The Anglican Consultative Council, at its second meeting held in Dublin in 1973, adopted the principles of Partners in Mission so that Anglican churches could consult and share in God’s mission within the larger communion. The following statement was adopted:

Since the Dublin meeting, there has developed throughout the Anglican Communion, a common acceptance of what the Church’s mission is as part of the mission of God. This five-fold definition of mission, accepted by the Anglican Consultative Council in 1984, reaffirmed in 1990, 1993 and again in 1996, is summarized as follows:

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• To teach, baptize and nurture new believers.
• To respond to human need by loving service.
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society.
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the earth.

Sharing this broad sense of mission and vocation for the Anglican Communion as a whole, the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada in 1995 adopted a Strategic Plan which chose as Priority A, to "strengthen our mission and development partnerships outside Canada." The Partners in Mission Committee has worked within this priority, under the following mandate:

The Partners in Mission Committee had its first meeting in February/March of 1996, together with all the other Standing Committees of General Synod. Since then, it has followed the normal pattern of meeting twice a year, in September and February. The Committee has 15 members, including 1 ecumenical member and 1 international member. In this triennium, the ecumenical member has been the Rev. Troy Beretta of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The international member has been The Most Rev. Glauco Soares de Lima, Primate of the Igreja Episcopal Anglicana Do Brasil. In September of 1997, the Committee accepted the invitation of one of its members, Nina Burnham, to meet on the Six Nations Reserve, with a day added to the meeting to allow time to visit the Reserve and learn about the issues facing indigenous Canadians.

The Committee did some of its work as a full plenary committee, and at other times divided into three regional sub-committees (Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Latin America/Caribbean) or two functional sub-committees (Mission Education, Overseas Personnel). The report of each of these sub-committees follows.

As part of its mandate, the Committee took responsibility for overseeing our church’s relationships with the Canadian Council of Churches, the Anglican Consultative Council and the World Council of Churches, all three of which have seen significant changes in the past few years.

The Canadian Council of Churches welcomed the Roman Catholic Church as a full member in 1997, and in that same year, hired its first female General Secretary, Janet Somerville, who is also a Roman Catholic. Our church’s participation in the CCC was strengthened by the election of Archbishop Barry Curtis as President of the Council.

Our church’s representation on the Anglican Consultative Council has been Archbishop Stewart Payne (bishop), the Rev. Barbara Clay (clergy) and Dr. Diane Maybee (lay). Dr. Maybee’s 9-year term concluded recently, and she has been replaced by Dr. Stephen Toope. In 1996, the Rev. Canon David Hamid, former Regional Mission Coordinator for Latin America/Caribbean, resigned from the General Synod staff to take up the position of Ecumenical Officer for the Anglican Consultative Council.

The World Council of Churches is in the midst of major re-structuring and re-visioning. Throughout this process, our church has been well represented on the Central Committee by our Primate, Archbishop Michael Peers. In December of 1998, the Eighth Assembly of the WCC will be held in Harare, Zimbabwe. Our church will send 5 official delegates, Ms. Alice Jean Finlay, Rev. Dr. Wendy Fletcher-Marsh, Dr. Gail Cuthbert Brandt, Rev. Arthur Anderson, Mr. Paul Hinton. In addition, 15 Canadian Anglicans will attend the Assembly as "Visitors".

The total budget in 1998 for our memberships in these 3 Councils, as well as the travel funds to enable Canadian Anglicans to participate in meetings and gatherings of their various commissions, committees and networks is $325,996. In addition, the Council of General Synod has decided that each year, beginning in 1997, 10% of all undesignated bequests received by the General Synod will be passed along to the Anglican Consultative Council and the World Council of Churches.

There continue to be yearly consultations with Voluntary Mission Agencies, in accordance with the policy of 1988 governing relations between the General Synod and these agencies. These consultations continue to be occasions of information-sharing and dialogue about mission theology and practice. They are marked by a growing trust amongst the participants.

