Christian mission must go beyond divisive cultural, political and theological issues, a keynote speaker at the Edinburgh 2010 conference said.

"We must not allow difficult theological, socio-cultural and political issues, or disagreements over theologies of religion, to discourage us from sharing God's love and salvation through Jesus Christ with all the world," said Dana L. Robert, co-director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University School of Theology, during a plenary session on Thursday.

Addressing some 400 participants, Robert observed that, "Christianity has undergone one of the biggest changes in its two thousand year history" in becoming a "multi-cultural faith, with believers drawn from every inhabited continent."

Roberts noted the diversity in the room - a far cry from participants in the 1910 event, where among more than 1,200 delegates there was only one black African and an estimated nineteen Asians.

The theologian continued saying that Christianity has begun to reflect the vision of Revelation 7:9 in which the faithful constitute "a great multitude" of believers "from all tribes and peoples and languages."

"Participants in the World Missionary Conference a century ago attempted to evangelize the world in their own generation," she said. "We who are alive in 2010 must bear witness to our own generation."

Such a framework, Roberts says, reveals that Christian mission has been liberated from its "captivity to western Christianity" to a movement that involves the "common witness of the whole Church, bringing the whole Gospel to the whole world."

"The 'whole gospel' begins with the message of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ," she said.

Roberts added that that ministry to the "whole world" includes a concern for the preservation of God's creation, that economic and technological globalization poses new responsibilities, and that rapid change in the world sets Christians to periodically re-conceptualising the methods of their participation in God's mission.

"Even as we ask, 'How long, O Lord, how long?", united in praise, we confidently embrace God's mission," she concluded.

Gathering with the theme "Witnessing to Christ today," the June 2-6 Edinburgh 2010 conference is being attended by some 300 delegates and 1,200 visitors from Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Independent traditions.

Organizers have touted the event as one of the most representative conferences of the diversity of world Christianity today.

Notably, the conference is also the centenary celebration of the historic 1910 World Missionary Conference (WMC) in Edinburgh that many regard as the beginning of the ecumenical movement.

The event will close on Sunday with a live broadcasted celebration that will feature a sermon from the Archbishop of York John Sentamu.