To celebrate Church Mission Society's 222nd birthday, we are inviting you to pause and pray for mission with our 2min 22s mini-liturgy - celebrate and remember God's mission in your neighbourhood and our world.
Recently, Jenny Muscat talked to Tim Curtis about his work as a mission partner in the Chaco region of Paraguay. Tim works on resources to enable the Enxet people to access scripture in their own language, following on from his involvement in the translation of the whole Bible into Southern Enxet.
Chris Duffett, from the Light College and Collective, is an artist with a desire to bring words, comfort and scenes from God’s heart to those he paints for. Chris’ fine art seeks to bring the colours and mystery of other realms. His work is playful and joy filled with an overemphasis of light. Chris studied Art with Theology at Chester College and has exhibited in Chester and Cambridge and worked as an artist in residence with Chelmsley Wood Baptist Church. His work is often used for publication...
Jeremy Woodham talks to musician and theologian David Benjamin Blower about the connections between prophets and artists, whether Jesus was an artist and if art is or isn't missional. Also: the power of lament and hymns without happy endings. The interview was recorded at Church Mission Society in Oxford on 3 March 2020 as part of the For Art's Sake Pioneer Conversations Day.
When Phil and Sylvie Good set out for Lebanon as new mission partners, they began working with a church and serving Syrian refugees. “The scale of what happened to them became more apparent as I got to know them,” says Sylvie. “Total lack of future.” In the face of this seemingly overwhelming situation of despair, Phil and Sylvie took the attitude of “do what we can”. Jenny Muscat found out what this means on a practical level, and how some people even say they are glad to have become refugees. ...
Canon Moses Bushendich, international director of CMS-Africa, gave three talks at Church Mission Society's 2019 Africa conference 8-10 November, at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, UK. He spoke from an African and CMS-Africa perspective on the theme taken from Isaiah 43: “See, I am doing a new thing - do you not perceive it?”
Canon Moses Bushendich, international director of CMS-Africa, gave three talks at Church Mission Society's 2019 Africa conference 8-10 November, at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, UK. He spoke from an African and CMS-Africa perspective on the theme taken from Isaiah 43: “See, I am doing a new thing - do you not perceive it?”
Canon Moses Bushendich, international director of CMS-Africa, gave three talks at Church Mission Society's 2019 Africa conference 8-10 November, at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, UK. He spoke from an African and CMS-Africa perspective on the theme taken from Isaiah 43: “See, I am doing a new thing - do you not perceive it?”
Advisory: contains frank discussion of FGM practices. On the last of #16daysofactivism against gender-based violence, we hear from Ann-Marie Wilson, CMS mission partner and founder of the anti-FGM charity 28toomany. Ann-Marie was working in Sudan in 2003–2004 when she met a little girl in Darfur who’d had female genital mutilation (FGM) at 5 and been raped at 10. From this encounter, the charity @28toomany was born. Ann-Marie felt called to act – to stand up and make a difference. With support f...
Jeremy Woodham talks to 2019 graduate Modupe Adefala, prison chaplain and leader of Word Fountain Christian Ministries, a Pentecostal church based in Oxford. They discuss her work in prison, whether pioneering is too white, and how she'd like to see churches becoming learning centres as well as worship centres.
Recently returned from working with asylum seekers and refugees in Malta, Doug Marshall told Jenny Muscat how his perspective on Christmas has shifted thanks to his experience there.
Jenny Muscat talks to Malcolm Pritchard about his work at Janani Luwum Theological College in Gulu, northern Uganda. Malcolm talks about a unique setting in an area that has faced huge trauma over the years, especially through the activity of the LRA and the constant pressures of daily life. And he tells the stories of students coming into their own, and the joy of walking alongside some shining lights of the future church in Uganda.
The Cacouris family recently returned to the UK after spending three years working with Christ Church, Rio de Janeiro. We caught up with Alex, Jane and their children to hear about mission as a family, and how their time in Brazil has taught and shaped them.
Levi Santana, mission partner working along with his wife Debora among the marginalised in Goiania, Brazil, shares what he has learned about the simplicity of mission. This talk was recorded at the recent CMS Adelante conference, celebrating mission in Latin America.
