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MISSION Fr. Stephen Maxfield at the Orthodox Youth Festival, Ilam 2005 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the Nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and, behold I am with you every day until the completion of the age." (Matthew 28: 19 & 20) So ends the Gospel of St Matthew with the dominical command to Mission. It is paralleled at the end of St Mark with somewhat similar words: "And he said to them ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole of creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved: but he who does not believe shall be condemned." (Mark 16: 15 & 16). This is pretty forthright and unequivocal instruction and indeed the Orthodox Church has throughout her history endeavoured in one way or another to fulfil these commands. However before we go on we must look at certain words so that you are clear what I mean by them and how I intend to use them. First "Mission". This derives from the Latin – missio, missionis, mittere meaning "to send". So we could say that the apostles and disciples who heard the command of the Lord were "sent" – to teach, to preach, to baptise, to make disciples. And thus all who have been baptised and have become disciples are also charged with an identical mission. They become missionaries, but this word has now a subtle nuance to its meaning so … Second "Missionary". Meaning one who has been sent on a mission. But this now tends to mean those who have been sent to areas where Christianity is hardly or only slightly known: places like Korea or China or Britain. Third: "Evangelise". This obviously derives from the Greek – evangelion = gospel and thus is synonymous with mission. And of course Evangelist one who has written one of the Gospels. However a word derives from evangelise that has a rather more uncertain loading; "Evangelical" which according to my Chambers dictionary means .. "Protestant: of the school that insists especially on the total depravity of unregenerate human nature, the justification of the sinner by faith alone, the free offer of the Gospel to all, and the plenary inspiration and exclusive authority of the Bible." Now if this is indeed a correct definition of the word it is one that I do not propose to use of the Orthodox Church as it suggests a decayed, vestigial form of Christianity that has strayed very far from what is to be found in our Scriptures and the teachings of the Fathers. It is not compatible with the Tradition of the Church. Fourth: "Proselyte and Proselytise". Although these are Greek words they translate a Hebrew original and mean a convert or to convert. Thus the words originally referred to those converting to Judaism. The word is mentioned four times in the New Testament, once in Matthew and three times in Acts. Father Barnabas, of St Elias Monastery fame, refined the definition somewhat by saying that to proselytise meant to shake someone in their original faith so that they then converted. You will hear it said that the Orthodox Church does not proselytise. Well, bye the bye, we shall see. So with the definitions behind us let us see how the Orthodox Church goes about Mission. There are three distinct methods. The first is the one that we read about in the Life of Constantine the Philosopher, better known as Kyril of Sts Kyril and Methodios fame. I use this Life as an example because it is recorded by a very close associate of Kyril, probably Methodios his brother, and if not him then someone with a very close relationship with his subject. It is a method used by many before and many after him but this life gives an excellent insight into the technique. We are told of Constantine/Kyril in four distinct situations. First we hear of him attempting to convert an iconoclast heretic. He endeavours through argument and the application of logic to shake the position of the heretic and restore him to Orthodoxy. Second we find him on a Byzantine mission, both diplomatic and religious to the Muslims. He travels to Samara and he endeavours through argument and the application of logic to shake the position of the Muslims and convert them to Christianity. Next we find him again on a Byzantine mission, both diplomatic and religious, to the Khan of the Khazars, a convert Jewish people (Turkish in origin) and he endeavours through argument and the application of logic to shake the position of the Jews and convert them to the truth of Christianity. Finally we find him going on an ecclesiastical mission to Moldavia, at the request of the ruler, to convert his people to Christianity. This time he goes not only prepared with logical argument but also with a new alphabet and written Slav language into which he has translated a number of important liturgical texts. For a number of reasons the mission is not particularly successful in Cyril’s lifetime but subsequently it results in the conversion of virtually all the Slavic peoples – Russians, Bulgarians, Serbians, Ukrainians, Belo Russians and so on. It also establishes an enormously important principle that Christianity should be imparted in the language of the people, even if this often happens in a rather antiquated form of that language. Please note however that the brothers Kyril and Methodios were not Slavs. They were Romans, what we now rather inaccurately refer to as Greeks. The second method of mission is that found in the ninth century in the area that we now think of as Greece. During the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries Greece and the Balkans were over-run by Slav tribes. The invasion was "creeping" as far as we can tell but by the seventh century the whole of the Balkans and Greece were entirely over run except in a very small number of