtic, A., Christian youth witness in a pluralistic society, Syndesmos-EYCE, 1989 Bibliography compiled by The Revd Darrell Jackson Director, Research Centre for Innovating Mission in Europe, Redcliffe College djackson@redcliffe.org