The ELCIC partnership with ELCA Global Mission
The ELCIC’s participation in God’s mission in the world is being addressed through a partnership agreement with ELCA Global Mission (GM). As an overarching aspect of this partnership, the ELCIC is embracing the accompaniment methodology for mission which is defined by ELCA GM as walking together in solidarity that practices interdependence and mutuality with companions. ELCIC GM is now using the word companion in the same way it is used by ELCA GM. Previously in the ELCIC, companion was used only to refer to a church which has a relationship with an ELCIC synod in the Companion Synod Program. Companion now also refers to a church outside of Canada and the United States which has a bilateral relationship at the national church level with the ELCIC. Companion church is the term that ELCIC GM is using in place of partner church.
Elements of the ELCIC/ELCA global mission partnership include:
- The ELCIC will continue to relate directly to its companion Lutheran churches in Argentina, Peru and Jordan & the Holy Land. ELCA GM staff will represent the ELCIC when they relate to the ELCIC’s other five companion Lutheran churches in Guyana, El Salvador, Colombia, Cameroon and Papua New Guinea.
- ELCIC members interested in volunteer or compensated global service will contact the ELCA GM office in Chicago directly where the global service staff team will respond to inquiries, receive applications and conduct interviews. ELCIC members who are approved for compensated positions by ELCA GM will be joint placements employed by the ELCIC and supervised by ELCA GM. While volunteers will not be official joint placements, all ELCIC members assigned to global service by ELCA GM will be included on the mission personnel poster on the ELCIC GM web site.
- ELCIC compensated missionaries in joint placements with ELCA GM will be included in the ELCIC sponsorship program to provide funding for these placements. All donations for ELCIC Mission & Missionary Sponsorship and the world mission general fund will continue to be made in Canada and receive Canadian charitable donation receipts.
- ELCA GM has full-time Companion Synod Program facilitators on staff who will eventually work directly with the companion synod contacts in ELCIC synods. ELCIC synods interested in a second relationship could be twinned with a companion on the “waiting list” of synods, districts and churches that have expressed a desire to participate in the ELCA Companion Synod Program.
- The ELCIC endorses and participates in ELCA global events. ELCA GM will assist with planning a regional Global Formation Event in Canada whenever there is interest in the ELCIC to host one.
- ELCIC members who coordinate global mission programming in their synods will be brought together for Regional Consultations produced by ELCA GM staff.
- ELCA GM print resources which are relevant to the ELCIC will be branded accordingly and distributed in the ELCIC.
- A representative of ELCIC GM will participate in the ELCA GM Program Committee meetings. An ELCIC representative will be invited to the “in-house weeks” for ELCA GM staff.
This ELCIC/ELCA global mission partnership is firmly grounded and deeply rooted in a long history of cooperation. Before the ELCIC was established in 1986, many mission personnel from Canada served overseas for decades immediately accountable to a Lutheran church office in the United States. For the past several years, the ELCIC and ELCA GM have collaborated on programs for mission personnel and global events. The ELCIC and ELCA are now moving forward from cooperative work to shared work in global mission.
