It is not uncommon for US Anglican evangelicals to put forward a candidate for bishop and then campaign.

But not in Sabah, East Malaysia.

Imagine it: No liberal counterpart. No need to take up the sword. Everyone in the Synod holding to the uncompromised historic faith found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is precisely this point that Archbishop Ping Chung made in his final address:

I am so proud and blessed as I look at each one of you here this afternoon. I can happily say that you have been blessed with a personal born again experience which is vital and essential for the on-going life of our Church. I know all our Clergy and Workers well. I also know most of our Lay Delegates and Observers to this Synod. I am proud that our Diocese has, without compromise, preached and taught the Gospel of Salvation through Jesus and Jesus alone. I am grateful that God has raised up converted, strong, and sound Spiritual Leaders in our Diocese. I praise and thank God that you are our Spiritual Leaders to the truest sense of the word.

I marvel at the wonder of this testimony. Even so, I think, there must be politics, groups vying for their candidate.

"The moment they try," Ping Chung told me, "it's over. They reap the fruit. People will not vote for them. By means of prayer, the Lord will choose the next bishop."

There are four candidates. The Diocesan Advisory Council formed the criteria required for candidates and names were submitted. Four priests allowed themselves to be considered. At the Synod, the Lay and Clergy Delegates spent an afternoon retreat in the Word and specific time set aside for prayer before they voted. "The most important thing for us to do," the Bishop said to the Synod, "is to pray that each of us will look into God's own heart to make a choice according to His will."

There was no posturing. The candidates were not asked to address the Synod. No debates, no questions, no secret meetings. No touring the diocese. Each priest is known in Sabah for the godly fruit of years of ministry. "Actually, we all support each other," one candidate told me. "We are all ready to get behind the one the Lord chooses. No competitions here."

The votes were gathered and immediately sealed. In August, the results will be presented to the House of Bishops. They will make the final choice.

This diocesan meeting wasn't about politics. It had one single focus: Breakthrough for Mission! In the town of Sandakan, the Rev Chak Sen Fen has a Sunday church attendance over 1000 with English and Chinese services. Down the street, a new church plant located in the heart of a shopping district, has 400 at their Malay speaking service. They have seen an influx of Indonesians in one section of town. They're planning a new church to reach them in 2006.

The rural areas have planted four new churches since last August. A new Mission District has to be added to handle the growth. The urban areas continue to buy shop lots even before the strip malls are constructed. Once they open, a large lighted blue cross is suspended in the middle of the busy shopping area. This is miraculous in Sabah. The Muslim government forbids Christians to evangelize Muslims at the threat of imprisonment. And yet, since Ping Chung took office in 1990, the diocese has nearly tripled in growth.

But the passion for mission at the Synod is not restricted to Sabah. Missionary Chai Lip Vui reports on his new church plant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. There is already one church planted in Tarakan, Indonesia with two more in the pipeline. And then there is Thailand, 65 million people with 1% Christian.

At a church service in Tawau, with over 2500 on a Sunday, the rector leads his congregation in prayer for Thailand. Everyone prays out loud, a thundering sound, crying to the Lord for mercy in Thailand. The rector wonders if the Lord is calling him to go.

I comment to the Archbishop that I am amazed by the Synod. In his role as Archbishop, he knows all about the politics employed by liberals and evangelicals alike. But he has chosen a better way to lead the Diocese of Sabah. "We meet. We pray. We preach the Gospel. We obey the Holy Spirit," he said emphatically. "No time for politics."

For this reason, he helped birth Anglican Mission. He doesn't want our focus, our passion and priority, to be the realignment of the Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion. No secret meetings. No strategy sessions in how to maneuver and manipulate liberal and evangelical leaders alike. No posturing for position.

He can say this because, in the Diocese of Sabah, he has modeled it.

He has one simple phrase for Anglicans in the US. Anglicans anywhere. He calls it: Breakthrough for Mission. He is confident that if we would choose to obey the command of the Lord Jesus and be single-focused on mission; if we would choose to pray for our communities; if we would seek the Lord with all our heart concerning mission, then He will most certainly show us His heart in where and how to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.

This was the Bishop of Sabah's final charge to the Diocesan Synod:

Let all our Churches, rural and urban, pray for Mission Heart...

Every Church...must continue to explore the possibility of Church Planting...to win souls for Christ. Have your churches seriously considered this possibility in your area?

The Lord has mandated us to PRESS ON for Breakthrough in Mission...May all Glory, Honor and Praises be to our Almighty God!

I saw it at the Synod. I saw it among the clergy and lay leaders traveling through the diocese. I know it as the mandate given us who belong to Anglican Mission. I know it as the mandate given all of us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

No politics. Just mission.

T. Barnumis a Missionary Bishop in the Anglican Mission in America. He and wife live in Connecticut.