pockets, Corinth, Thessaloniki, Monemvasia and Athens. So for instance the Emperor Justinian II at the end of the seventh century mounted a military expedition to cut his way through from Constantinople to Thessaloniki. Little more happened until the Empress Eirene endeavoured to start a process of re-conquest at the turn of the eighth century followed by further expeditions by Nikephoros I and then after the Restoration of the Icons in 843. Here the method was one of total enculturation. Some Greeks in Southern Italy retained a tradition that they were originally from Patras, and some in Monemvasia believed that they were from Sparta. These, with other Greek colonists from Asia Minor were encouraged with grants of land, to re-settle in Greece and then with the help of the state entirely Hellenise the area converting the Slavs, teaching them Greek and inter-marrying until ultimately they were fully absorbed into the life of the Roman Empire. The third method is the generally recognised one of teaching the faith to the Church’s own people, be they children or adults through a whole range of practices both in the churches and in the homes of the faithful. In fact this is the fundamental method of mission and is, always was and always will be the principal means of mission. Leaving this last on the side for one moment what of the first two. Do we see proselytism in action in Moldavia, in Greece or in Khazaria? You bet we do. The fact is the Orthodox Church does proselytise, always has proselytised and always will proselytise. BUT it is sometimes neither appropriate nor possible to proselytise. There have been times particularly during the Ottoman hegemony and under atheistic Communism when to proselytise was to invite death. So how does the Church set about her work of fulfilling the Lord’s command? Although there may be occasions when all are placed in a position when they can bring people to the Lord it will normally be done by a team of lay people and clergy working together. There are in essence three ranks. The first and most important for the mission of the church are the lay people. It is these who bring people to the Lord, be they babies, children or adults and then in one way or another help with the process of teaching. Generally this will be done by example. Lay people should be good examples. In the second rank we find the clergy, bishops, priests, deacons and minor orders. Their primary purpose is to feed the lay people spiritually. Sometimes of course they will through talks, sermons or example awaken a longing for the Lord, but even so, sooner or later that person will find their way into the Church through the example of lay people. It is for this reason that one of the most important of all missionary vocations is that of being prepared to befriend those who appear in church for the first time and then through hospitality and kindness bring them to a point where they feel they can return and find out more. In the back rank we find the monastics, monks and nuns. Their job is not directly to do with mission though there have of course been some remarkable examples of monastic missionaries. Their role is essentially prophetic, to call the rest of the Church back to repentance and ever deepening fear of the Lord. They do this by fighting demons in the desert, where they live in small groups or alone. Even where they tend to live closer to civilisation as we find today they should be providing essential equipment for the Church as well as opportunities for sanctuary and prayer. Here is a bit of my talk that you should think of as a footnote! Unfortunately where one finds the greatest potential good, there too one finds the greatest potential evil feeding from it. Thus we find Judas supping with the Lord using the same dish at the Last Supper. Fortunately we live in an era of monastic revival and there are many good monasteries and excellent monks and nuns. Sadly however monasteries are sometimes refuges for the proud, selfish and self-indulgent. Asceticism can be just as self indulgent as gluttony. You will recall the story to be found in the Spiritual Meadow where some monks who have been capable of the most amazing feats of self denial while in a monastery in Constantinople find it almost impossible to fast even for half a day on Wednesdays and Fridays when they find themselves in the Egyptian desert. Why? Because there was then no one to see their efforts and encourage them with flattery! Our age is having trouble from some monastics. They are parasitic on the body of the Church, have far too much interest in becoming spiritual fathers and making a name for themselves as holy men in the World. This type of monastics is not new: there were lots of complaints about just such people in Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire. I will end this footnote by saying that because someone happens to be an Athonite does not therefore mean that he is an oracle in all things – what exams you should take, which person you marry or how to bring up your children. I remind you that St Nicodemos Hagiorites one of the most erudite men the world has ever seen and himself an Athonite monk was insistent that people in the world should choose married clergy as their confessors and spiritual fathers. So what is the structure for mission? It is the basic structure of the whole of Orthodox Church life and that is the parish. Now what I am now going to say is based on my experience here in Britain. Some of it will be directly applicable to other countries and situations but some may be less so. I am of course generalising, nothing in reality is quite so clear-cut! There are fundamentally three kinds of parish:- 1) The true parish. To be thus described a Parish needs to have the following as a minimum: a) Their own church premises, owned by the people, or perhaps on some very long term rental arrangement. b) The Liturgy will be served every week largely in the language of the indigenous population. So in Britain it will be in English. c) There will be a full time priest whose salary is paid by the community. d) There will be a range of other activities, services, newsletters, social functions, schools, money raising events, Bible studies, adult education opportunities, and so on. e) It will be axiomatic to the life of the parish that it is catholic; it is there for the benefit of ALL, whatever nationality they may happen to be. And as those nationalities become absorbed into the surrounding culture so they will bring the surrounding culture into the Church. 