Saturday 3rd November 2007
Resources for Global Awareness
A beginner’s guide to useful websites
The world-wide Anglican Communion
The web-sites for the “instruments of unity” are a source of abundant material about the life of the Communion world-wide. The main website is http://www.anglicancommunion.org/
It is also possible to access material relating to Lambeth Conferences past and impending at http://www.lambethconference.org/
The Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates’ Meetings also maintain web-pages at http://www.aco.org/communion/acc/index.cfm and http://www.aco.org/communion/primates/index.cfm respectively.
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s website at http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/ contains material relating to his overseas visits as well as his role within the Church of England. These are all “official” websites.
A largely Anglo-American venture, “Anglicans On-line”, offers a different perspective on the world-wide Anglican Communion at http://anglicansonline.org/index.html
Another significant Communion-wide resource is the Mothers’ Union, whose website is http://www.themothersunion.org/.
The Church of England
The Church of England’s website http://www.cofe.anglican.org/ contains useful information and offers access to diocesan websites, many of which provide information about their links to the world church.
The Diocese of Salisbury, for example, has information about its links with the Sudan at http://www.salisburyanglican.org.uk/jumpoff-new.htm and the Bristol website (www.bristol.anglican.org) has several pages of material about its links with the Church in Uganda, while Bath and Wells provides resources for preachers and material for study in the “Development Matters” section of the diocesan website at http://www.bathandwells.org.uk/changing_lives/mission/wm_linked_lectionary.php.
In addition the Partners in World Mission (PWM) website, http://www.pwm-web.org.uk/ provides information about the Mission Agencies, Diocesan Companion Links and parts of the National Church Institutions – who they are; where they are; and what they do – as well as offering short articles intended to stimulate thinking about world mission.
World Bodies
The website of the World Council of Churches (http://www.wcc-coe.org/ ) reminds us that there is a great deal more to its activities than that bug-bear of 1980s conservatives, the Programme to Combat Racism. The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) and the Ecumenical HIV/AIDS Initiative in Africa (EHAIA) are all featured prominently.
Many stories from the world Church can be found on the related website, “Keeping the Faith” (http://www.keeping-the-faith.info/in_st.html).
A number of confessional websites have a world-wide concern, among them those of the Lutheran World Federation http://www.lutheranworld.org/ and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches http://warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/side.jsp?news_id=2&part2_id=19&navi=8
European Partners
Please note that some of these web links have to have the english translation clicked, and others are not available in english. The Church of England is a member of the Conference of European Churches, which maintains a wide-ranging website at http://www.cec-kek.org/, while that of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (of which the Church of England is not a member, although the Church of Scotland, Methodist Church of Great Britain and United Reformed Church are) contains liturgical resources as well as theological reflections and news from member Churches. It can be found at http://lkg.jalb.de:8080/lkg/jsp/index.jsp?side_id=1&lang=en
Among the Church of England’s partner Churches in Europe, the German Protestant Churches (EKD) have a website with a world-wide perspective (http://www.ekd.de/english/2169.html), not to mention a Bishop for Foreign Affairs.
Most of the Churches of the Porvoo Communion have English-language pages on their websites, though that of the Church of Iceland is minimal and therefore not listed. The others are:
• http://eelk.ee/english.php (Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church)
• http://www.evl.fi/english/index.html (Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland)
• http://www.liuteronai.lt/index_ang.html (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania)
• http://www.kirken.no/english/ (Church of Norway)
• http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?di=37014 (Church of Sweden)
The Church of Finland website is particularly good in terms of the range and quality of the information it provides, but all are worth visiting. The Finnish website provides a link to the English text of the “St Thomas Mass” (http://www.tuomasmessu.fi/?sid=25) and the Church of Norway also has significant liturgical material on its website. In addition to the websites of the individual Churches there is a website for the whole Communion at http://www.porvoochurches.org/index.html.
Those wishing to learn more about our friends from Växjö may find the following websites useful (all have some pages in English except for SKUT):
• http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/vaxjostift/ (Diocesan website for Växjö)
• http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/skut/ (Swedish Church Overseas)
• http://lutherhjalpen.svenskakyrkan.se/variant_engelska.asp (Lutherhjälpen)
• http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/skm/ (Swedish Church Mission)
Anglican concerns in Europe are represented on the websites of the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe and the Convocation of American Churches in Europe. These can be found at http://www.europe.anglican.org/homepage/index.htm and http://www.tec-europe.org/ respectively. Information about the work of ICS can be found at http://www.ics-uk.org/. The Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht have an English-language website at http://www.utrechter-union.org/english/start.htm
The Church of England’s partner Churches in France under the Reuilly Agreement do not indulge in such frivolous activities as translation. However, those who read French will find much rewarding material at http://www.eglise-reformee-fr.org/ (for the Reformed Church in France), http://www.eelf.org/acueil.htm (for French Lutherans), http://www.epal.fr/ (for the Protestant Churches in Alsace and Lorraine, which, for historical reasons, operate under different rules)and http://www.protestants.org/ (for the Fédération Protestante de France).
Mission and Development Agencies
I cannot do better here than refer you to the comprehensive list of local and national agencies provided on the CCOW website http://www.ccow.org.uk/ under the “links” tab.
Encountering the World Church in person
For Christians in Europe, there is, every other year, an opportunity to make personal links to issues of global concern at the German Protestant Kirchentag. Further information about this huge ecumenical gathering can be found (in English) at http://www.kirchentag.de/ or at the web-site of the British Committee http://www.kirchentag.org.uk/.
For those who wish to pursue the possibility of European Church Partnership, Robin Blount’s website
http://www.church-twinning.org/ provides a range of helpful practical information and missiological insight.
Those who aren’t sure whether their community has any European links but would like to investigate the possibility should check the Local Government International Bureau’s official list of civic twinnings at http://www.lgib.gov.uk/index.html