Yale SCM/WSCF Exhibit Now Online!
The Yale Divinity Library has posted a terrific online exhibit on the Student Christian Movement. Followers of the CGCM website and activity know that we are vitally concerned with reclaiming the memory of the Student Christian Movement in the United States. From the 1880s to 1969, it invited college students to engage with their world in the context of their Christian faith. Through the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), it linked them to Christian students around the world. Generation after generation, these students not only went into the world but also back to communities and churches around the country and connected those communities to the world, too. It is an astonishing history! Check it out!
The Spring 2014 newsletter is here!
The Spring 2014 newsletter, CGCM News is now available in print and digital forms. You can pick one up at various location in the School of Theology, and it is available for download and viewing here: Spring 2014 Newsletter.
Mission and Development through Non-Profit Service
Dr. Elizabeth Parsons, Lecturer in Religion and Development and a Resident Scholar with the CGCM, taught an exciting course this spring on the intersection of mission and development. The course, called Enacting Mission Through NGO and FBO Work, covered a variety of issues related to work in non-governmental, non-profit, and faith-based organizations. In the first part of the course, students gained a footing on the history and current functioning of NGOs and FBOs. Thereafter, they not only engaged critically with values and assumptions embedded in the business of development and NGO related work, they also learned practical skills important for the vocation, from money matters to navigating the rough waters of cross-cultural interactions.
The last part of the course engaged future contexts, opportunities, and challenges for NGO and FBO service and leadership in the 21st century. To help with these questions, Dr. Parsons organized a panel for the class, with the support of the CGCM, and invited the STH community to attend. Panelists were chosen for their connections with STH, for their own spiritual and ethical commitment to service work, and to show how theological education would be helpful for a range of service vocations. The panelists included STH alum Rob Gordon, Executive Director of United Way of Kennebec Valley; John Lindamood, Director of Resident Services in the Cambridge Housing Authority, who holds an M.Div. from Harvard and has made presentations at STH in the past; and Paula Kline, Executive Director of the Montreal City Mission, who oversees an organization that is a contextual partner of STH.
The panel, “Enacting Mission Through Non-Profit and Faith-Based Service Work in Unpredictable Times,” took place on April 11, 2014. Dr. Parsons introduced the class and each guest spoke of the paths that brought them to non-profit work, addressed how they integrate spiritual formation and commitment into their vocation, and in the question and answer sessions that followed, shared practical ideas about how to get into non-profit work, and what kind of skills are important.
Theological and pastoral education as laying the foundation for work in social justice and instilling compassionate values, working in partnership, and fundraising tips were just some of the key themes that emerged from the panel and discussion. The STH will look forward to future teaching and discussion on the intersection of mission and development.
Bishop Josiah Kibira: Forty Years After Graduation
The 2014 commenement of Boston University marks the 40th anniversary of the graduation of one of the School of Theology's most important African graduates: the late Bishop Josiah Mutabuzi Kibira. Josiah Kibira graduated with an S.T.M. from the School of Theology in 1964. A pioneering local and international leader, Josiah Kibira became the first African to be elected bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Buhaya, Tanzania. He served in the World Council of Churches, and was the keynote speaker at the All Africa Conference of Churches General Assembly held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Bishop Kibira was also the first African to be elected president of the Lutheran World Federation. The memory of Bishop Kibira’s leadership is marked by the establishment in 2010 of an institution of higher education in his name, the Josiah Kibira University College in Bukoba, Tanzania. His son, Josiah Mwesigwa Kibira, is an established director and screenwriter, who in 2010 released a documentary about his father, Bishop Kibira of Bukoba: An African Lutheran. For a fuller account of Bishop Kibira's life and service, see his biography on the Dictionary of African Christian Biography, and the History of Missiology.
