Japan Christian Activity News
Autumn 2003

Theology and New Mission: In Directions

FOLLOWlNG A DECISION to set up a Division of Theology and Mission at the 35th General Assembly "to seek a new ecumenical theology and share its outcomes by taking an integral view of 'faith and order' and 'life and work'," the NCCJ now is searching for new directions of theology and mission "to verbalize" its work properly on its agendas.

"The Division's aim is to explain to lay people of individual churches why the agendas are among mission priorities of churches and to vitalize the Christian communities in Japan by deepening the ecumenical movement in the context of Japan as evangelism," explained Rev. Renta NISHIHARA, the Vice Moderator of the NCCJ, who took the initiative to establish the Division. He also said, at a July meeting of the Executive Board held at Tokyo Union Church, that the Division is aimed "to overcome the dichotomies of the churches being either "evangelicals or socially active" and doing ':mission or
evangelism."

According to an official document of the NCCJ that was shared at the meeting, the existing Committee on Faith and Order will continue to be active within this Division, whose work will be based on the experiences of the cornmittee as well as those of the Mission Service committees, . The. Division will also learn from the practices of the NCC Center for the Study of Japanese Religions and the Division of Education.

A study group was set up for this 35th General Assembly term as the initial form of the Division in preparation for the next phase. Members of the group include a Christian journa-list of worship and music, a former staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC), a historian of philosophy, a university chaplain, a youth minister, the NCCJ's General Secretary Rev. Toshimasa YAMAMOTO, and Rev. Nishihara.

The Division's aim is to prepare for a mission conference of the NCCJ to be held sometime next spring if possible. Other proposed activities of the Division are:

l. Publishing textbooks in the form of booklets for sharing priorities which could be used in Bible study groups, youth groups, etc.

2. Sharing priorities with mission institutes of Christian denominations and organizations.

3. Interchurch dialogue among the member churches and the Japan Evangelical Alliance (JEA), in addition to the on-going dialogue with the Catholics and people of other faiths.

4.Working in tandem with institutions fot theological education, reseach and development of ecumenikacl liturgies, and making copilations of prayers.

5.Arranging literature from the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) for translation and publication in Japanese.

The initiative, however, is still in its embryonic form. Rev. Nishihara, an Anglican minister and an assistant professor of theology in Tokyo, said, "NCCJ is not a superchurch. It has no theology of its own. I think that we would start by gathering up thoroughly what has been already produced."