Evangelism Today Part One

Some time ago, I went into a new store that had opened in my home town of Parkhill, Ontario and engaged the owners who I didn’t know.  When they found out I was an Anglican Priest one of them asked what the “official” position of the Anglican Church was on Islam.  I asked why they were interested in knowing this and was asked in return if I knew what “Islam” meant.  I admitted that I didn’t know and was informed that it meant “surrender”. 

The woman I was speaking to was emphatic that she believed this meant that non-Muslims should surrender to the rule of Islam.  That is not her exact words but it my recollection of the conversation. I responded to the effect that I thought that it meant that Muslims should surrender to the will of God and that similarly Christians are called to live their lives following Jesus Christ. Looking back, I wish that I had engaged her more constructively but I was caught somewhat by surprize with Muslims not being a significant presence in and around Parkhill to say the least.  Also, I must confess I hadn’t thought much about the position of my church on other religions.  I was not actually aware of what the Anglican Church position on this issue.  Anglicans are, course, part of the Christian Church that has had a long and difficult history in holding that it was the one true faith and the only way to salvation was through Jesus Christ.  It has had a checkered history of forcefully converting people to Christianity with checkered results.

However, in a multi-cultural country such as Canada and a world that is much smaller that when the church was sending out missionaries to convert the natives – with the best of intentions i.e. the belief that they were saving their souls – how are we to relate to our neighbours of other religions or people of no religions? 

Well, I decided to actually investigate and educate myself on this subject.  I had been aware that the issue of the Anglican Church has dealt with one aspect of the its relations to the Jewish faith at our recent General Synod - our national governing body.  There was approval to delete an invocation calling for the conversion of Jews from the Book of Common Prayer, and replace it with a prayer entitled “For Reconciliation with the Jews.”  Certainly, this is a positive step forward, if not something that should have happened many years ago. 

I also found some information of the Web site for the Anglican Church which enlightened me on the subject.  Under the heading of Ecumenical Relationships was this statement which is addresses the issue, “As members of the Anglican Church of Canada we believe that we are called to continue the ecumenical faith journey, in which we discover in sign, symbol, and practice God’s presence in ourselves and in others, at the same time learning afresh from the living heritage of our Anglican identity.”

Under the heading of Interfaith Dialogue there is a quote from Hans Kung, a Roman Catholic theologian, “There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions.”  This is followed by a statement on the position of the church.

The Anglican Church of Canada pursues formal dialogue with people of other faiths together with the other member churches of the Canadian Council of Churches. We also participate in the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, which gathers representatives of different religious groups who believe that people of faith can contribute positively to the benefit of all people in Canadian society.

There are no statements, thank God, about conversion of others.  Evangelism today must take the form of demonstrating the love of Christ to others as Jesus Commanded us. As the early Christian hymn stated they will know we are Christians by our love.  That is the best way to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world.

Next week I will continue on this theme with some very positive information that I became aware of recently that is very helpful on the approach we can use in interfaith dialogue; work done by the Snowmass Conference. 

Blessings on your journey.