Call for papers on indigenous Christians in China
The Shaping of Christianity in China: a fresh look at the contribution of indigenous Christians
Oxford Centre for Mission Studies
Oxford, 21-22 May 2015
A CALL FOR PAPERS
Several scholars have agreed to lend their support to an initiative from Dr Peter Rowan, the UK National Director of OMF International, to hold a two-day conference at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS), Woodstock Road, Oxford, in Spring 2015, to mark the 150 years since the foundation of the China Inland Mission/OMF. Among those supporting this initiative are Dr Patrick Fung (General Director OMF, Singapore), Dr Tom Harvey (OCMS), Professor David Killingray (School of Advanced Study, University of London), Professor Gary Tiedemann (Shandong University, formerly SOAS, London), Professor Charles Weber (Wheaton College, IL), Dr Paul Woods (OCMS), and Dr Zweng Yangwen (University of Manchester).
The focus of the conference will be on the role played by Chinese Christians in the shaping of Protestant and Catholic Christianity within China over the past century-and-a-half. This is not to ignore the significant role of foreign missionaries whose accounts have been well told, but to redress the balance and to bring to life the very important contribution of the many indigenous Christians, often marginalised in western-told histories, who spoke the language, understood the cultures, and were often the primary active agents in helping to spread a knowledge of the gospel. There are a number of indigenous Christian leaders, catechists, priests, and evangelists whose stories have been told, but also there are many other significant ‘ordinary people’ who can be retrieved from diaries and correspondence, scattered references in magazines, and from oral accounts. In doing this we hope to rescue from the condescension of posterity the voice of indigenous Christians and, in the process, provide a wider, more balanced and sufficient history than that which has tended to dominate church and academy.
It is hoped that the papers given at the Symposium would be of a standard suitable for publication in an edited volume, perhaps by OCMS.
We welcome proposals for papers from scholars working on aspects of Christianity in China. Proposals should be sent to Dr Paul Woods at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, pwoods@ocms.ac.uk from whom further details are available.
Contextual education programs abroad through the CWM
The Council for World Mission has several exciting programs this year for those interested in mission and contextual education. The CWM's Face to Face 2014 Programs include:
- Three programs held in Fiji, India and Zambia, open to all students (not yet ordained) who are preparing for ministry. For more information, you can download a Face to Face Programme Brief and an Application Form.
- One program held in the Philippines, open to anyone, clergy or laity. For more information, see Face the Fact Philippines and the Revised Program.
These programs aim to provide opportunities for participants to be exposed to different contexts that will enhance their theological reflection and missional engagement.
Please find below the schedule of the Face to Face programs and locations:
|
Programme Locations |
Date |
| FIJI
Pacific Theological College, Suva |
14 July – 29 August 2014
|
| INDIA
Bishop’s College, Kolkata & Aizawl Theological College, Aizawl |
5 September – 31 October 2014
|
| ZAMBIA
United Church of Zambia Theological College, Kitwe PHILIPPINES various exposure |
29 September – 15 November 2014
5 September - 4 October |
If you are interested or know of someone who is interested in this program, please contact (or have people contact) Luciano Kovacs, so that he can recommend them.
Luciano Kovacs
North America Regional Secretary
World Student Christian Federation
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 700
New York, NY 10115
phone+1-212-870-2470
fax +1-212-870-3220
wscfna@gmail.com
CCCW essay writing competition on Christianity in East Asia
The CCCW essay writing competition on Christianity in East Asia
The Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (CCCW) invites students of post-graduate degrees and those who have recently completed (MA, PhD and equivalents) to enter an essay writing competition of between 5,000 and 6,000 words on any aspect of Christianity in East Asia. Submissions from the fields of theology, history and the social sciences are all welcome.
The winning entry will be considered for possible publication by the editor of the peer-reviewed journal, Studies in World Christianity (Edinburgh University Press). The writer of the winning entry will also receive a prize of £500. S/he and two runners up will also receive a year’s subscription to Studies in World Christianity.
The closing date for this year’s competition is 31st July 2014.
Submissions should made electronically and should be sent to Mrs Polly Keen, CCCW administrator, pk262@cam.ac.uk.
The CCCW is grateful to Dr Victor Chua and an anonymous donor for making possible the awarding of this prize.
Details:
5,000-6,000 words not including footnotes.
Please supply a front cover with the title of essay, your name, and institution/affiliation and separately write a short paragraph of bio data. This will not be seen by the judges until after a decision has been made. Do not imbed personal information into your essay (eg in footnotes).
