Together in the Mission of God was one of the book projects of the WCC to celebrate the centenary anniversary of the IMC. The book has three parts. The first part is about looking back to understand the structures of ecumenism in mission cooperation and unity.
Dr Marina Behera contributed a chapter to this part, ‘Cooperation in Mission in Word-and in Practice? The Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches’. Dr Marina has done an extensive historical survey through the course of the past century to explain how the structured efforts of ecumenism have fostered unity and cooperation in mission.
The second part of the book is about the contemporary mission narratives in various parts of the world after 100 years of structures of mission cooperation and unity. Several OCMS students and alumni contributed to Chapter Six entitled ‘Mission in a Wounded World’, which is the compilation of local narratives. Dr Rula Mansour (Palestine), Melissa Baccarella (Italy) and David Nacho (Latin America) wrote their own mission experiences to deliver the voices of those who are in pain and suffering in their broken and wounded communities as well as to inform the readers of the glimpses of hope that God brings through the efforts of mission cooperation and unity. Finally, the third part is about looking toward the future of mission. Dr Guichun Jun contributed a chapter ‘Mission in the Age of Digitalization: Metaverse, Metamodernism and Metanarratives’.
Dr Jun addresses both the necessity of mission in the metaverse and theological reflections on several negative phenomena in the metaverse and the underpinning philosophies that result in proposing a missional approach to reintroduce the biblical metanarratives as a countermeasure for mission in the age of the metaverse. There are other contributors who are working with OCMS as supervisors or research associates, such as Dr Glenn Smith (Mission in an Urban World) and Dr Cristian Sonea (Ecology in ‘The Future of Mission: Points of Convergence?’).
This book is strongly recommended to OCMS scholars to read as there are several internationally recognised contributors, such as Dr Dana Robert, Dr Stephen Bevans, and Dr Allen Yeh. You can download a free copy of the book here.
