World Mission Sunday Liturgy
World Mission Sunday Bulletin Insert
Today for World Mission Sunday we are using the liturgy from the Anglican Church of Kenya. As Christians, and specifically as Anglicans, we are a part of a global family of believers. Today we joyfully join in with millions of our brothers and sisters in Kenya in using the beautiful liturgy they have produced.
Contextualization: A value in the Anglican Church is the contextualization of the liturgy in which the unchanging truth of the Gospel is creatively taught and lived within diverse contexts. The church in Kenya has done a remarkable job of incorporating significant elements of their society and history into the Anglican liturgy—thus connecting the service with the tradition that has gone before as well as the culture of which they are a part.
In the Light: A major theme of the East African Revival is “living in the light” (1 John 1:7), meaning turning away from sin, confessing sin to others, and living in the way of Jesus. Notice how much “light” language is used throughout the service.
Land: Land is a significant element of traditional Kenyan society. Notice the way the service emphasizes land in a variety of places. Observe, for example, the point of connection with Abraham being a nomad for a society that has many nomadic tribes.
Brotherhood: Notice the many ways that the community of believers is emphasized. African society is far more community-focused than western society. This is a valuable corrector to the radical individualism of our culture.
Blessing: The blessing used in this service has an interesting history. In traditional Kenyan society there was a curse used: “All our problems we send to our enemies…” The church reworked that curse and changed it to, “All our problems we send to the setting sun.” Over time the Christians in western Kenya began to be concerned that Kenyans were always sending their problems their direction! So, the blessing was creatively changed to play on the “setting sun” theme by sending our problems to the cross of Christ and setting our hopes on the risen sun, Jesus Christ.