Over the Summer in 2019, the Parish of the Good Shepherd has been thinking together in Sunday services about the Anglican Communion’s 5 Marks of Mission. [1] The Church believes that we have an important role to play as part of God’s Mission in the world. The church is to be a signpost to the reality of God’s Kingdom and God’s Kingdom Values. We are:

1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
2. To teach, baptise and nurture believers
3. To respond to human need by loving service
4. To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation
5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth

The five marks of mission were first developed by the Anglican Consultative Council in 1984. Since then, they have been widely adopted as an understanding of what contemporary mission is about.  The marks were adopted by the General Synod of the Church of  England in 1996 and many dioceses and other denominations used  them as the basis of action plans and creative mission ideas.

Some churches abbreviate the five marks to five words: TELL – TEACH – TEND – TRANSFORM – TREASURE. [2]

These Marks underlie much of what the Parish of the Good Shepherd has been doing over the last 10 years and we felt that, this Summer, it would be good to be explicit about them. Our work at Holy Trinity Church and Community Centre in a predominantly Muslim area of the town of Ashton-under-Lyne has sought to place a high priority on the last three of the Marks of Mission. Elsewhere in our parish we have given priority to all 5 of these Marks of Mission.

In subsequent posts, I hope to allow these 5 Marks of Mission to speak into our circumstances in Ashton-under-Lyne.

References

1. https://www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/marks-of-mission.aspx, accessed on 29th August 2019.
2. https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/MTAG%20The%205%20Marks%20Of%20Mission.pdf, accessed on 18th August 2019.