The Internet in Mission and Ecumenism ... - Reformiert online

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c. Seven ways of doing Mission In this sense mission can be understood in multiple ways. First the churches’ mission today needs to be prophetic in terms of being present in the public space, recognising the signs, of the time and being critical of the social and political structures wherever it needs to be. Secondly the mission should be liberative in its praxis liberating people from exploitation and the forces of hegemony. In this sense the churches and the Christian institutions should show solidarity with communities at the margins who are affected by the dominant groups. Thirdly mission needs to nourish and strengthen the culture of the people. Christian mission and the process of modernisation have gone together in many parts of the developing world where local aspects of culture were identified as evil, and the converts were asked to give up their cultural practices without question and testing. Fourthly the main task of mission today is to rebuild communities that are broken by communal violence and religious hatred. It needs a reconciliatory approach towards communities which means to listen and encourage people to come together regardless of religious, ethnic and racial differences. This demands dialogue and interaction between communities. Fifthly mission also includes communicating the gospel to all people. This means we are called to witness and share what God has done in our lives in Jesus Christ. We can engage with others in search for meanings of Christ and of God without making any exclusive claims. Sixthly our mission needs to be development-oriented in which we show our care for the other, particularly the sick and the sidelined. Finally our mission should be participatory. We need to open ourselves that others can discover Christ in us while we need to engage with other in their search for meanings of God and of life where we will discover God in their activities. It is essential that we engage in each other’s search for meanings in order to nourish each other’s faith and knowledge. These are seven dimensions with which the interaction between Mission, Ecumenism and Internet will be studied in the following sections. The churches’ involvement in the media is being influenced to some extent by a traditional understanding of mission in which evangelisation and providing information about Christianity to the non-Christians are often seen as main tasks. It is essential to look at the way the churches use the media in their mission and to critically examine it from the standpoint of Jesus’ methods of communication. 3. Media, Mission and Ecumenism a. Instrumental Use Very often the churches tend to use the media as instruments of communication in order to expand their sphere of influence. It is known as the extension of the pulpit through which the church attempts to reach out to a wider audience through sermons and worship programmes. Such an attitude can be seen in the statements of World Council of Churches Assembly statements as, “Evangelically, the churches must resist the temptation to use the media in ways which violate people’s dignity and manipulate them, but rather (the church) should proclaim with humility and conviction the truth entrusted to it” [Gill 1983:107]. Most of the churches use the net as an instrument to provide information about their churches and their programs. The underlying belief behind such an understanding of media and mission is that, God is seen as a fixed sender of the gospel message which is reflected in one of their statements as, “God speaks, the church proclaims… In Jesus Christ God revealed himself to man and made communion with him possible…The (this message) must be preached ….to modern man.” [Goodall 1968:394-5]. Since 1983 many theological views as well as the perception of the churches towards the media have undergone changes and so there is a development in thought in terms of communication of the Gospel to others. Nevertheless one cannot see any changes overall in their engagement with the media in general appropriating other concepts of mission. 10
Critique In such an instrumental perspective, Christian communication is seen as an equivalent of passing on information about God and Jesus to all people on earth. Having received the message faithfully from God through Jesus the churches are called to send it to all. The media are seen as mere instruments to carry the gospel from the communicator to the audience. This widens the gap between the communicator and the audience and places the communicator in a superior position than to the audience. The cultural aspects of the media and their hermeneutic role have been neglected. The receiving role of the audience is given more importance than other perspectives. The audience plays a major role in the construction of the meanings of the gospel whereas the above view devalues the persons in favour of the message [Weber 1992]. It emphasises the powerlessness of the receiver. This traditional model of sender-message-receiver dominated in the understanding of the use of the media in mission. b. Effect-Centred Perspective The churches and other institutions also express concern over the media’s impact on people and particularly on Christians. The churches tend to address the ethical and social issues raised by the effect of the media on people. In this effect-centred approach the media are seen as very powerful in reaching the masses with their values and even divides people economically. This is reflected in the Canberra Assembly (1991) where it states, “Means of Communication are powerful tools of hidden control…. The truth is not told and we cannot exercise free judgement. The mass media are a means of cultural imperialism” [Kinnamon 1991:83]. Even in the Harare Statement media are seen as technological systems that promote consumerist values and widens gap between rich and poor, powerful and powerless [WCC Web 1999:25]. Critique The effect-centred perspective has a strong assumption that there is a correlation between some social problems and the effect of the media on the audience. This perspective also predicts continuation and changes in the present economic 5 , political 6 and cultural 7 systems. By denying access and dividing people into ‘have’s’ and ‘have not’s’ such technology is seen as widening the existing gap between the rich and the poor. Being a critic of this view Hamelink argues that it is not possible to predict the future social impact of any technology and so social choices about the future can be made under conditions of uncertainty 8 . One needs to recognise certain variables that are involved in the interaction between the media and the audience. It means the observations in one context cannot be generalised to all situations. The media alone cannot be blamed for widening the divisions between the poor and the rich or for the increase in violence in a society. 5 A perpetuation of the capitalist mode of production, with a further refinement of managerial control over the production processes which results massive job displacement and de-skilling. 6 A pseudo-democracy will emerge, allowing people to participate in marginal decisions only. ICTs will enable to exercise surveillance over their citizens more effectively than before. The proliferation of ICTs in the home will individualise information consumption to a degree that makes the formation of a democratic, public opinion no more than an illusion. 7 There are tendencies of forceful cultural “globalization” for example Macdonaldization and aggressive cultural tribalization – fragmentation of cultural communities into fundamentalist cells with little or no understanding of different tribes. 8 Cees Hamelink, “ICTs AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: THE GLOBAL POLICY CONTEXT”, Papers presented at the UNRISD Conference on Information Technologies and Social Development. Geneva, 22-23 June 1998, http://www.unrisd.org/infotech/conferen/icts/toc.htm. P.6 11
Page 1 and 2: Evangelische Landeskirche Evangelis
Page 3 and 4: 1. Program of the Consultation "Mis
Page 5 and 6: communication and learning - and we
Page 7 and 8: 3. Input 1: “Implementing Multicu
Page 9: 2. Mission and Ecumenism The words,
Page 13 and 14: offices and improving the services
Page 15 and 16: A few years ago one of our visiting
Page 17 and 18: gap between sender and receiver is
Page 19 and 20: 6. Internet and Mission: Possibilit
Page 21 and 22: government, NGOs, churches and pare
Page 23 and 24: i. Net as Alternative Media Net can
Page 25 and 26: Appendix FTP - File Transfer Protoc
Page 27 and 28: Here the Internet seemed and seems
Page 29 and 30: studies on the New Testament compil
Page 31 and 32: 6. Working Groups on the three Inpu
Page 33 and 34: Other Preconditions: - Cultural dif
Page 35 and 36: Topics that were not selected: �
Page 37 and 38: 7.3 Results of Working Group 3 Tech
Page 39 and 40: 7.5 Results of Working Group 5 Advo
Page 41 and 42: 8.3 Results of Working Group 3: Dif
Page 43 and 44: Annex 1: Power Point Presentation b
Page 45 and 46: Virtual Learning Community • Cont
Page 47 and 48: Different communication styles •
Page 49 and 50: Layout of learning environments •
Page 51 and 52: Virtual collaboration -Groupware -T
Page 53 and 54: Annex 2: Power Point Presentation o
Page 55 and 56: Jesus’ Mission and Communication
Page 57 and 58: Mass media Networking Churches and
Page 59 and 60: Annex 3: List of Participants EMS S
Page 61 and 62:
Resource Persons Dr. Joshva Raja, A
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