On the flight home now, still in and over this amazing part of God’s good earth where so many of the people of this earth live. While I’m on my way back, Bill Deiss will head on to Kuching, Malaysia for several days with Archbishop Bolly to see some of the church’s work there and the needs of the people.
It’s been a profoundly eye-opening trip, to see the great needs and great opportunities in these two provinces. The difference between Singapore and Burma is stunning. The changes in Burma are remarkable for their speed, and along with the rest of the world, we are cautiously optimistic (if you can, see Ben Rogers’ piece this week in the Wall Street Journal). In both Provinces, the Anglican Church is really beginning to ask some important questions about its own identity and mission.
We were impressed with how small the Anglican presence is in Southeast Asia. 370,000 Anglicans in these 10 countries with their millions of people. It’s not our question to answer but it’s the one that Anglicans here have been exploring: How does Anglicanism contextualize the Gospel and shed the English trappings, heritage, and perceptions? In other words, how can Anglicanism shed its Englishness? Another one of our questions, in light of the fact that Malaysian Anglicans represent almost 90% of the Province of Southeast Asia, is “What has enabled the Malaysian Church to grow, and what does that mean for the rest of the region?”
And as always, whenever visiting our brothers and sisters in faith around the world, we were impressed, inspired, and challenged by their own faith, discipleship, and faithfulness. God’s family is great and big and global.
No doubt in the coming months there will be more about what we’ve seen and what the Anglican Relief and Development Fund is starting to do in SE Asia on the ARDF website. Stay tuned, and thanks be to God for his faithfulness, and thank you for your prayers!
PS: If it’s easier to get caught on all the reports from this trip, I’ve put them together in a PDF here. SE_Asia_Blogs