Partnership House and the 'end of Western Mission'

I used to work in Partnership House in Waterloo,  London, the 'headquarters' of the Church Mission Society CMS. The local post office used to call it 'Go Forth House' because of the stone inscription across the doorway.  It was the Great Commission according to Mark 16:15  (NEV)

 ‘GO FORTH to EVERY PART of THE WORLD and PROCLAIM the GOOD NEWS to the WHOLE CREATION’     

 
Now the site on 157 Waterloo Road is empty air as it has been knocked down and is being built on .  CMS moved to Oxford back in in 2008.

After being sold,  Partnership House was all boarded up (with squatters living in) until it was finally knocked down.  I travelled past on quite a  few occasions and it looked like Western Mission Agencies (WMA) had indeed shut up shop.  

Some have suggested that mission ended in the 20th century.  People like Vishal Mangalwadi  have suggested we have reached the end of Christendom model and Western Mission. 

But there has been a Global shift. In Church terms the Global North may indeed have been squeezed and shrinking,  but the Global Balloon is expanding in the South.   South America, Africa and Asia are where the church is growing and are becoming the new centres of mission. Mission is no longer from the 'West to the Rest' but (as in the title of a book by Michael Nazir-Ali) it is  'Everywhere to Everywhere'
 

 

Someone sent some pictures to us in CMS which showed PH in the process of being deconstructed  (14 June 2012) 

I thought you might be interested in the attached Pictures of the former Church Mission Society HQ in Waterloo Road which has been bricked up for sometime and was covered in Scaffolding whilst they demolished it.
However I remembered the Phrase above the entrance from Mark 16:15. Well, today I had my Camera for another reason and happened to go that way and they are obviously down to the last part of the entrance/chapel and have uncovered it ready for final demolition.
I always thought it was a pity that this should go and not be listed /moved to another location somehow, but then it was a 1960's office block..... Still I took a couple of poignant pictures of the verse. 

 

 

Yes it is in some ways poignant, but as I have blogged beforehand.  it may be that the Institution is being replaced by a new sense of movement and community. The Good News is still around to be proclaimed to the whole of creation......  

The 'Go Forth' People

Ascension Day was on 17th May this year, so today, 20th was the Sunday after Ascension. It is the time when we remember, 40 days after the resurrection, when Jesus ascends to the Father. Often it is overlooked and eclipsed in evengelical circles by Pentecost.....

But it the occasion of the Great Commission given to the Disciples '.....as you go, preach the gospel......'  (Matthew 28), which must be one of the most important, foundational texts for a mission society, like CMS.

The Church Mission Society used to be based in Partnership House in 157 Waterloo Road, London before the relocation to Oxford. The local Post Office used to call it 'Go Forth' House,  because of the verse from Mark (16:15) emblazoned across the front of the building:

‘GO FORTH To EVERY PART of THE WORLD and PROCLAIM the GOOD NEWS to the WHOLE CREATION’

Unfortunately since we moved out,  the place has been boarded up and sits empty. And the message now seems to suggest the sad demise of Western Mission.

My former colleague, Patrick Goh the previous CMS Personnel Director has put together a sequence of pictures of what he has called 'Go Forth' people. They are people we know well from years of working together.  A great bunch. Many have moved on to other things, beyond CMS.  





(according to my Shazam APP, the music is 'What Grace is Mine', by Keith and Kristyn Getty)


Mission is not dead; it is still very much alive, Not as an institution, but as a movement of people of mission....   a Community of Mission Service. 

London: 'Sun breaking through fog'

I did this version of Claude Monet's Houses of Parliament, Sun breaking through fog (1904)

He used to live in Lower Norwood, not far from where we used to live in Penge. ( seperated by a couple of generations!). The Houses of Parliament were one of his favourite. He did a series of 8 painting, all on the same size canvas, since they were the same view from window. But all very different. His last, more impressionist painting is startling for its more liberal, less literal use of colour. And that certainly suits me ! Mine is but a pale reflection of a part of his picture. But it is still evocative of London and the Thames.

It also evoked T S Elliot's poem about his journey to London, part of his 'Choruses from the Rock' Collected Poems 1909-1935 (97) The poem remains a wonderful reflection on the relevance of the Church, in the City, in the suburbs and in the country ......

I journeyed to London, to the timekept City,

Where the River flows, with foreign flotations.