The Anglican Church of Canada participated in only one Partners in Mission Consultation since the last General Synod, with the Rev. Canon Og� Beauvoir (staff) and the Rev. Canon James Bennett (Diocese of Montreal) representing the Anglican Church of Canada at the Province of West Africa PIM Consultation in Ghana. The Rev. Paul Kompass also attended, representing the Companion Diocese relationship between the Diocese of Ontario and the Diocese of Kumasi.

This past triennium saw many staffing changes. Partners in Mission staff were asked to join with staff supporting the work of EcoJustice and the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples, to form the Partnerships Department, with Dr. Ellie Johnson as Director. All three of the former Regional Mission Coordinators resigned or retired and were replaced by the Rev. Canon Og� Beauvoir for Africa/Middle East, Dr. Andrea Mann for Asia/Pacific, the Rev. Philip Wadham for Latin America/Caribbean. The Rev. Maylanne Maybee was hired as Coordinator for Mission & Justice Education, with half of her time devoted to Partners in Mission and the other half to EcoJustice. Jill Cruse has continued as Coordinator of Volunteers in Mission.

Our partners in the region include the following:

• 13 autonomous ecclesiastical Anglican Provinces:

Central Africa, Kenya, Southern Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, West Africa, Sudan, Indian Ocean, the Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East;

• 9 ecumenical institutions:

All Africa Conference of Churches, World Student Christian Federation, Project for Christian Muslim Relations in Africa, Kgologano College, Formation Biblique et Th�ologique � Maurice, Theological Education by Extension in Malawi, Association of Christian Lay Centres in Africa, Christian Council of Ghana, Christian Churches Education Association in Kenya;

• 2 Pan-African Anglican institutions:

ANITEPAM (African Network of Institutions of Theological Education Preparing

Anglicans for Ministry) and CAPA (Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa).

The vastness of the change in Africa, the exploding growth of the church there in the midst of extraordinary social, political and economic turmoil, the reality of our present budget cutbacks, all these things require that we examine carefully what and where are to be our appropriate partnership linkages for the future.

We agree with most of the partners that Theological Education is a priority in the region. We continue to make regular grants to theological colleges and seminaries in West Africa (St Nicholas), Tanzania ( St Mark’s and St Cyprian’s), Kenya ( St Paul’s United Theological College), Seychelles (St. Philip’s), Uganda (Bishop Tucker Theological College), Burundi (Institut Th�ologique de Matana) and Congo (ISThA - Bunia). Meanwhile we continue to support Theological Education by Extension (TEE) in Botswana, Malawi and Mauritius. We put some funds towards training programs for catechists and evangelists in West Africa and Tanzania

Since the last General Synod meeting, we have established a formal partnership with ANITEPAM (African Network of Institutions of Theological Education Preparing Anglicans for Ministry).

Bursaries have enabled students to attend seminaries both in Africa and Canada, with graduates from the latter serving now as bishops and seminary professors. Since the last General Synod meeting, we have been able to sponsor 15 students from the region.

Without any exaggeration we can say that the Africa / Middle East region is the fastest growing part of the church in our world-wide Anglican Communion. There is an ongoing need to support provinces and new dioceses. We make regular grants to provinces for basic infrastructure needs, as well as assisting with all forms of necessary transport (bicycles, motorcycles, vehicles) and supporting catechists, evangelists and new bishops through training programs.

We continue our partnership with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) which is the most significant Pan-African ecumenical body. Half of our annual grant to AACC goes to the International Affairs Desk which is playing a very important role in the peace and reconciliation process across the continent.

We continue to be partners with the Association of Christian Lay Centres in Africa (ACLA), and the Christian Churches Educational Association (CCEA).

Africa is a multi-faith continent (African Traditional Religion, Islam and Christianity). The question of the rise of Islam remains an urgent one on the continent. For this reason we value our partnership with PROCMURA (Project for Christian Muslim Relations in Africa) in its training and teaching roles.

