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Patriarchy & Dispersion

CHRISTOPHER CHESSUN

Mission is fom everywhere to everywhere

ALL OF US now live in a globalised context, from inhabitants of the largest
metropolises to rural people living in villages in remote areas. It is a pleasure
for me to give the Constantinople Lecture this evening as Bishop of
Southwark, with large parts of the Diocese in metropolitan London, one of the
most cosmopolitan and globalised cities on earth. And as Anglicans and
Orthodox, this is the context in which we bring the good news of Jesus Christ
as partners in the missionary enterprise following our Lord’s great command.
In the contemporary Anglican context, it has become commonplace in the
contemporary to describe the Missio Dei as “From everywhere to everywhere.”
The phrase is sometimes used as a catch phrase and catch all expression, often
used as though it were something new. But the phrase has deep roots in many
expressions of Orthodoxy, especially when we remember that our common
mission is not only for and to humanity, but for the whole of creation.

Mission and Creation

The Orthodox tradition is particularly rich in liturgical and theological
resources which express our common responsibility for the whole of creation.
To take one example, in the Armenian tradition, the Andastan is a liturgical
event, generally used at Harvest time or on other significant Rogation tide
events, to bless the four corners of the earth, blessing the East and the Church
of the Armenians, the west and all Christian states, the south and the vineyards
1
and the fields, and the north, and all cities in villages. In this liturgical blessing,
we see the sense of the all-encompassing mission of the church, not just to the
four corners of the earth, but including all creation. Orthodoxy in general has
contributed very significantly to the contemporary understanding of mission as
including reverence for creation. In the modern era, this can be seen, in many
senses, as originating with the late Patriarch of Constantinople Demetrios I’s
appeal to all people in 1989, when he wrote, “We urge, on the one hand, all the

1 http://www.armenianchurch.org/index.jsp?sid=1&id=5754&pid=112&lng=en

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