2) The Mission. This will be a community ranging from a visiting priest with a handful of faithful serving their second liturgy a month after their first hit and run, through to much more sophisticated communities that want only a permanent church building or to be able to pay for their priest. 3) Ethnic chaplaincies. These are set up for the benefit of a particular group of ethnic Orthodox Christians. So in this country they might be Greek, Serbian, Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian or Arab. They will generally conform in every respect to a true parish with two important exceptions the first is that the Liturgy will be served in the language used by the ethnic group and secondly the it is axiomatic that the chaplaincy is there to serve the ethnic group. It is almost as if they are there merely to serve a purely transient population who will one day return home, and indeed in many cases this is exactly what does happen. From time to time I have heard complaints about these chaplaincies to the effect that they are not missionary minded. I think that this is unfair and shows a complete lack of understanding of what these communities are set up to do. Often they do excellent work, but limited of course to their own people. However although ethnic chaplaincies may last for several generations, particularly if they continue to be fed by immigrants, in the end they have a limited life because their people will get absorbed into the surrounding culture. They will then associate Orthodoxy with an ethnic hangover from the past which will either be rejected, or simply abandoned. So in the long run ethnic chaplaincies will certainly die … UNLESS they metamorphosise into a true Parish, which they can do. It can also, I have to say, happen in reverse as well, where a parish is suddenly swamped by a new wave of immigrants. This has in fact happened to one of the parishes in London. When I was asked to give this talk I was asked to say something about starting a mission and something about your role as young people in mission. The purpose of starting a mission is to provide a community where any Orthodox Christian may find a home where they can worship. A few years ago these would have mostly been Greeks but there are an increasing number of Russians and Romanians coming over the horizon that makes for a very interesting parish. There will also be a number of British people who take an interest and eventually want to become Orthodox. My community have a rule that such people are made welcome but no one ever asks them if they want to become Orthodox: that must come from them. It should be possible for all to worship in the same community together. What can we expect from such a mission? Suppose we start with a community of about six we should expect to see the numbers regularly attending the Liturgy double every five years, though as the community gets bigger so the rate of growth slows down. Starting a mission is quite complex but there are a few principles that I have learned by experience that may be of interest. The first is that a mission, although it starts off with great hopes can all too easily degenerate into what I will call for the purposes of this talk a "stagnant mission". The scenario goes something like this… Fr. George an enthusiastic Orthodox priest alights upon a pleasant English town where there are a small number of Orthodox Christians. He may even bring them with him. Here he starts to serve the Liturgy on a regular basis and others are attracted to the mission. However Fr George is not paid by the community, it is anyway far too small to cope with that burden, so he gets a reasonably well paid job in the locality. So far so good and many Missions have started life like this and one almost thinks of this as the normal pattern. However as the years go by certain features become apparent. The first is that because Fr George serves the Liturgy in his own time, it is essentially his hobby. Because it is his hobby he does not have any very burning incentive for it to grow very fast and anyway he does not have time to deal with the extra work anyway. Also he has ideas about how things should be done, perhaps he likes a "monastic" feel of super piety. Or perhaps he is impatient of small children and so families that loom over the horizon with children in tow are advised to go elsewhere. Or perhaps he has views about music and would really like to run the choir and so he constantly interferes and maybe even sings the choir parts as well! He may not be musical at all and so when there is pressure from lay people to vary the setting will say sharply "No! Not in my lifetime," as indeed one priest did say some years ago. The result of this is that the mission never seems to really get going, there is very little impetus for improvement in facilities and parish life. Those that do go are very settled in the system and resist change. Do not get me wrong there is life but with a very slow rate of growth, just about enough new blood to off set the haemorrhage of the old who tend after the normal way of things to die. This kind of scenario, is, I am sorry to say all too common, so I would suggest the following few things as ways to avoid stagnation setting in. 1) First it is absolutely essential that all missions should start with the blessing of the diocesan bishop. If you do not do this, the enterprise will simply not be blessed by God and will go nowhere. (And this is not put in so that if this talk happens to be read by my Archbishop he will approve. It is an Orthodox fundamental that I firmly believe). 