In Canada, we continue to do our Africa justice work ecumenically, through our participation in the InterChurch Coalition on Africa, supported by both PIM and PWRDF.

Our partnerships continue, both in breadth and depth. For your prayers of intercession and of thanksgiving, here are just a few of the events which touched the lives of our partners and of ourselves:

• military coup in Sierra Leone;
• military coup and ethnic violence in Burundi;
• ethnic violence in Rwanda;
• continuing carnage in Algeria;
• change of regimes in Congo (ex-Zaire);
• end of war in Liberia;
• re-election of President D. arap Moi in Kenya;
• election of new Primates in the following Anglican Provinces: Southern Africa, Kenya,

• re-establishing church leadership in the Episcopal Church of Rwanda.

We are learning that partnership is about many things. Of course it is about the sharing of financial resources, but that is only a small part of it. It is about companionship ("to eat bread with") and compassion ("to suffer with"), and it is about this world in which our Lord entered and lived and loved and saved. It is also about refugees, about inequities of the debt burden, about food and education and shelter.

Our brothers and sisters in the Church in Africa are at the heart of the struggle for those who seek the kind of life that God intended for His children. The cost to the Church in Africa and to its leaders has always been and will continue to be very great. If we are to be true partners, the cost must not be less for us.

In 1998, Partners in Mission has budgeted $404,792 for support of the mission work of our partner churches in the Africa / Middle East Region.

The priority of the Asia/Pacific work of Partners in Mission continues to be the building of mutual partnership for mission and justice between the Anglican Church of Canada and our regional Anglican and ecumenical church partners. These partners include Provinces and dioceses in the Council of the Church in East Asia (CCEA), including the Episcopal Church of the Philippines, the Philippine Independent Church, the Anglican Church of Korea, the new Anglican Province of South East Asia including the Dioceses of Kuching, Sabah, Singapore and West Malaysia, and the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Holy Catholic Church of Japan); the Church of the Province of Myanmar; the two Anglican dioceses of the Church of Ceylon (Sri Lanka); the Provinces and dioceses of the South Pacific Anglican Council (SPAC), namely the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea, the Church of the Province of Melanesia and the Diocese of Polynesia; the Church of North India; the China Christian Council and the Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao; the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), the Pacific Conference of Churches, the ecumenical councils of churches in Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Myanmar/Burma, India and Sri Lanka, and other Asian and Pacific ecumenical organizations and institutions.

Through mutual visits, correspondence and consultations, our Asia/Pacific partners continue to affirm the priorities of theological education and leadership development, evangelism, social justice and infrastructure development. As many of our partners also live in situations of armed conflict, peacemaking and reconciliation have emerged as new priorities in the last triennium.

We have tried to promote the development of local leadership in the region through broad financial support of Asia/Pacific theological education and training of personnel from Korea, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Myanmar/Burma, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Regional theological colleges which have received support include St. Andrew’s Seminary, Manila; the two regional seminaries of the Philippine Independent Church, Aglipay Central Theological Seminary and St. Paul’s Regional Seminary; Bishop’s College, Calcutta; Holy Cross Theological College, Yangon; Theological College of Lanka, Sri Lanka; Newton Theological College, Papua New Guinea; Bishop Patteson Theological College, Solomon Islands, and Pacific Theological College, Fiji. We have also provided scholarship assistance to clergy and laity from Burma, Korea, India, Sabah, and the Solomon Islands for graduate theological studies at the Vancouver School of Theology, Wycliffe College, and Oxford University, UK. We have facilitated the reappointment of the Rev. Canon John Blyth as a Volunteer In Mission from the Diocese of New Westminster to the staff of Bishop Patteson Theological College in the Solomon Islands. During their graduate theological studies, Revs. Margarite Rhea, Lyn Oldale, and Katherine Greenfield participated in the cross-cultural student internship program in the Philippines and India respectively.

