Some Thoughts about Being "Companions"
1. Our global mission relationships take time
to grow into true accompaniment. That is ... we walk with
our partner seeking to step at their pace ... seeking to
see and understand their present context.
- Accompaniment is the manner of ELCA's global
mission relationships. It is characterized by "A
walking together in solidarity that practices
interdependence1," honoring of each other's integrity
and wholeness, participatory decision-making, and
mutuality.
- The concept of accompaniment calls for a
fundamental change in the implementation of global
mission. A primary reality of accompaniment is the
mutual respect of the companions with whom mission is
shared.
- Accompaniment challenges us to overcome the
donor-receiver model whereby the Northern partner
assumes the role of the donor and the Southern
companion that of the receiver.
2. The role of a bishop or president in each church
is understood by most as a critical one ... to represent
a wider set of concentric circles is viewed as of great
importance.
- The synodical leaders set the tone and the manner
of the ELCA's companion relationship(s) by
establishing an early connection with the companion
church and its leader.
- In relating to and visiting the companion, be a
spiritual leader who is prepared to pray, preach,
preside, administer sacraments, share scripture, offer
blessings and words of encouragement, and express
solidarity and fellowship in Jesus Christ.
- Conduct yourself in ways that show deep respect
and ability to interpret differences in culture and
tradition.
3. The role of the bishop or president goes beyond
sending persons from our synod to another part of the
world. It also includes providing oversight to a fabric
of relationships and understandings.
- Connect with companions at the level of our common
faith, honoring the companion's leadership and history
as well as the ELCA's history and relationship(s) in
mission with this church.
- Respect the Christian faith as expressed in
cultures that give more value to community in contrast
to North American traditions of individualism and
self-expression.
- Ritual Leadership - Understand the bishop's
important ritual role in occasions that give public
expression to shared fellowship and mission such as
consecrations and installations of bishops.
4. Our relationships grow when we understand that
gifts are being unveiled and offered to us through
sisters and brothers in our companion churches. In my
synodical ministry, it is helpful to ask what have I
received as a gift that informs what I am doing.
- Be ready to learn and receive what the host wishes
to share and plan.
- Ensure the participation and public leadership of
synod women clergy and leaders in visits to the
companion.
- Develop skills for setting boundaries and offering
dignity in response to inappropriate gestures of
requests by both companions and synod members.
5. Many will find it helpful to sharpen and define
the purposes of each companion church visit ... both ways
... stewardship ... lay Bible study ... structured for
mission etc.
- Seek counsel from DGM if your synod visitors
intend to serve in ministries or work.
- Visit your companion with "empty hands."
- Carry a bishop's travel kit with items that
express the bishop's public office such as a bishop's
fuchsia shirt (where expected), bishop's cross, Bible,
and token gifts that symbolize the spiritual nature of
the companion relationship.
- Ensure the ritual leadership of a visiting bishop
or church leader to the ELCA synod and its public
events and special occasions.
6. In our society many of us seek to be doers (at
least I do) in companion visits ... it is important that
we seek to nourish both the doing and the being within
us.
- The synod should find creative ways to re-channel
the efforts of entrepreneurs whose activities destroy
mutuality and do not serve the mission of the
whole.
7. Groups from our synod seek to be a great gift
and to learn much. Occasionally, one can be tinkering in
something wider or deeper than we understand...keeping
the ELCA-DGM Area Program Director up to speed with what
we are planning/doing/hearing is of great help.
- Ensure that the purposes of visits are transparent
and synod representatives are accountable as
representatives of the ELCA and your synod.
- Consult with DGM Area Program Director for
critical information in ELCA's relationships with the
companion church, its structures, and other partner
relationships.
- Become acquainted with any written agreements the
ELCA (and other mission partners) have with the
companion church.
8. Gifts carry great meaning beyond their apparent
value. In some cases they become "cargo" with all kinds
of expectations or "trappings" attached that are real or
not real. As citizens of the U.S., many of us need
lifelong learning to understand the complexities of
this.
- Sharing of financial assistance should be done
only after the relationship is well established
through sharing of visits, ministries, communications,
spiritual fellowship.
- Financial projects should be undertaken in
consultation with the DGM Area Program Director to
maximize the effectiveness of the project within the
overall strategies of the church and its international
mission partners.
- Financial assistance should be given to projects
that do not create further financial obligations or
budget burdens for the companion. Contributions should
not be given to ongoing functioning costs such as
salaries and operating budgets.
- The bishop and synod leadership should be in
communication with the synod's pastors and
congregations, informing them of the synod's official
companion projects and opportunities to participate.
9. A helpful response as a companion church is to
grow in the understanding we have of each other's context
... to advocate and be aware of justice issues, crises or
persecution means reading and discussion.
- Make advocacy a primary focus of your companion
relationship!
- Consult with DGM for information regarding
advocacy efforts undertaken by the companion church
and ELCA's advocacy by DCS-LOGA.
10. Transparency is a twelve-letter word that
reminds us how valuable it is to have all the people who
might be involved know what we are up to, what we are
thinking or planning.
- Be attentive to who needs to be informed or copied
when communicating.
- Know who in the companion's national office should
be informed in what circumstances if your synod's
relationship is with a small judicatory of a large
church.
- Inform appropriate staff at DGM.
- Be transparent about plans for financial support
with both DGM and the companion church's
leadership.
An illustration might help ....
Joseph Campbell once said . . . "Where we thought to
travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own
existence. Where we had thought to be alone, we shall be
with all the world."
Presented to the Conference of Bishops by Bishop Gary
Hansen, October 3, 2000
1. Global Mission in the Twenty-first Century, Chicago:
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Division for Global
Mission, 1999, p.5.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America
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