According to the Acts of our recent Columban General Assembly 2024, one of our two priorities for the next six years will be “outreach to migrants and refugees”.
In these Acts, our General Assembly said, “In the context of Inter-religious Dialogue, we see and feel the urgent needs of vulnerable people who are fleeing conflict, poverty, environmental destruction, and are denied their basic human rights. We affirm and recommit to our tradition and experience of working with people on the move globally and within national borders.”
From my studies, this priority suggests a relatively new theme in the study of world missions. I refer, for example, to chapter 38 in The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies (Oxford University Press, 2022) and Mapping Faith: Theologies of Migration and Community (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2020).
Basically, these missiologists explore biblical models and contemporary experiences that open new ways of looking at the phenomenon of Christian mission and help us appreciate the role of migrants in the very work of cross-cultural mission.
The book Mapping Faith is divided into three sections. The first section explores how migrants, through encounters with people of other faiths undergoing the same journey of finding a new home, come to a deeper understanding of their faith. The second section looks at how the study of the sacred texts of the three religions of the Abrahamic faith – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – opens new perspectives from which to reflect upon how the experience of migration leads to a deeper understanding of faith. The experience of Abraham is an appropriate starting point. A third section entitled ‘Diaspora’ grapples with the questions “Where is home? Where is community? What parts of ourselves are re-made in and through migration?” (p. 15)
Chapter 38 from The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies is entitled “Mission and Migration: Mapping Methodological, Historical, and Theological Perspectives” by Martha Th. Frederiks. The author begins by looking at the difficulties any study poses in the relationship between “mission and migration”. The first is the problem of language and definition. There is little agreement over what we mean by “mission” and “migration”. A second issue concerns the tendency to speak in terms of opposites, “migrant” versus “non-migrant or local”. While this is hard to avoid altogether, nevertheless, we are constantly challenged to acknowledge that migration is an issue that affects all of us. A third matter of concern is placing migrants under the microscope. After all, migrants are often very vulnerable people, and it demands great sensitivity in asking them to share painful and distressing memories.
In future articles, I will explore this theme of “world mission and immigration” further. By exploring biblical models, like the Exodus experience or the gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus, we will look at how these speak to our own cross-cultural experiences as Columban missionaries and the experiences of migrants and refugees among whom we live and work. I would also like to consider how migration is a theme that opens new ways of looking at the work of mission in our world today.
Columban Fr Tom Rouse is the Regional Councillor for New Zealand.
Mission Intentions - Pope Francis
November - For those who have lost a child: Let us pray that all parents who mourn the loss of a son or daughter find support in their community, and may receive peace of heart from the Spirit of Consolation.
December - For pilgrims of hope: Let us pray that this Jubilee strengthen us in our faith, helping us to recognise the Risen Christ in the midst of our lives, transforming us into pilgrims of Christian hope.
Listen to "Mission World - Cross Cultural Mission"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - November/December 2024