Partners in Mission policy in the Asia/Pacific region continues to affirm the principle that evangelism in Asia/Pacific is the mission of the church in that region. Our regional Anglican and ecumenical are engaged in a variety of initiatives, such as church renewal, parish development, lay ministry and popular theology. We have supported a variety of activities in the Philippines, Burma, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka and the Pacific. Canadian Volunteers in Mission, the Rev. Nelson Boon (Diocese of Quebec) in the Diocese of Chubu in Japan and the Rev. Michael and Mrs. Norma Collier (Diocese of Nova Scotia) in the Diocese of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, have also supported this work during the last triennium.

Justice and human rights concerns continue to be a priority throughout the region. Many of our Asia/Pacific partners suffer landlessness, poverty, denial of basic human rights, violence, national division and frequent natural disasters. The situations in Burma, Sri Lanka and the Philippines remain especially acute.

Ecumenical partners in Korea will this year mark the tenth anniversary of the Christian Korean Declaration on National Peace and Reunification division of Korea. Dalits (including Christian dalits) and adavasi (tribal people) in India are beginning to demand justice from both church and society. (Dalit, "broken" is the term by which India’s most marginalized people, formerly called the "untouchables" want to be known.). PIM supports the Ditt Memorial Resource Centre in the Diocese of Amritsar, a Dalit program of education and consciousness-raising.

We have also supported the women, youth and partnership desks of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines; the Institute of Religion and Culture and other ecumenical community-based justice programs in the Philippines; the human rights desks of the National Councils of Churches in Korea, the Philippines and Sri Lanka; research programs in the Philippines and Sri Lanka; gender awareness training by the World Student Christian Federation (Asia/Pacific) in Hong Kong and the Asian Women’s Resource Centre for Culture and Theology, Malaysia; and church publications in the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Burma.

Much of our Asia social justice work is done ecumenically through our PIM and PWRDF-supported coalition, the Canada Asia Working Group (CAWG). Through CAWG we have been involved in justice concerns in countries where we do not have Anglican church partners, such as Indonesia and East Timor. In 1997, the Year of Asia Pacific in which Canada hosted the 5th annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, PIM supported the work of CAWG and the South Pacific People’s Association of Canada’s (SPPFC) in their advocacy for justice in issues relating to the impact of trade globalization on culture, traditional economies and occupations, and the environment in Asia and the Pacific.

Peace and reconciliation have continued as a priority in the last three years. We have supported the peace process between the Philippines government and the National Democratic Front. Through CAWG and our South Korean church partners, we have continued to support the reunification of Korea and maintained relations with the emerging Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in North Korea. We have also continued to support peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, and to work with the Churches in Myanmar/Burma toward full democracy.

Mission is about people and building partnership relations. In the last three years, there have been many visits back and forth between the Anglican Church of Canada and Anglican churches and ecumenical organizations in the region. Companion diocese relationships exist between the Dioceses of Nova Scotia and Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), the Dioceses of Qu’Appelle ,West Malaysia and Lichfield, the Dioceses of Calgary and Temotu (Melanesia) and the Diocese of British Columbia and the Church of the Province of Myanmar. The Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador is currently in an ecumenical companionship with the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the Diocese of Jabalpur, Church of North India (post-denominational).

Partnership has also, until December 1996, been expressed ecumenically through the Canada China Program, whereby we joined with other Canadian churches in relating with the China Christian Council and the Catholic Church in China. PIM is currently exploring renewed ecumenical partnership with the China Christian Council. With the United and Presbyterian Churches of Canada, we also relate ecumenically with the Church of North India (CNI) General Synod, dioceses and CNI organizations.

The Anglican Church of Canada’s relationships with Anglican churches and ecumenical organizations and institutions in the Asia/Pacific are rich and deep. In the spirit of Partners in Mission we have both given and received. Although our declining financial resources are a concern, as there is still a need for financial support in many places, we have prayers, friendship, community life, concern and solidarity to offer. Our partners in Asia and the Pacific also have many of these gifts to offer to us.

