Peace, Sustainability, and Justice towards Holistic Mission
Our encounter with the city of Seoul has given us critical perspectives on a city that is rapidly expanding, accompanied by rapid social change and economic upheaval. In Seoul's Bong-chan House of Sharing, the House of FreedomÕs work with the homeless and in the parishes we visited on Sunday morning, we witnessed the Anglican community striving to be faithful to Christ and to the vision of his kingdom in this challenging context.

In the House of Sharing we found an inspiring model of the Christian community in solidarity with the urban poor; with those who find themselves most powerless as the city government remodels their areas and the economic recession bites deeper.

Building new community is a primary task for Christians in urban areas where traditional patterns of community life have not flourished; where planning and design militate against good social relationships; and where minority groups find themselves marginalized. Christians must also ask vital questions concerning the sustainability of the urban environment, the impact of their communities, and the work in which they are engaged. Sustainability concerns not just ecological issues but also questions the structures of participation and the creation of dependency.

In our encounter with urban Korea, we have discovered many common challenges that face those who work in urban contexts. Cities often act as microcosms reflecting the tensions, divisions, and power structures of national and global society. In 1996, the LIN Center for Human Settlements-HABITAT reported to its second summit in Istanbul on the state of an urban planet which has now reached the symbolic point where over half the planetÕs population lives in towns and cities. The report, An Urbanizing World (Oxford 1996), outlines the varying patterns of urban growth and the impact of urban areas on other parts of nations. It also highlights how urban poverty is often greatly underestimated because of the juxtaposition of great wealth and crushing poverty within cities. The report poses this question: "What will make cities places where people want to live, rather than places into which they are forced to move to eke out an existence that is merely about survival?"

To these ideas we would add the concerns of the APJN which we find concentrated in cities, often in destructive patterns of life. There is the proliferation of micro-arms, drugs, and increasing urban violence. There are also issues of difference and diversity, and the need to plan cities in ways that promote peaceful co-existence and exchange. And there is indebtedness and the need for new, community-orientated financial structures. We are also concerned about the plight of children and young people, for whom exploitation and lack of hope are barriers to growth and wholeness. We recognize there is often a connection between political corruption and urban decay.

Cities are the nodes of the globalization process, as the urban revolution is matched by technological transformation, in ways we often find difficult to monitor or change. We encounter new forms of poverty and social exclusion as the spatial dimensions of the city change. We also encounter the exciting phenomena of marginalized groups and social movements discovering their capacity to use global networks to enhance their cultural, religious, and community life. At the same time, we are aware of sophisticated, clandestine global networks dealing in drugs and small arms, which exploit both urban and rural poor.

Cities will be the vital arena of the church's mission and ministry in the new millenium.

We need structures that will keep us aware and informed about resources (human and written); on-going programs; new responses to the urban context; and patterns of church engagement; as well as theological and sociological work. We must make connections between international peace and justice issues and the experience of urban communities. We must also raise these issues in existing forums, diocesan partnerships, other ACC networks, and regional groupings.
We welcome the Lambeth Conference's resolution calling for the churches of the Communion to participate in renewing, redeeming, and regenerating our urban communities through holistic mission and ministry; and we look forward to dialogue between this network and the proposed project on urbanization.