In June 1910, a host of mainly Western and Protestant Christian leaders met in Edinburgh at the celebrated World Missionary Conference. This has been well-documented over the years, and it still casts a long shadow over recent Christian memory. It was perhaps as much a statement about Western self-confidence as it was a marker of global Christian progress. One hundred years on, a more truly international group met again in Edinburgh for three days in July, under the auspices of the “Yale Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity”. This annual event is not especially world-shattering in its deliberations; yet it continues to reflect how much has changed over the past century. John Knox, whose dramatic statue dominates the courtyard of New College Edinburgh (the venue for both meetings), may well have wondered
at the differences.
The two events reflect the great reversals of the last century. In 1910, the great European migrations impacted all sectors of the globe. In 2010, the “Great Reverse Migration” of non-Western peoples has brought the world to the West. Consequently, to coin a phrase used by historian Andrew Walls, mission is now from “anywhere to anywhere”[1]. The first conference was dominated by Western Christians. By way of contrast, the 2010 conference was begun and ended by a Gambian scholar working in the United States, facilitated by postgraduate students from south-east India, Nepal and South Korea, and attended by people from around the world: China, South Korea, India, Eastern Europe, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, as well as the usual bunch of North Americans, Europeans, British and (one) Australasian. Conference papers reflected this geographical diversity.
Women delegates and presenters were much more high-profile than in 1910. It must be noted, however, that amongst those at Edinburgh in 1910 was a small group of New Zealand Presbyterian women, attending as unofficial delegates of the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union. The 2010 meeting was also a venue for younger people; postgraduate students and emerging scholars. As one speaker noted, they represented the shape and energy of future global Christian thinking
and action.
This year’s theme was “consultation and cooperation”; more often than not an ideal rather than a reality, as many of the papers pointed out. However, I went away with three other words highlighted in my consciousness: boundaries, culture and memory. They are, perhaps, all interrelated. Christianity has been, historically, a religion of the borders and frontiers. Perhaps we are appreciating that more keenly now that we no longer function with a “Christendom” model, and now that non-Western Christians are statistically more dominant. Missionary thinking and activity has always existed in those “border zones”, engaging with other religions and cultures. Where and when Christianity has become more settled, new growth and new intercultural issues have arisen to force change and movement. Andrew Walls suggested that it was often at these points that missionary conferences were convened to tackle the issues and chart the way ahead. They could not, however, always successfully envisage how things might turn out, enmeshed as they were in particular cultural ways of seeing both the world and Christianity. So it was in 1910 and so it will continue to be.
Christianity in New Zealand owes its origins to such dynamics as missionary encounter, indigenous appropriation, transplantation and multi-cultural migration. There is great potential for tapping into both the continuities and discontinuities inherent in such a legacy. In four years time, we will be given pause to remember, celebrate and reflect upon 200 years of formal Christian presence in Aotearoa. As I grow older, I am increasingly reminded how fraught a thing memory can be. As a historian I am continually grateful for the existence of archivists and archives, who help me access a record of memory that is more fully rounded and nuanced. Both Arul Siromoney and Lamin Sanneh were right in saying that we are lost without our religious archives. They help us to connect past and present, and to more effectively recall and rethink the dynamic and ever-changing nature of Christian faith. About this, I’m sure, John Knox would agree.
Dunedin-based Hugh Morrison teaches in the College of Education at the University of Otago, and writes on the history of religion and Christian missions with respect to New Zealand. He is currently involved in the Te Whakapapa o te Whakapono/Lineages of Faith research group (University of Otago and Te Wananga a Rangi), and in a team writing the history of the Anglican Diocese of Auckland.
[1] Andrew Walls and Cathy Ross (eds). Mission in the 21st Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2008)