Around 1000 Christians from different denominations and traditions heard the call from the Archbishop of York at the close of Edinburgh 2010 on June 6 to “be, see, think and do mission”. The occasion, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the historic World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910 and the subsequent birth of the world church.
In his address Dr John Sentamu said too much of what the Church did today amounted to nothing more than “re-arranging the furniture”.
“Re-organising the structures; arguing over words and phrases while humanity as a whole plunges suicidally into obscurity and meaningless and despair; and so often the Church’s activities and energies appear to be totally irrelevant to the needs of the world today.”
The archbishop stressed that although not every follower of Christ was called to be an evangelist, every Christian was nonetheless called to be a witness, with a responsibility to lead people to Christ.
He warned that Jesus was being judged negatively as a result of the words and deeds of believers and noted that Christians had “stopped being expectant” of Jesus’ ability to transform the failure and hopelessness of believers.
