Dear Readers,

Greetings to you from the Synod of the Church of North India.

From 27^th to 29^th March 2009 the Church of North India had their Mission Consultation to revisit the “Mission Statement” adopted by the 11^th session of the Synod of the Church of North India in 2001 along with the seven priorities for the first decade of the twenty-first century. All CNI Diocesan Bishops, the members of the newly elected members of the Executive Committee and ordained, women and youth representatives from twenty-six Dioceses attended this consultation. I had referred to the Objects and purposes of the Church of North India as enshrined in the CNI Constitution in my letter published in the last issue of this magazine. At this Consultation we initiated a process of mission audit to find out whether our activities at the congregational, Pastorate, Diocesan and the Synod level explain and confirm the Mission Statement. Because we believe that the CNI Mission Statement defines the Objects and purposes for which it believes it is working. David Bosch said - “there is church because there is mission, not vice versa”. The Mission Statement we adopted in 2001 and the objects and purposes enshrined in the Constitution belong to the whole Church and not just that of the Synod. “Mission is the whole church taking the whole Christ to the whole world” was reaffirmed at the Mission Consultation held in July 2005 under the theme “Uniting in Christ’s Mission”. During this Consultation we looked at the following five faces of Mission:

• ·        Proclamation and Evangelism

• ·        Loving Service

• ·        Nurture, Pastoral Care and Education

• ·        Justice, Peace and Reconciliation

• ·        Care for Environment and Creation

At Pathankot, Punjab during the 13^th Session of the Synod held in October 2008 we declared through the Pathankot Affirmation that historically the call to unity came from the pain and passion for mission, which in other words means that minus passion for mission we lose our unity and identity. The Pathankot Affirmation has called upon the Synod, the Dioceses, the Pastorates, the congregations and every single member of the Church of North India to prayerfully consider the following:

• ·     Return in repentance to Jesus Christ whose mission partners we are,

• ·     We are one in the body of Christ. “Body is an organic metaphor. If the body is alive, the pain of a wound inflicted on one part of  that body will be felt by the body as a whole and the whole body will respond in a healing manner.

• ·     Spiritual renewal of our mission to educate and equip CNI educational Institutions to be effective instruments for spreading the Good News of liberation for societal transformation and thereby work towards restraining our institutions from drifting away from the Church and succumb to the seductions of commercialization.

• ·     The sign of a living faith is in its sensitivity to the given context. Evolve innovative and contextually pro-active strategies for mission and evangelism so that mission of Christ is done, excluding avoidable offences.

• ·     The Church is not a secular institution, but a spiritual movement:

Through this I invite the whole Church to participate in the process of Mission audit at your level and help the Church to revisit the Mission Statement and the Mission Priorities or the next decade as our journey towards Golden Jubilee in the year 2020. Your comments and inputs will be published in the forthcoming issues of North India Church Review.

Yours in His Mission.

Rev. Dr. Enos Das Pradhan

General Secretary

The Synod of the Church of North India