"Missionaries best exemplify the Anglican Communion because they cross borders to be in relationship with others," said the Rev. Jane Butterfield, who slated a discussion of the Lambeth Commission on Communion report at the orientation session here.
Butterfield, mission personnel officer of the Episcopal Church, joined the Rev. James Lemler, the new director of mission for the Episcopal Church, and the Very Rev. Titus Presler, seminary dean and former chair of the Standing Commission on World Mission, in discussing the Windsor Report with 20 missionaries-to-be during the January orientation program on the campus of the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest.

"You will be the first outgoing missionaries to have the Windsor Report when you leave for your assignment," said Dean Presler. "The report is very important in many provinces you're headed to, and the issues are emotional for all. Mission is relational and inter-Anglican relations have been deeply affected by the current tensions."
Presler urged the missionaries to "work intensively through the many issues yourselves and with others, practice the art of listening and aim for fruitful dialogue." He called for "a high quality of discourse" and cautioned against saying "hurtful things to those with whom you disagree."

"We're living in a time of whitewater change in the world and in the church, and leadership requires learning," declared Lemler. "This is a crucial moment in the history of the Episcopal Church, and we should use the Windsor Report to strengthen mission." Saying he brings urgency and hopefulness to his new ministry, Lemler encouraged the missionaries to explore the themes of "Companions in Transformation," the world mission vision statement that the 2003 General Convention commended to the church for study.

Dean Presler and two Episcopal bishops -- the Rt. Revs. Theodore Daniels, of Texas, and John Lipscomb, of Southwest Florida -- traveled to three provinces in East Africa last summer for "candid and substantive" talks with church leaders about the turmoil in the Anglican Communion. Details of the journey.

Despite the controversy, no Anglican province or diocese has asked the Episcopal Church's Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society to recall missionaries or stop sending new ones, Butterfield said. More than 90 missionaries currently serve in 36 countries throughout the world. Many companion diocese relationships remain strong amid the current tensions, she said.

After being commissioned at the conclusion of the third annual orientation program held at the Seminary of the Southwest, the 20 new missionaries -- ranging in age from the 20s to the 60s -- will go to mission sites in Brazil, China, El Salvador, Honduras, Kenya, Panama, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania and other African countries. The group includes nine members of the Young Adult Service Corps (YASC) and several clergy.

Buttressed by two weeks of discussions of scripture, mission theology, cultural dynamics, evangelism, interfaith relations, medical needs, financial issues and security issues, and living a missionary identity, the new missionaries have learned the importance of another skill -- listening.

"The General Convention's decisions were made without enough discussion with the larger Anglican Communion," said Wesley Fletcher, a young adult from West Texas who served in Uganda and assists in coordinating the YASC program. "So now we have to discuss it. It seems simplistic to say this - but it isn't," she said.