The CCCW shall administer the award. The competition will be judged by the editor and members of the editorial board of SWC. The editor may decide to publish more than one essay.
There are no restrictions in terms of style etc. for the prize submission. However, should the paper be published, adherence to the style, format reference apparatus of the publisher will be required [see http://www.euppublishing.com/page/swc/submissions for more details].
The prize will be paid in pounds sterling. The CCCW cannot cover transfer or bank charges.
A formal announcement of the prize will be made on the CCCW website.
East Asia includes the countries of Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Republic of China, Indonesia, North and South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Timor Leste, Thailand, Vietnam.
Alum Charles Farhadian’s Book on Conversion Released
We have just received notice that Charles Farhadian's "Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion", which was co-authored with Lewis R. Rambo, has been released. According to the book's listing on the Amazon website, it "offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. Scholars from a wide array of religions and disciplines interpret both the varieties of conversion experiences and the processes that inform this personal and communal phenomenon."
Costas Consultation on Christians in the Middle East inspires ecumenical solidarity
The 2014 Costas Consultation on March 28 focused on Christians in the Middle East, and attracted many students, faculty, and interested lay people from diverse traditions associated with the Boston Theological Institute (BTI) of ten theological institutions in the greater Boston area. The consultation included a panel of student papers, the viewing and discussion of a film about Christians in Iraq, “Displaced in their Homeland,” and two key speakers. Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou, Harvard University researcher, and former Vice-Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, gave a lecture identifying and challenging five key myths about Christians in the Middle East (the myths of pluralism in the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East as the "Muslim World," Christians as foreign invaders, Ecumenical Solidarity, and Israel as a protector state for Christians) that when taken together, perpetuate the oppression and persecution of Christian communities in the region. The keynote address was giving by Bishop Elias Toumeh, Antiochian Orthodox Bishop of Pyrgou. Bishop Toumeh gave a heartfelt address on the struggle of Christians in Syria, and the importance of sacrificial leadership; the Bishop also looked at the positive opportunities that Christians have to minister in a time of conflict, such as serving as hostage negotiators. You may read a fuller account of the Bishop Toumeh's address in an article by the The Pilot, "Syrian Bishop Finds in Solidarity Boston."
Many CGCM associates participated in the event; student Daryl Ireland was a key coordinator of the Consultation. Another student, Gina Zurlo, presented one of the student papers centered on a demographic perspective of Christianity in the Middle East. Gina has shared her presentation with us here (costas middle east). The Consultation was an important opportunity, not only to educate the community about ancient Christians in the region and their plight for survival and religious freedom, but also to hear from people living in areas of conflict, and the forging of ecumenical support across nations and traditions.
Post Doctoral Research Opportunity
A year in Geneva
The Post Doctoral Research Program of the
Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue
Thanks to the support of the Levant Foundation, FIIRD is pleased
to announce the call for the Post Doctoral Program:
Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue.
Support for four fellows will be provided for the 2014-2015 academic year.
The program aims to set up a research group to deepen the understanding
among persons of different religions and to bring forth leaders to respond
to intercultural and interreligious challenges.
For more information, please see the attached
Call for Candidates:
Post-doctoral Fellowships in
Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue 2014-2015
Une année à Genève
Le Post Doctorat de la
Fondation pour la recherche et le dialogue interreligieux et interculturels
Grâce au soutien de la Levant Foundation, la FIIRD se réjouit d'annoncer l'appel à candidatures du programme post doctoral :
Recherche et dialogue interreligieux et interculturels
Quatre bourses de recherche seront attribuées pour l'année universitaire 2014-2015.
Ce programme vise à constituer une cellule de recherche à même d’approfondir
la compréhension entre personnes de religions différentes et à former
des cadres susceptibles de répondre aux défis interculturels et interreligieux.
Pour plus d'informations, voir
L'Appel à candidatures:
Bourses de recherche (Post-doctoral Fellowships)
pour le dialogue interreligieux et interculturel 2014-2015
--
Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural
Research and Dialogue
10, rue Albert-Gos
CH-1206 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel-Gsm +41 76 639 52 69
Fax +41 22 909 83 41