The 2008 GEMN Institute will be a joint meeting with all the mission related agencies of the Episcopal church – a real global event.  It will be held at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute in Baltimore from June 5-8, 2008  A web site has been created for this global mission conference for GEM and the other agencies of the Episcopal Church active in global mission, so check it out at www.everyone08.org.

   The conference theme is “Engaging in Effective Mission.” The keynote speakers include Dr. Steve de Gruchy, the Director of Theology and Development Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.  The Rev. Paul-Gordon Chandler, Episcopal missionary and noted author and Rector of Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist, Maadi, Cairo, Egypt will speak on “The Church and Islam.” Hellen Wangusa is Anglican Observer at the United Nations and former United Nations Africa coordinator of the Millenium Development Goals and will speak on “The Millenium Development Goals and Beyond.”

   Everyone, Everywhere is an opportunity for people committed to mission to build relationships  with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world to:

 ■   Celebrate existing relationships and nurture new ones.

 ■   Meet with others who have common interests and experiences in specific regions or specific topics.

 ■   Share personal mission stories.

 ■   Learn how to engage in more effective world mission.

   This 3 day conference will give attendees a taste of the world through worship and music, dynamic plenary speakers/sessions, workshops that offer creative as well as practical approaches to mission, Bible study, innovative ways to engage in relationship building, and space to meet with regional groups and mission networks.  A marketplace of global crafts, a bookstore targeting global mission interests, and an exhibition hall for parishes, diocese and mission groups, will provide a world of resources.  Evening events will add to the festive flavor of Everyone, Everywhere.

2006 Global Episcopal Mission Network (GEMN) Institute

and Young Adult Mission Experience Institute (YMEI)

Our Institute held at Kenyon College on June 7th, 8th and 9th, 2006 was a great success.  On the beautiful Kenyon campus we heard mission talked about in a series of ways.  Dr. Michael Dohn, a medical missionary in the Dominican Republic,  spoke of his work and talked about the impact mission work is having in that poverty stricken country.  He displayed a slide that showed that 5 % of the people (the United States primarily) have about 95 % of the money and the other 95 % of the people have only the remaining 5 %. What a sobering thought!

The Rt. Rev. Julio Murray, the bishop of Panama, was an outstanding speaker. He told us the mission of the church was the mission of God.  It is not about us; it is about God.  We are to help people open the eyes of their imagination to a new and possible reality.

The Rev. Dr. Richard Jones, Professor in Mission at Virginia Seminary,  talked of the rich history of our Anglican heritage. The Rev. Pat Powers gave a workshop on each person call to mission.  Canon Margaret Larom gave a workshop on how we perceive our discernment for mission and her struggles when her husband was called to mission work. Bob Stevens, Gini Peterson, Marcus Cunningham and Paul Klitzke from our board put on well attended and well received workshops. The Rev. Helen Svoboda-Barber, the priest-in-charge at Kenyon College, and the Archivist at Kenyon gave us a good history of the college and the Rt. Rev. Philander Chase, founder of Kenyon, and Helen's great, great, great, grandfather.

Sue Messenger and her team did a marvellous job with the Certificate Program.  Marcus Cunningham and Ben Calder put on a meaningful YMEI program for our 7 youth participants.

The final Eucharist was held in the historic chapel at Kenyon College and was a proper ending to a well received Institute.

Our next Institute will be held at the DuBose Conference Center just outside Sewanee, Tennessee on June 20 - 22, 2007.

The 2005 Institute below:

Diocesan global mission representatives gathered in Indianapolis, IN, June 23–24, 2005 for the GEM Institute and Annual Meeting. The theme of this year’s gathering was “Ambassadors of Reconciliation.” Dr. Esther Mombo, Academic Dean of St. Paul’s United Theological College in Limuru, Kenya, and member of the Eames Commission was the keynote speaker. Read her speech by clicking on Ambasadors of Reconciliation-Gem 05. The Rt. Rev. Catherine Waynick delivered the banquet address.  Read her address entitled “The Bishop as Principal Missionary Agent of the Diocese.” The group also heard from the Rev. Canon Mark Harris, former ECUSA Director of Mission Personnel and GEMN, who led a Bible Study on 2 Cor. 5:17–21. Workshop topics included “Challenges for Long Term Mission”; working with the Mission Personnel Office; networking at the local, diocesan, and national levels; mission discernment; and the Millenium Development Goals. Participants in the Certificate Program for equipping Diocesan Mission Agents arrived a day early for additional training and the first class of students completed their three years of training and graduated. Young people ages 18–24 who have had significant mission experiences participated as part of the first Youth Mission Educational Institute (YMEI).

The Global Episcopal Mission Network is an association of dioceses of the Episcopal Church, together with partner dioceses throughout the Anglican Communion, committed to the engagement of diocesan bishops, leadership and people  in Global Mission. It exists only insofar as its members use it. We are not part of the organizational structure of the Episcopal Church on a national level. Rather we are an agency of a living body, the body of believers who see their faith in a global context - who wonder at the ways in which Jesus Christ is known in the world - as savior and liberator, as freeing us, yet captivating us, as foreign from us as possible and as close to us as the God who made us. The GEM Network simply proposes that in our faithfulness we must find ways of building on one another's strengths as we work to make Christ known in the world.

Many of the ideas on these pages (and in particular in the GEM Handbook) grow from the experience of people in dioceses who are trying to live out the vision of being people of God connected with the rest of the world. The matters discussed are often quite practical. Yet at the same time they return again and again the same basic issues of missionary methods and policies.

Why Global Mission?

Jesus said:

    "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation." (MK 16:15)

    "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matt 28:19)

    "Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21)

As Ambassadors of Christ, all Episcopalians are called to bear Christ's name, discern Christ's image, and proclaim Christ's good news of salvation, hope and love.  We share Christ's work of teaching, healing and reconciliation with the Church in every place.  Empowered and nurtured by the Holy Spirit, we must pass the Gospel, and the commission to proclaim it, the this and succeeding generations.

Be sure to look at the  Diocesan web pages and the GEM Handbook!