International Mission Partnership Consultation 2024

In August 2024 the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland will host its second International Mission Partnership Consultation in Helsinki. The theme will be ”Your Will Be Done – Church and Mission in Changing Landscapes”. The theme of the second International Mission Partnership Consultation in 2024 has  been taken from the Lord’s Prayer. It underlines the importance of the Prayer as a common heritage shared by all Christians and, as such, emphasizes their unity. At the same time “Your Will Be Done” describes the participation of the church and Christians, together, in the great mission movement of God (missio Dei) and the doing of God’s will in a rapidly changing world. Christians pray and act together for the coming of God´s kingdom and for the doing of God’s will in this world. This is common witness. In addition, see the link below to the “Common Witness 2023”, which is the global mission policy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.

The International Mission Partnership Consultation will remind everyone of the unity of Christians and the task of witnessing to Christ that has been assigned to them. Christians are united as one so ”that the world may believe.” (John 17:21). Churches and Christians need one another. The mission of the church is being undertaken in a globalized and rapidly changing world in which churches in their many diverse contexts are facing the questions and phenomena posed by a postmodern environment. The diverse contexts provide a wide variety of conditions for Christian witness in word and deed.

The purpose of the consultation is to come together with more than 40 international representatives of mission partnership churches from around the world, in addition to more than 40 Finnish mission and ecumenical guests. They will reflect on a number of current themes arising from their various contexts, telling and listening to stories originating in their various contexts, so that they can search for common and best practices, and learn from one other. The International Mission Partnership Consultation will provide a concrete reminder of the universality of Christ’s Church: what happens to churches and Christians elsewhere in this world has a direct impact on the life of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and on that of all Finnish Christians.

Another living reminder of the universality of the Church and of its inextricable connection with the Church’s mission will take the form of visits by the international partners to a number of Finnish dioceses and parishes before and/or following the consultation organized by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in Helsinki (26 – 30 August 2024). In addition, the Church’s mission agencies and the Finn Church Aid will organize their own meetings with their respective partners in order to strengthen their partnerships and to plan more effective ways of performing the tasks that they have in common. The updated list of meetings will be posted here.

The first International Mission Partnership Consultation of the Church was organized in Järvenpää, Finland, in the spring of 2014, and its theme at that time was, “Your Kingdom Come”.  It was the first time that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland had gathered representatives of its mission partner churches from all over the world to reflect on, discuss, and celebrate mission in unity and unity in mission. Previously, some of the mission agencies of the Church had invited their own partners to Finland, but the 2014 meeting gathered together representatives of all the Church´s then seven Finnish Lutheran mission agencies.

The Office for Global Mission as part of the Department for International Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland develops, coordinates, and guides the mission of the Church together with its parishes, dioceses, and partner organisations. The Synod of the Church has admitted nine organisations as mission and international diakonia agencies of the Church. They implement the mission and the international diaconia of our Church together with their international partners.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s organisations and signatory agencies in mission and international diaconia:

• ELY
• Finn Church Aid (FCA)
• Finnish Bible Society (FBS)
• Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (FELM)
• Finnish Lutheran Mission (FLM)
• Finnish Lutheran Overseas Mission (FLOM)
• Lutheran Evangelical Association of Finland (LEAF)
• Sansa (Media Mission the Messengers)
• The Swedish Lutheran Evangelical Association in Finland (SLEAF)

Common Witness 2023 is the global mission policy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. The Bishops’ Conference approved it in its meeting in October 2022. The first part of the policy describes the church’s basic theological understanding of mission. The church is missionary, and the church and all its members should lead a missional life. The second part of the text lists the document’s key policy principles.
Mission organisations and organisations working in the field of international diaconia that have signed a framework agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland are committed to the global mission policy approved by the Bishops’ Conference and the principles contained within the policy. Both framework agreements for mission and for international diaconia are valid for a five-year period.

Read it in English and in Spanish:

International Mission Partnership Consultation will be held in Cultural Centre and Conference Hotel Sofia in Helsinki, 26 – 30 August 2024.

International Mission Partnership Consultation is an even by invitation-only. The invitation to our guests will be sent end of this year. Guests of the consultation and parishioners of the Church can be met at events organised by our partner organisations, dioceses and parishes before and after the consultation. Information on these events, as well as on the open events and streamed plenary sessions of the International Mission Partnership Consultation, will be updated on this website.

The official logo of the International Mission Partnership Consultation is available to be used for events and communications related to the consultation. Download the logos from here.

Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay is the ninth Secretary-General of the World Council of Churches (WCC). Pillay was previously Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria. He is a native of South Africa and a member of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA). He served as President of the UPCSA from 2004-2006 and then as General Secretary of the same church from 2009-2014.

When he became part of the leadership of the Uniting Presbyterian Church, he was appointed a member of the WCC Central Committee and was also appointed to the Board of the Council for World Mission. He also served on the National Executive Committee of the South African Council of Churches for several years and was the first President of the World Communion of Reformed Churches from 2010 to 2017.

Rev. Dr Kuzipa Nalwamba is the WCC Programme Director for Unity, Mission and Ecumenical Formation (UMEF). She is ordained in the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) and has served as congregation minister, school chaplain and as theological educator. She also worked for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) and the Council for World Mission (CWM) in various capacities. Her research interests are in eco-theology and history of Christianity and mission.

Rev. Dr. theol. Anne Burghardt is General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). She is an ordained pastor of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church where she used to serve at the EELC Institute of Theology and at the EELC Head Office. From 2013 – 2018, she served as Secretary for Ecumenical Relations at the LWF and was responsible for coordinating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. She has done research on Orthodox liturgics and has a doctoral degree from Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen, Germany.