In 1998, Partners in Mission has budgeted $333,004 for support of the mission work of our partners churches in the Asia/Pacific Region.

The region is vast and diverse: about 35 independent states and a handful of dependent colonial territories with countries ranging in size from small Caribbean islands to the vastness of Brazil. The Anglican/Episcopal presence consists of some long established Provinces (Brazil, Cono Sur and the West Indies) as well as the new autonomous Provinces of Mexico (1995) and Central Region of the Americas (January 1998). Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Bermuda continue to be extra-Provincial dioceses. Our key ecumenical partnerships are with the CLAI (Latin American Council of Churches), the CCC (Caribbean Conference of Churches), the CONIC (National Council of Churches of Brazil), and the CEC (Cuban Ecumenical Council).

Our partnership is developed through consultation with the dioceses/provinces in the region. These consultations have identified the following priorities: education for both clergy and lay people in areas of Biblical studies, theology and the practice of ministry; evangelism and missionary expansion; justice-making; infrastructure/material resources. The examples below give a flavour of the depth and breadth of the Anglican Church of Canada’s mission partnership support.

There is a growing realization in the global Anglican/Episcopal communion that leadership needs to be shared between clergy and lay people. This is reflected in Latin America/Caribbean regional priorities. Support for the education of ordinands and priests is through national and regional, Episcopal and ecumenical theological institutions in Barbados, Costa Rica, Cuba, Brazil, Haiti and Argentina. Payments are made in the form of scholarships awarded to individuals or as core funding to the institution. Of these institutions the oldest in the region, Codrington College, Barbados now accepts students whose linguistic background is not English. An accredited theological college working on the North American credit system, it is in conversation with Canadian seminaries with a view to encouraging short-term student placements at Codrington. It is also active in lay education for the Diocese of Barbados. Lay education for ministry is high on the agenda in a number of dioceses. One excellent example of this is the Diocese of the Windward Islands. In St. Vincent a new diocesan centre will be the home of an education program that is part funded by Anglican Church of Canada Partnerships. The program has been in place since the fall of 1996 and the 25 students who are involved in it speak enthusiastically of its benefits to them and the church. In all these institutions and programs, both for clergy and lay people, the Anglican/Episcopal church does not shrink from discussing the significant questions of ‘context’ and ‘enculturation’ as they relate to the mission of the Church.

Secularism in Latin America and the Caribbean is growing in this pluralistic region. In Latin America where the Roman Catholic Church has traditionally been the dominant church, fundamentalist groups have made an impact in several countries. Increasingly the Anglican Church is giving attention to evangelism with some success. With an emphasis on shared leadership and decision making, a sound theological and Biblical base, the centrality of the Eucharist and a commitment to social concern, Anglican Churches commend themselves to many people and the church in various parts of Latin America and the Caribbean is growing. This growth requires support from partners in many ways, including personnel, purchase of land, education material and, of course, prayer.

South-South personnel appointments continue to be encouraged. In Uruguay the S-S appointee (Miguel Tamayo from Cuba) is now the new Bishop of Uruguay. There is a proposal for one or two S-S missionary worker(s) on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique with joint funding from the Episcopal Church of the US and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Support is constantly needed for programs which might not find funding locally because they deal with very sensitive or unpopular issues, but which, nevertheless, are part of the Church’s prophetic mission. The rights of minorities, education around AIDS, addressing the situation of street children, and involvement in questions of national reconciliation, etc., are normal outgrowths of the Church’s mission, and Anglicans in the region work closely with ecumenical partners and councils in this work.

In Canada, we continue to do our Latin America justice work ecumenically, through our participation in the InterChurch Committee on Human Rights in Latin America, supported by both PIM and PWRDF.

