Dr Kirsteen Kim, Tutor &
Mission Programme Coordinator, United College of the Ascension, Selly Oak,
Birmingham, UK
E-mail: k.kim@bham.ac.uk
Abstract
Reconciliation, Integrity and the Holy Spirit: Ethic and Ethos of Mission
Reconciliation has gained prominence as the new ecumenical
paradigm for mission. In this paper, I will examine reconciliation in the
teaching of the Apostle Paul, noting how recent new perspectives give it
prominence and particularly emphasise its application to racial-cultural
reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles. I will show how in 2 Corinthians the
ministry of reconciliation is connected with the ministry of the Spirit and
suggest that in describing mission as the ministry of reconciliation, Paul was
drawing attention to the need for mission to be done “in the Spirit” (or "bearing
the witness of the Spirit") if it is to have integrity (in the third sense
indicated in the statement of the theme of this conference).
The Spirit is creatively at work in the world to bring about reconciliation and
participating in this Spirit of reconciliation affects the means as well as the
goals of mission. Consideration of mission in the Spirit, or mission
spirituality, challenges missionary activism and safeguards the integrity of
mission by focusing on relationships (over and above legalities) and on the
processes and attitudes of mission. Building on this premise, the paper will put
forward implications of the mission paradigm of reconciliation for both the
ethic and the ethos of mission.
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