With all due respect to our archbishops, diocesan bishops and professional theologians, the essential point is this: It is much harder to dismiss the other when we have lived, worked and worshipped together, when we have shared a common meal. This is especially true about those with whom we have the most profound disagreements. Living together is still the best way to discover what we truly have in common and what it means to be in communion.    

From the first hour Katharine Jefferts Schori was elected presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, she made it clear that she believes the church is currently being forced to neglect its most urgent mission. A few months later, on the day Jefferts Schori was officially invested, when addressing in her sermon those who "disdain" the Episcopal Church's theological position on human sexuality, she proclaimed the great importance of making poverty history, of funding AIDS work in Africa, of distributing anti-malarial mosquito nets around the developing world. And yet, as laudable as those aims and projects are, the question is not the importance of mission; it is the means by which we do it.

In 1933, close to 500 Episcopal missionaries were serving outside the United States. By the late '70s, however, there were fewer than 70. And the trend continued to decline, or to show unstable improvement, until the 1990s.

In comparison, by 1999 the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is roughly three and a half times larger than the Episcopal Church, had seven times as many long-term missionaries stationed overseas and six times our missions budget. Better still, in the same time period, the Presbyterian Church (USA), which is approximately one and a half times the size of the Episcopal Church, had 12 times as many long-term missionaries and six times the overall budget.

The decline in Episcopal mission is a complicated story, but much of it had to do with a trend toward sending money to fund development projects rather than sending missionaries themselves. That trend often was motivated by guilt about colonialism, both political and religious, and by fears of current economic and cultural imperialism.

Yet, when compared to other Christian relief agencies, the Episcopal Church was not even notably generous. That is the bad news. The good news is that by the dawn of the new century, Episcopal Church mission work began a remarkable renewal. The future of that renewal, however, is very much in question.

On the day of her election, when asked about the current divisions in the Anglican Communion, the presiding bishop noted that, "generally, once people meet face to face, they discover what they have in common." In her simple statement, Jefferts Schori poignantly expressed the significance of mission in the church. At its core, it is to meet face to face or, better yet, to live side by side so that we might discover what we have in common, remembering in whose image we were all made.

A critical role
Missionary work has a uniquely critical role to play in the renewal of the church today. Episcopalians must continue to send talented, skilled, trained missionaries around the communion – especially in these troubling times – rather than give in to the cost-cutting temptation to outsource our mission. Episcopalians must not only send their doctors and nurses and economic advisors, as important as they are, but also send their theologians – if it is not too late.

For decades, dioceses around the communion consistently have requested large numbers of educators along with medical personnel, and more specifically theology instructors, but the Episcopal Church often has shied away from education, especially theological education, as seemingly nonessential.

It is no secret that these are difficult times in the Episcopal Church, financially difficult as well as theologically and ecclesiastically difficult. But if we truly believe what we proclaim, we will make mission our first priority when it comes to drafting new budgets. If the Episcopal Church is going to lead this bold new initiative in the liberation of homosexual men and women in the church, then we must step forward with integrity to support the whole work of the church.

The future of the church will not come through mission work or even the financial support of mission projects per se, no matter how virtuous the work may be. The future of the church will come through missionaries. In the end, as it always has been in the life of the church, renewal comes not through the work itself, but through the people who have been sent out to do the work God has given them to do.