Mark and Rosalie Balfour work with street connected children in Guatemala. Increasingly they have also been working to offer pastoral support to others working on the front line in a difficult urban context – all part of the way in which their mission call is “all about Jesus and all about people”.
Bishop Anthony Poggo's address at the commissioning of Alastair Bateman as CEO of Church Mission Society at St Andrew's Church, Oxford, 8 June 2019. Bishop Anthony represented the Archbishop of Canterbury, the patron of Church Mission Society, and began by reading a special message from him.
Debs North, a youth worker specialising in sex education, PSHE, and mental health work, speaks about enabling youth leaders and parents to have conversations about sex and relationships with young people, and to feel confident engaging with their questions. Debs is passionate about enthusing and resourcing anyone who works with or has contact with young people to normalise talking about relationships, sex, mental health, and all aspects of being human and whole. This interview was recorded at th...
Sarah Clarke, lead of undergraduate programmes at Church Mission Society's Pioneer Mission Leadership Training, discusses an innovative new module on community development with Jeremy Woodham
"My passion, my dream would be that in every local church, in every home group, Bible study group, discipleship group, we are not just learning scriptures and talking to each other about what's happened in our lives but we're also encouraging each other to care for God's creation more effectively." In this interview Dave Bookless, a CMS mission partner and director of theology for A Rocha International, discusses his call to creation care, the many stories of Christians engaging in caring for th...
Is there still space for church planting today? Is church-free Christianity possible? Long-serving mission partners Alf and Hilary Cooper from Chile share some of their experience of planting church as hospital, school and training ground.
On 17 July 2018, Church Mission Society hosted a day for people wanting to engage more in mission among those who identify themselves as spiritual but not religious. Matt Arnold spoke about his connections with Pagan Pride. In the following interview he shares more about this, as well as about being, as he puts it, re-evangelised by pagans.
Mission partner Anne Plested shares with us how she is settling in at Bethlehem Bible College, and recounts a remarkable conversation...
Interview with Lucy Ochieng, CMS-Africa's lead on women's training and head of mission support services. Lucy discusses some of the ways African women are marginalised and how CMS-Africa's training programmes for women are lifting up women and girls. For more about the work supported through Church Mission Society's Global Mission through Local Leaders, go to churchmissionsociety.org/local
Berdine van den Toren-Lekkerkerker discusses peace, reconciliation and the importance of lament, with particular reference to an African context. Berdine spoke to Jenny Muscat at the Church Mission Society Africa conference in November 2018.
Talk from the Mission with People who are Spiritual but not Religious day conference at Church Mission Society in Oxford, 17 July 2018.
In the book of Genesis - the great story of beginnings in the Judaeo-Christian stream - creation is described as beginning in the sound of something spoken. 'Then God said...' and 'And God said...' are repeated refrains. This series of prayer exercises, written by Ian Adams, CMS mission spirituality adviser, explores the gift of sound in prayer, and our participation in this gift now through the hearing and making of sound.
Find out what it’s like to be chaplain for the Glastonbury festival… Presenting the third interview from our day conference on mission among people who identify as spiritual but not religious. Meet Diana Greenfield, who spoke about her role as chaplain at the Glastonbury festival as well as attending the Faerie festival. Here she talks with Naomi Steinberg about spending time in wizard yurts, challenging assumptions and the vital importance of cultural integrity within this area of mission.
We talked to Emma and Glyn at the Mission with People who are Spiritual but not Religious day conference at Church Mission Society in Oxford, 17 July 2018.
Helen Botros, based in Cairo, is coordinator of development at Alexandria School of Theology. She talked to Jenny Muscat and Camilla Lloyd about the school’s work enabling students from across the region to study the Bible together and learn from others with a different perspective. She also talks of the excitement of seeing students go into significant leadership roles across the region and produce lasting fruit for God’s kingdom.
A ‘bewitching’ interview: we talk one on one with Phil Wyman from Salem, Massachusetts about building genuine relationships with witches, doing installation mission at the Burning Man festival and embracing Halloween as “the most Christian festival” of the year. Pioneering American pastor Phil Wyman is author of the books Witches Are Real People Too, The Reformation of Halloween and Burning Religion: navigating the impossible space between religion and society. During our day conference on Missi...
