Crossing Boundaries

The many ways of understanding foreign mission

By Fr. David Warren, S.F.M.
March 2003

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Although officially known as the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, our community prefers the shorter and more popular name, Scarboro Missions. Yet, even without using the word "foreign," we are committed to foreign mission and it is very much embedded in who we are and what we are about.

When people hear the words "foreign mission," they think of missionaries who are working outside of Canada. In other words, they understand foreign mission in terms of geography.

However, besides a geographical sense, there are other ways of understanding foreign mission:

• In a religious sense, foreign mission is missionary activity among peoples whose religion is other than Christianity. The Great Commission of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, "Go forth, teach all nations," reflects this understanding of foreign mission. (These words appear on the emblem of Scarboro Missions.)
• In a cultural sense, foreign mission is missionary activity in a cultural world other than that of the missionary. In the past, particular cultures tended to correspond to particular countries, but nowadays, with the massive migrations of peoples, "cultural minorities" are found within Canada.
• In a sociological sense, foreign mission is missionary activity in a social world other than that of the missionary, that is to say, in the world of the poor. The poor are not merely those who lack material goods but also-and especially-those who are "made-to-be-poor," who are excluded, who are marginalized.

Scarboro Missions is engaged in all of these forms of foreign mission. We are present in other countries of the world and so we are engaged in foreign mission in the geographical sense. In these same countries we are present to peoples of other cultures and so we are engaged in foreign mission in the cultural sense. We are present to peoples of other faiths in China, Japan, Guyana, and Thailand and so we are engaged in foreign mission in the religious sense. Finally, we are present to the poor in the countries where we work and so we are engaged in foreign mission in the sociological sense.

Which form is most important to us?

Geography, by itself, has never been the criterion of foreign mission for Scarboro Missions, yet our official documents have always emphasized "leaving home" in order to meet those who are "different" from us.

The Mission Statement of Scarboro's Ninth General Chapter (1992) asserts that "given the history, tradition, and charism of Scarboro, our primary witness is overseas. It is this mission experience overseas that gives us our particular authenticity in our mission work in Canada."

We use the word "authenticity" because of our experience living and serving among peoples of other lands and cultures. We walk among them, sharing life with them. We listen and learn and, like the disciples, we come back to our home Church to share what we have seen and heard.

In a globalized world, foreign mission in a geographical sense seems to belong to the past. It is no longer necessary to leave Canada in order to engage in foreign mission in the cultural or religious sense of the term. Massive immigration since the Second World War has created a situation in which people of other cultures and religions are now to be found within Canada. Easily, one can say that mission today is everywhere-it is without borders.

Crossing boundaries

In reality, foreign mission is crossing a boundary to meet those who are "different." Those boundaries may be religious, cultural, or sociological. But foreign mission is more than that-foreign mission is meeting those who are 'different' where they are 'at home' and we aren't; where they are the host and we are the guest.

One way of describing foreign mission is to say that it is a visit. A visit is a conversation in which the guest and the host mutually give and receive. As a guest, the missionary offers the Gospel as he or she lives it and as the Canadian Church lives it. At the same time, the host shares personal riches and the riches of his or her culture and religion with the missionary. There occurs a process of mutual enrichment.

As a foreigner, the missionary is able to affirm the wisdom and values of the people whom he or she is visiting. The foreigner does not know the culture and religion of people better than a people know their own culture and religion. But, as an outsider, the foreigner can see the wisdom and values that may escape the reflective awareness of a people because they are too close to their culture and religion. People often fail to see their own giftedness.

In the Bible, God's entry into human history is described as a "visit." A visit requires crossing a boundary between the home of the one who is visiting and the home of the one who is being visited. In order that we might have Life, God has crossed the dividing line between heaven and earth, between eternity and time, between His divinity and our humanity. God has crossed these boundaries because God is committed to us.

By their readiness to leave their own country and to meet people of other cultures and religions on their own turf, missionaries are signs that the Church is committed to those who are different-to 'the other.' This means that mission is witnessing to the reign of God for all peoples; in effect, bringing down the borders of our foreignness to each other and welcoming us into the fullest vision of humanity-the family of God.

To get there, we must begin by stepping beyond our borders in faith. Yes, it still has the feel of mission in a geographical sense, but it is much more. And so, Scarboro Missions continues to go overseas, beyond borders, to meet others and to invite them to do the same.

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