Who Speaks for Europe?

When it comes to discussing mission in Europe, there are a number of pitfalls or dangers that we need to be aware of. Firstly, the discussion itself can be dominated by powerful or influential voices whilst marginalising others; and secondly that our discussion may be with like-minded people, or those who work in a similar area, and so we may only be hearing views similar to our own, or based on experiences like ours.

Our hope is that reflection on mission will continue to become more representative and more inclusive, and so in a spirit of openness and inclusivity we invited a range of people involved in mission across Europe to answer a series of questions on the subject of who speaks for Europe today, asking whose voice is perhaps being excluded or ignored, and what can be done to create more inclusive spaces for those engaged in European mission.

We invited responses from (1) selected church leaders and church planters, (2) migrant/diaspora leaders and voices, (3) mission agency leaders, (4) a missions network, (5) an ‘outsider’ working in European mission.

What follows is by no means perfectly representative of European mission or its practitioners, and readers will no doubt share our concerns about the limited involvement of women and of Eastern Europeans. But this is a listening exercise, a starting point for ongoing reflection about how we understand European mission – and on whose terms.

Our thanks to those who participated in this research – and our apologies to those whom we could have invited to participate but failed to reach out to.

Any responses can be sent to us via the Vista blog Europeanmission.redcliffe.ac.uk or emailed to us at Vista@redcliffe.org