Synod 2009: Mission, Mission, Mission

There was a LOT of talk about Missional Church at this year's Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. Phil Potter was here from England to talk about Fresh Expressions and share a Word about how churches can be transformed to reach out the world. This was not the kind of Synod with endless motions and votes. Rather, we would gather with prayer and song, do a little bible study, listen to a presentation, and the go off into smaller Indaba Groups for discussion. The smaller group size of these Indaba groups allowed for everyone to be heard.

I was struck in my group by how many people had yet to hear of Missional Church before this year's Synod. Indeed, one lay person seemed annoyed that her priest had never mentioned the concept. Of course, her church was doing mission, but they weren't using the "mission church" or "fresh expressions" language to do it.

Naturally, everyone thinks this Missional Church stuff sounds great. Yet I think the resistance will arise as soon as anyone tries to actually do such a project! Some parishes, especially, will have a hard time becoming truly missional in the ways that Phil Potter and others have been talking about. It requires a shift in the culture and self-understanding of 90% of the parishes in the Diocese, and I'm not sure that was made clear at the Synod.

Still, it was all energizing and I'm sure more will come from it. As usual, however, structures are lagging behind. We don't have anything like Bishop's Mission Orders or Pioneer Ministers, yet!

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Starbucks as Church

I originally saw this on the Generation Young Canadian Anglican blog--though it was produced by the Beyond Relevance blog. Very amusing.



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The Beckoning of Lovely

This project in collaborative creativity has been gaining momentum for some time. Recently it produced this very cool happening in Chicago near the giant silver bean sculpture.

I think this sort of thing has interesting implications for evangelism and mission. For one thing, it show people's capacity to create meaning and express very profound things given a structure in which to do it! It also shows just how eager people are to participate in these kids of organic flash-mobs of well-meaning strangers.

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Geeks for Jesus Wiki Started

The Geeks for Jesus (it's morphed a bit from 'Christ') group has just started a Wiki. You can find out about our initiative here. Wikis are a style of website that is created collaboratively as a variety of people expand and modify the content. The most famous Wiki, of course, is Wikipedia. Wikis are excellent for accumulating community knowledge. So we started one to begin organizing our thought about technology and the church.

Stay Tuned!

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The ARC Gets a Blog

I set up a new blog for the ARC--The Anglican Resource Centre. Browse over there to see the latest on that project. We just finished a grant application. Cross your fingers...


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Christ-Centred Character Initiative

Here is Catherine Keating (Deacon at St. John's, York Mills) talking about the Christ-Centred Character initiative that we co-founded. Right now I'm polishing up a Grant application due next week. Cross your fingers...



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The Jeremiah Project: New Monasticism in Toronto

One of the most interesting (to me, at least) movements of the Spirit in Toronto Anglican circles is happening around The Jeremiah Project. This is a group of folks interesting in forming a New Monastic (aka "Neo-Monastic") in downtown Toronto. They are deeply committed to monastic principles and also to the health of the city. They are basing themselves at St. Anne's, Gladstone, a parish that has experienced decline for many years. Hopefully the Jeremiah Project will bring new life and mission.

It will be very exciting to see what shape this new community will take!

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