There I was told: we have too many churches,

And too few chop-houses. There I was told:

Let the vicars retire. Men do not need the Church

In the place where they work, but where they spend their

Sundays.

In the City, we need no bells:

Let them waken the suburbs.

I journeyed to the suburbs, and there I was told:

We toil for six days, on the seventh we must motor

To Hindhead, or Maidenhead.

If the weather is foul we stay at home and read the papers.

In industrial districts, there I was told

Of economic laws.

In the pleasant countryside, there it seemed

That the country now is only fit for picnics.

And the Church does not seem to be wanted

In country or in suburbs; and in the town

Only for important weddings.

Given the Royal Wedding this week the last line seemed particularly pertinent. And it was a Very Important Wedding. The Nation seems to want the Church then ... for State occasion and National functions. Mind you I did like the pagentry and bits of the service - the reading from Romans 12: 1-2, 9-18 and the talk by the Bishop of London

I attended another, family wedding this week in the country, in Pembrokeshire in S Wales. Whilst it took place in a URC Chapel, it was effectively a secular wedding. The singing was superb and lots of fun. With popular songs like 'I'm a Believer (The Monkeys)' and 'That's Amore' (Dean Martin) The congregation put their heart and soul into it. And a lot of imagination had gone into the poems and readings. It was a great wedding .... but God hardly got a mention. And that felt somehow empty.

I suppose it was a 'more liberal use of colour' which I enjoyed... But as in the Monet painting, I continue to look for Sun breaking though that fog.........

Morning Calm in Westminster Abbey, London

I attended Westminster Abbey sung Eucharist commemorating the 120th anniversary of the consecration of Charles John Corfe First Bishop of Korea.

The current Bishop of Seoul, Paul Kim, was the preacher - He spoke of Corfe a naval chaplain leaving a peaceful life in England to go to the wilderness of Korea in 1889. and the huge responsibility of creating something out of nothing. He was impressed by his 'faith, passion for mission and commitment' and this has in turn inspired the Korean Anglican church to 'listen to the cries for help of others' and to 'join hands with brothers and sisters in Asia'. The church has taken 'small steps to walk in Bishop Corfe's shoes'.

I was in Korea last month hearing about those small steps as the Korean International Mission (KIM) is forging relationships with Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines as well as China. This is in addition to Korean priests serving in Japan, USA, Canada, UK, Zimbabwe N Cyprus and Mongolia. These are bold steps in the same pioneering spirit as Corfe.

The service had its moments of inspiration - as the choir sung the Gloria and later Agnes Dei - and my eyes were lifted to the huge stained glass rose window, a moment of 'morning calm' in the midst of a general busyness

I discovered that our very own Bishop of Guildford, Christopher Hill is the Vice-President of the Korean Mission Partnership which was formed to support this historic initiative of the founding and nurture of the Korean Anglican Church. Their magazine newsletter is called 'Morning Calm' - their August edition is downloadable as a pdf. You can also read about the history of Anglican in Corea (not a spelling mistake)

Afterwards we had wine and nibbles in the Abbey Museum courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey surrounded by Kings and Queens of England. An opportunity to mingle and meet the many Korean guests, for whom this was a very special occasion.

Korea is also known as the 'Land of Morning Calm'

Crossing the bridge between St Paul's & Tate Modern

Jonny Baker shared an image at our sacred:space on Saturday that connected with me very much. He spoke of the millenium bridge in London which crosses between St Pauls at one end and the Tate Modern at the other. He suggested that alt. worship is such a bridge, an attempt to cross between the institutional historic church and modern contemporary art and culture.

I seem to remember when the Millenium bridge was first opened it vibrated and swayed when people walked on it, and felt very unstable, and had to be closed and strengthened. Let (s)he who has ears to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches !

The challenge in worship is encountering Christ, the 'enfleshing of God', through our cultural lens 'on the inside of our culture'. Alt worship, like good mission, is both incarnational and contextual.

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Grace is a community that has been running for over 15 years, experimenting with various forms of worship, visual, liturgical, creative, social, communal, experimental. All they do is framed by 4 key words which represent their values as a community

• create
• participate
• engage
• risk

They see liturgy rather than a consumer activity run by professionals, as 'the work of the people', 'something we make together' It is an adventure of the imagination.

We finished the evening by participating in an act of worship - led by Jonny and Jenny - a communion service around the theme of 'wounded in all the right places' based on the song by 'One Giant Leap' Flikkr has an album of pics from a Grace service on the theme