South-East Asia's new Anglican leader has a bold vision to evangelise millions " and Australia’s Church Missionary Society is prepared to dig deep to ensure it becomes a reality.
The Church Missionary Society of Australia has been encouraged to increase the number of missionaries to the region at a strategic meeting of world mission leaders in Sydney last week.
According to the CMS Federal Secretary Canon John Thew, this will occur through forging closer links with the Diocese of Singapore and the Province of South-East Asia under its new Primate, Dr John Chew.
Canon Thew said the various mission agencies view Singapore Diocese as a key partner in evangelical growth " with Australia's close proximity making the region "its biggest focus'.
"CMS Australia has an obvious focus on South-East Asia for geographic reasons, perhaps more than other agencies," he says.
"We have a strong partnership with Singapore Diocese. The Anglican Church has an audacious vision for mission that we want to ride on the coat-tails of."
CMS Australia currently has 160 missionaries working in 30 countries.
"We really seriously want to expand those numbers," Canon Thew says.
"The gospel is still current, Jesus hasn't returned and the world isn't saturated with Aussies."
Alongside CMS branches around the world, Sydney Diocesan leaders are keen to forge closer links with the new South East Asian Primate and his diocese, which encompasses Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia.
Bishop of Western Sydney Ivan Lee represented Archbishop Peter Jensen at Dr Chew's installation earlier this year.
Dr Jensen has invited Dr Chew to speak during "Mission Hour' at the Sydney Synod in October.
Mobile missioners "push each other on'
International directors of CMS and their mission partners met in Sydney last week for a time of fellowship, planning and encouragement to persevere in the gospel.
It was the first time the group, which meets every 18 months, has held the conference on Australian soil.
Twenty-three representatives were present from Kenya, Nigeria, the United States, Britain, Ireland, India, Australia and New Zealand.
They first met in Bangalore in 1999 and since then have met in Nairobi and Dublin.
According to Canon Thew, numbers are continuing to grow steadily and the group is "getting on very well with each other'.
"What we are trying to do is synergise," says Canon Thew.
"We set up a mechanism where we can share information more easily. That level of information comes through a level of trust over a period of time. [It makes it] easier to place and find people.
Canon Thew said the group was keen to "push each other on' into new mission fields.
He said representatives from CMS in Britain in particular encouraged their Australian counterparts on to increase the number of missionaries they already have in Asia.
According to Mark Oxbrow, International Mission Director for CMS UK, the senior leadership of "fairly informal network of mission agencies' means missionaries can be better equipped to respond as Christians to world hot spots, such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.
"[We're] all engaged in cross-cultural mission," Canon Oxbrow says. "[We] share a common approach."
Canon Thew agrees.
"We're going to share our contacts and connections all over the world."
More information about CMS: [url=http://www.cms.org.au]http://www.cms.org.au[/url]