2) Proper records must be kept of all the activities of the mission. They should include all the main services, their times and how many people attended. Only by doing this do you have any accurate record of the life of the parish. It is essential to assess trends – what happens when Pascha coincides with Western Easter, what happens when it does not, when do most people go on holiday, when are there more likely to be visitors and so on. It also gives advanced warning when people are starting to come less often – you are doing something wrong, and when they are coming more often - you are doing something right. 3) The priests must not have anything to do with the finances. These should be organised by a lay person and must be transparent to all. 4) The priest should have as little as possible to do with the choir. It may be initially that it is run by his wife but as soon as it is run by someone else the better. There is no issue that is more divisive than the music. If the priest is out of it that at least is one hassle he does not have to be burdened with. 5) The priest must be paid and the expenses of the community must be met by the mission. Right from the very start, a mission must, as a fundamental principle, be prepared to pay for the expenses of the priest. He may not be well paid but he must be paid. Had this principle been followed many of the financial problems faced by some communities and parishes would not now exist. 6) Have the lowest achievable aim. So the aim is to: start an ordinary Orthodox Parish in for the sake or argument Winchester where all are welcome. As opposed to: the aim is to start an Orthodox Parish where the Byzantine choir is of international standard; The church can accommodate 600 people; the library has not less than 6,000 books; the hall can accommodate a conference for 200 people; there are never less than three clergy at the liturgy, two deacons and a priest etc. etc. These are of course hyperboles, but all to often missions start with extra agendas that are their undoing. And then above all:- 7) Be pragmatic. Do what works, do what you can manage. Where is the greater merit… in putting on a Great Week where there are at least two services every day with three on Great Thursday, four on Great Friday, a full Liturgy on Great Saturday with all the readings followed by a baptism and then the full Acts of the Apostles so that on Pascha night when actually a few people turn up the choir are hoarse, the priest is shattered and suffering from a streaming cold and all the visitors go away wondering what the service was all about. Or a much lighter programme where choir and priest arrive at Pascha in good heart and the congregation go away with thankful hearts ready to turn up on the next Sunday to sing Christ is Risen again? Now then what can you all do? The first thing, and do not underestimate this at all is to actually turn up regularly to the Liturgy in your community. Not only will you gain blessing thereby but you will also be in a position to help, to greet a visitor, to teach a child and all sorts of other things. Every person who becomes Orthodox makes it possible for someone else to do so. Every Orthodox who comes to the Liturgy with Christ in His heart makes it possible for another to receive the same. You presence will encourage the priest. It will encourage the lay people. It will encourage visitors. Now what about out in the World. Perhaps a couple of things for you to think about. In this country we live in a post Christian world. Many people have absolutely no belief and no idea of what Christianity really is, yet so many Christians are apologetic about their Faith. This is because Christianity has been the object of rationalist attack from the enlightenment on but particularly since the WWI. But is the country any better for it? No. Perhaps we should start to point out what has been lost. Point to the violence – only this week it was announced that two thirds of teenage girls are physically abused by their boy friends. But what of the wars, the exploitation of the Third World, the impurity, the abortions, the broken marriages and so on and so on. Should we not be prepared to point out gently that the world could be and indeed was a better place. I do not speak of material things, for us in the developed West, incomes and services are better than they have ever been. This does not of course apply in the Third world. I speak however of spiritual things and point to the rudderless pointlessness of so many peoples lives. And what about other Christians? I am amazed by the ignorance of so many western Christians, deeply, deeply ignorant. Their services are vapid, boring and anodyne. Their faith is truly vestigial a rump of belief that has lost the joy, the gratitude, the wonder that transforms our Orthodox Faith. We must educate ourselves and then set about educating them. However remember the prayer "I will not tell thy secret to thine enemies". But not all are the enemies of God and if we are ready sure enough He will direct them towards us. Remember also the text from St John, "None shall come to me unless the Father calls him". Soon He may be calling. Will we be ready? |