In this region where, like much of the world, the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow, our Church partners seek to serve the poorest of the poor. In order to do this effectively the Church, following the example of St. Paul (I Cor: 16) asks its more affluent brothers and sisters in Canada to be a part of their program of social concern. In this respect Canadian funding has been used for various projects: land purchase, community centres, local relief. Though the amount of money that we are able to send towards such work is limited it stands as a sign of our commitment to each other, brothers and sisters, companions in the body of Christ

• The visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba during which he called for: a peaceful transition to more freedom in the country; was critical of an unquestioned buying-in to the neo-liberal economic order; and for an end to the economic embargo against Cuba directed by the US.
• In Uruguay the election of the Reverend Miguel Tamayo as the Bishop of Uruguay. He and his wife Marta have been working in Uruguay as South-South Partners in Mission from Cuba since February 1995
• The passing of a "Religious Freedom Bill" in Chile that guarantees equal treatment before the law of all religious denominations and groups.
• Peace accords signed in Guatemala and El Salvador that officially bring to an end many years of armed conflict between government forces and nationalist guerrilla groups. Notwithstanding this, the struggle for a just, equitable society continues with little sign that this is being achieved. (See the video "Peace: What Peace" produced by the Inter Church Committee [1997] on Human Rights in Latin America [ICCHRLA] and available from the Anglican Church of Canada Resource Centre).
• The formation of a new ecclesiastical province in Central America in January 1998 that consists of Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.
• The sixth assembly of the Caribbean Conference of Churches in July 1997, held in Havana, Cuba. It was a ‘crisis’ assembly that met to discuss and approve a new way of being the Caribbean Council of Churches at a time of massive external funding cut-backs. The Caribbean Council of Churches now operates on an annual budget that is 10% of what it was receiving during its hey-day.
• ‘Experience’ visits by groups of Canadian Anglicans (predominantly young people) to the Anglican Church in Guyana and Belize.
• The Anglican/Episcopal Church in some countries becoming more indigenised in the sense of claiming an identity of its own rather that remaining dependent for its identity on other parts of the communion.

In a recent conversation with the Primate of the Episcopal Province of Brazil, the Most Reverend Dom Glauco Soares de Lima, who has been an external partner for the Partners in Mission Committee since last General Synod, he talked about the need to personalise the partnership that we have as Anglicans. What he meant by that was the presence in his diocese of Anglicans from other parts of the communion for both brief and longer periods of time. As he further described it, "We need some warm Canadian bodies with us to share in our experiences". At a Diocesan Consultation in Algoma, a diocese in companion relationship with the Windward Islands, the same point was made. The promoters had in mind a two-way interchange of personnel between the dioceses, again for varying lengths of time. The history of missionary work of the Anglican Church of Canada has moved from a time of sending personnel to serve overseas for periods of three or more years to a time where, as a response to a different view of mission very few people from Canada are to be found working in Latin America and the Caribbean. It seems from the comments above that we are at a time when the Anglican Church should encourage a strategy that allows for the best of both those approaches in its mission abroad. A healthy development is the growing number of short-term exposure trips for church groups that allow a glimpse of another Anglican’s reality. Though we no longer have the funds at the national level to place salaried people overseas for lengthy periods of time, other programmes, like Volunteers In Mission, do afford an opportunity for work outside of Canada. What is less common is the practice of Canadian dioceses offering a similar experience in Canada to our partners overseas. It is to be hoped that our Partnership programme will increasingly allow for such two-way interchange and that the initiative for this will be as much that of the dioceses as of the General Synod office. We are, after all, a part of the one Anglican/Episcopal communion, brothers and sisters together in Christ.

In 1998 Partners in Mission has budgeted $301,889 for support of the mission work of our partner churches in the Latin America/Caribbean Region

The Volunteers In Mission Program of the Anglican Church of Canada was approved at the Winnipeg General Synod in 1986. The first appointments were made in late 1988 and early 1989 to Fiji and Tanzania. Since that time 64 adults and 13 children have served as Volunteers In Mission and returned to Canada. 14 are presently serving with partner churches or institutions in 7 countries, and 6 more are preparing to leave in 1998. Volunteers have come from 17 of our 30 dioceses, from BC to Nova Scotia.

