Page 33 - The Church of Ireland Apologetic for Mission?
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federal states in the northwestern region of Argentina) and Albany diocese in the USA.
• The United dioceses of Limerick, Ardfert, Aghadoe, Killaloe, Kilfenora, Clonfert, Kilmacduagh and Emly have a current commitment to Swaziland. They are seeking to provide clothing, educational materials and agricultural machinery to Anglican parishioners in Swaziland. It also has relationships with what it describes as two ‘Companion’ dioceses. The Unhalt Protestant Church (Evangelische Landeskirche Anhalts) covers more or less all of the old Duchy of Anhalt. Anhalt was formerly an independent Duchy, now part of the Federal State of Sachsen- Anhalt in Eastern Germany. The diocese of Saldhahna Bay is part of the Church Province of Southern Africa. It serves
a variety of urban, rural, and fishing communities in Western Cape. The area has high levels of poverty and HIV/AIDS infection.
6. Mission Links
In 2007 the Church of Ireland Council for Mission sent out a Mission Questionnaire to every parish. The purpose was to find out how many parishes support a mission link, how those links operated and to assess the value of the links:
30% (181) of those who received a Questionnaire replied. The results noted:
• 99parisheshadlinksusingthemission agencies
• 54parisheshadmorethanonelink
• Intermsoftheglobalregionscoveredby
link most were African, then Asian
• 46parisheshadmadevisitstotheirlinks
• 61parisheshadreceivedvisitsfromtheir links
• Mostmissionlinkswerebasedon a development principle, especially education and children’s work
• Many Mothers Union branches have links that are not included on this list
• Missionlinksarenotalways‘owned’by parishioners
7. Mission Agencies
The Association of Missionary
Societies (AMS) is an informal forum for representatives of those mission agencies which have an ongoing relationship with the Church of Ireland. It meets regularly
to discuss issues of mutual concern and
to inform and be informed by the wider Church on important mission concerns and initiatives.
As noted in the 2015 Church of Ireland Directory there were 14 constituent members (Mission Agencies) of AMS. These agencies promote mission in many manifestations in a variety of global locations.
8. Short-term Mission Trips
Short term mission trips provide opportunities for groups or individuals
from the Church of Ireland to visit a partner location in another part of the world. This allows for an experience of life and work there and to sample something of a different culture.
Such visits and exchanges are seen as crucial to the development of meaningful relationships. They make mission more personal, they help the Partnership Links go wider and deeper, impacting more people, and they ensure that these links last even longer. These trips are usually self-funded by the participants.
For mission agencies that facilitate such trips the desire is to achieve:
• Increasedsharing
• Enhancedprayersupportand
• Moremeaningfulandeffectivefinancial support.
• Tobring‘partnership’aliveforaparish. Sending a few parishioners on a team offers an opportunity to involve the whole parish – and the wider community – in the experience, through prayer, preparation,
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• 75parisheshadapersonotherthan Rector responsible for the development of the link


































































































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