So how is Mission 21 going?

I went with Canon Janet to Makerere University and had the opportunity of sitting down with the Chaplaincy Team to find out how ministry is for them. It turned out to be like a little peep into the future – a world where young adults don’t automatically accept the prevailing orthodoxies of life, where authority is questioned ….. Needless to say it seemed reassuringly familiar to me.

Then I was completely astonished when the Chaplain, Dr Francis Ebong, asked me, ‘So how is Mission 21 going these days?’. So we explored that a bit and I checked some more with the neighbours at Blogstead when I got home. When the Anglican Consultative Council met in Scotland, there was a presentation on Mission 21 – and an invitation to other provinces to explore whether it might be adapted for use in other contexts, As a result of that, Francis and others had visited Scotland and made a real connection. I have subsequently been talking to Gill Young and to Revd Dean Fostekew who both visited Uganda as in the development of this partnership. Gill has kindly provided a report of the work done at that time.

So we had an ‘on the ground’ missional link with Uganda and we let that slip?

And then Janet and I went to meet and have lunch with the local Alicia, Joram Kahenano, Diocesan Secretary in the Diocese of Kampala. Like many of us, he was trying to instil good and consistent processes at the heart of diocesan life, He was also special because he is a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda. So we had a fascinating discussion about the future – the economic future of Uganda, the changes which even the beginnings of economic development may bring and the impact of that on the church. It was a great privilege to meet him.