The joint program with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada continued until 1993 at which time the ELCIC decided to move it’s program operation to their national headquarters in Winnipeg. The Anglican Church of Canada continues to provide health insurance coverage for ELCIC VIM under our master policy with Mutual of Omaha and both programs continue to consult and learn from one another.

Volunteers are required to form a support group in their local area whose functions are to provide moral and spiritual support and to raise the funds needed to cover the costs of such things as return airfare, health insurance and a modest monthly living allowance. Experience has shown this is quite possible and allows qualified volunteers to serve with minimal cost to the General Synod budget.

Volunteers are also required to participate in a cross-cultural Orientation Conference designed and delivered by the Canadian Churches Forum for Global Ministries. This is a well planned event, ecumenical for both participants and presenters and gives a solid grounding for the volunteers to draw on during their placement overseas. Returned volunteers participate in a Re-Entry to Canada Conference which is designed to assist them to integrate and use their experience in their continuing ministry at home.

We participate in the Forum for Global Ministries through an annual grant and by membership on the Board and the curriculum committee of the Forum.

The VIM program is a vehicle for mission education within the church here in Canada. Parishes and dioceses are closely connected to the volunteers and their learnings and experiences. Letters and newsletters sent home by the volunteers are circulated by their support group within the parish and to diocesan groups. Some dioceses include letters from the volunteers in their diocesan paper. Volunteers return home greatly enriched and committed to sharing what their experiences have taught them. Their support group assists them, as needed, in arranging opportunities within their diocese to do so.

The PIMC initiated a Program Evaluation of Volunteers in Mission in 1997, when the program was 10 years old. The purpose of the review is: "to assess the effectiveness of the Volunteers In Mission Program against the goals of the program and our church’s wider goals of partnership and mission. The first draft of the report was received by PIMC in March, 1998 with a final report and recommendations to be ready for the fall 1998 meeting of the Council of General Synod. Such issues as appropriate recognition of volunteers, using the VIM program for receiving missioners from our partner churches and developing in-Canada placements for VIM are be reviewed by the evaluator.

Goals for the next triennium are to act on the recommendations of the VIM evaluation and to maintain a participant level which ensures the quality of the program placements.

This form of overseas staffing, where missioners were paid entirely from the Apportionment budget, has been phased out in favour of the Volunteers In Mission model. The last missioner on a General Synod salary was the Rev. Canon Og� Beauvoir from the Diocese of Montreal, who served in Haiti until July, 1996, when he returned to Canada to take up his current position as Regional Mission Coordinator for Africa/Middle East on the staff of General Synod.

The goals of the program are:

• To increase awareness of global concerns among theological students.
• To increase students’ commitment to our church’s mission and ministry.
• To give prospective clergy who have not lived in a developing country an experience of the third world.

This program was piloted in 1992 with the placement of one student in Belize. This pilot placement received a very positive evaluation and Partners in Mission Committee has continued the program. Seventeen students have participated in summer international internships since the program began. In 1996, 5 students were placed in the Philippines, Belize, the Dominican Republic, India and Uganda. In 1997 one intern served in the Diocese of West Ankole in the Church of Uganda and in 1998 there will be three students serving in St. Vincent, Church of the Province of the West Indies, in the Diocese of Cape Coast, Ghana, and in the Diocese of Seychelles, Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean.

In 1998, Partners in Mission has budgeted $40,800 for the recruitment, selection, orientation and re-entry of volunteers and for the administration of the Volunteers in Mission Program -. Funds to support individual volunteers are raised in parishes and dioceses across Canada, almost $175,000 in 1997. The 1998 budget for the Overseas Student Internship Program is $18,500.

