Thirty years ago today, on April 27, 1994, New Wineskins Missionary Network (formerly ECMC, Episcopal Church Missionary Community) held its first Global Mission Conference.…

I am an Anglican priest in Madrid, Spain. I often observe this practice of letting the practices of our tiny Protestant community be determined to a great extent by not doing what the Roman Catholics do. I understand the historical and contextual reasons for this practice. But in the long run it is not a recipe for fruitfulness. In the same way, the winsomeness of the Christian faith should be allowed to stand on its own.

There are no walls in the Rev. Bryan Bywater’s church. The “altar” is a folding table. The “pews” are the steps of Hartford City Hall. But he has a cross and a chalice. He has communion wafers, dipped in grape juice instead of wine for the benefit of his friends in recovery. To the population he’s serving, that’s plenty.