In 2011 the Maryknoll Fathers & Brothers celebrated one hundred years of mission work in more than forty countries around the world. These essays describe the achievements, and failures, of the past and the challenges and rewards that mission outreach experiences today in our world of pluralism, and it probes into the future of mission and the changing nature of that mission. Included among the many contributors are Cardinal Francis George, Robert Schreiter, Peter Phan, Dana Robert, and Bishop Ricardo Ramirez. Complete texts of the plenaries by Maryknoll representatives and invited speakers are included and summaries are presented by leaders of a number of break-out sessions. Among the latter are Barbara Reid, Daniel Groody, Ana Maria Pineda, and many others.

What is the mission of the church? What are the ministries that futher its mission? How should the traditional orders of bishop/overseer, priest/presbyter, and deacon be reconsidered in the light of 21st century challenges and ecumenical unity? These big questions involve a constellation of neuralgic issues both within the Roman Catholic Church and between it and its sister churches, both East and West: women priests, women bishops, married priests, lay ministries, the unaccountability of bishops to their flocks. The rapid decline of priests in the US has led to an enormous number of lay people in leadership positions, but they can't preside at the Eucharist (the heart and soul of Catholic identity and practice), and their roles are nebulous, undefined, and severely constrained. Catholic women are voting with their feet over the church's failure to ordain women. Lay theologians, men and women, now outnumber priest theologians, but have little "standing" in the church outside of academia. Far-reaching agreements on theological issues have been made between Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism and Lutheranism, but the practical consequences (e.g., shared Eucharists) are nil. It is against this background that David Power, the doyen of sacramental theologians in North America, has written a magisterial work on the mission, ministry, and order of the church that is historically comprehensive, theologically progressive, ecumenically and globally focused, and practical in its prescriptions.

John Howard Yoder, author of The Politics of Jesus, was best known for his writing on Christian pacifism. This volume—based on lectures recorded in 1973—shows he was a profound missiologist as well. Yoder weaves together biblical, theological, practical and interreligious reflections to think about mission beyond Christendom.

Veteran mission professionals Steve Hoke and Bill Taylor offer a practical guide for preparing for intercultural missions. They provide resources for personal spiritual preparation as well as crosscultural skills and hands-on missionary training.

The current religious climate poses unique challenges to those engaged in mission. Thus the authors of this book propose a new, yet very biblical, model for interacting with people of other faiths. They term this model giftive mission, as it is based on the metaphor of free gift. We bear the greatest gift possible--the gospel message. Adopting this perspective not only has the potential for greater missionary success but also enables us to more closely imitate God's gracious activity in the world. The core of the book explores eleven practices that characterize giftive mission. Each practice is illustrated through the story of a figure from mission history who embodied that practice. Further discussion shows how to incorporate these practices in specific mission settings.

This book argues that God's mission is broad and that all of us can live with missional intentionality by understanding the many facets of missions and focusing on a particular calling. Just like different instruments of a symphony harmonize together, each aspect of human participation in mission--evangelism, justice initiatives, poverty alleviation, faithful work in the marketplace, art--helps us play our part in God's work in the world. Combining expertise from a mission scholar and a working pastor, the book includes practical examples and tools to help readers imagine their part in God's mission.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1877.

Mission in the Gospels considers the gospels through a twin lens: first, the nature of Jesus' own mission (as understood by the evangelists), and secondly, the desire of the gospel writers and their churches to gain some understanding of their own mission by interpreting Jesus' attitudes and actions (especially with regard to the Gentiles). The principles for mission that arise out of this investigation shed a good deal of new light on the gospels and the motives for their writing and on their theological insights.