The Companion Diocese program has proven to be an effective way of giving context and personality to our mission partnerships throughout the Anglican Communion. Many Canadian dioceses entered into companionships through friendships formed among bishops at Lambeth 1988. They were most successful when there was energy and commitment from both parties in the companionship. Over the past decade, several companionships were renewed, and are now being concluded. As a result, there is increased interest in forming new companionships, often with a preference for a diocese that is closer to home, not too expensive to travel to, and where there is facility to communicate in English. A tall order!! There are currently 18 Canadian dioceses linked with international partner dioceses, and 4 more seeking such links. One Diocese, Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, is joining with local partners from the United and Presbyterian Churches in an innovative companionship with the post-denominational Church of North India.

A third gathering of 62 Anglicans involved in the mission and development education work of Partners in Mission and the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund was held at Geneva Park in May 1996. Some Diocesan representatives involved in social justice and supporting the work of the EcoJustice Committee attended, but representation was limited as they had not yet had a chance to meet on their own. The success of these events is growing, and there are plans for a Connections IV in 1999.

This program enables church partners from overseas to come to Canada as resource people who can help personalise and give a face to our mission partnerships. It also supports returned Canadian mission personnel to travel internally as resource people in mission education. Over the last 3 years, the program has brought 25 overseas visitors to Canada, and supported 4 Canadians to visit other dioceses to share their experience and learnings.

The other dimension of personalising mission partnerships is to offer opportunities to Canadian Anglicans to make short term visits to overseas partner churches. This program has made it possible for 14 visits from more than half a dozen dioceses and organizations to every region of the Anglican Communion. The program supports exchanges between Companion Dioceses, helps personnel from voluntary mission societies to respond to invitations from overseas partners, and enables Canadian Anglicans to participate in study tours or conferences.

Additional staffing has made it possible to develop and strengthen this network for sharing information and ideas about mission and our mission partnerships. Contact people have been recruited in 22 out of 30 dioceses. They have been given job descriptions to help clarify their role as both givers and disseminators of information within their diocese about mission activities of the Anglican Church of Canada. One challenge is to coordinate and not duplicate other networking initiatives, for example by the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund or the Ten Days for Global Justice coalition. Some dioceses have PWRDF and Partners in Mission contact people who work in a team. This seems to be a good model and worth building on. Another challenge is to complement information about the mission work of the national church with that of voluntary mission societies.

Changes in structure, staffing, and budget resulting from the Strategic Plan have also changed what mission education resources are produced and how often. Ministry Matters, now published three times a year, is the major vehicle for spreading information and stories about mission partnerships and volunteers in mission. Short stories about work of our partners which our funds support regularly appear in the Anglican Appeal publication, Update. A new joint brochure between PWRDF and Partners in Mission has recently been produced, outlining shared principles of partnership and the distinctive aspects of each area of work. Other resources are produced more informally to support inter-diocesan networking. These include occasional mailings of a "newsy letter about mission education" and a binder with guidelines, information and ideas to support Companion Diocese committees.

In 1998, Partners in Mission has budgeted $45,000 for Mission Education, Interpretation and Resources.

The Partners in Mission Committee, and its predecessors, the Partners in World Mission Committee and before that the World Mission Subcommittee, have worked for many years under the Anglican Communion’s understanding of partnership in mission, as articulated by the Toronto Congress of 1963 (Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ, known as MRI), and by the Anglican Consultative Council at its second meeting in Dublin (the Partners in Mission Process). The current Strategic Plan of General Synod, which has called for a strengthening of our church’s international mission and development partnerships, coupled with the coincidental arrival of new staff responsible for our international mission work, has given the PIMC the opportunity to view the work with new eyes and listen with new ears. This has resulted in a new awareness of the disturbingly slow progress we have made towards the goals of MRI and PIM, as defined by the Anglican Consultative Council. The PIMC, therefore, will urge the next committee to give substantial attention to the problem of dependency in mission relationships, and to the need to deepen the quality of mutuality with our mission partners, perhaps even abandoning the term "partnership" in favour of a term which might better reflect our vision of healthy mission relationships. The PIMC has requested the Anglican Consultative Council to engage the whole Communion in an examination and discussion of these matters.

Respectfully submitted: