Alumni

BU at ASM

Left to Right: Daryl Ireland, Bill Gregory, Ben Hartley, Ruth Padilla DeBorst, Anicka Fast, Michele Sigg, Bruce Yoder, Titus Presler, Tyler Lenocker, Davide Scott. Not pictured, but present were Travis Myers and Richard Darr.

The American Society of Missiology met June 16-18, 2023 in South Bend, Indiana. Former students connected to the CGCM gathered for a meal together. In addition, three of the executive committee of the ASM are now Center alumni: Ben Hartley (President), Bill Gregory (Vice-President), and David Scott (Treasurer).

Alumni in Korea

While giving the Underwood Lectures at Yonsei University, Dana Robert was able to meet with a number of alumni connected to the Center for Global Christianity and Mission.

Dana Robert with Daewon Moon, and others.
Dana Robert with Eunhae Kim and Hoon Song
Dana Robert with Joohan Kim, David Cho, Myung Soo Park, and others

In Memoriam: Father Alexander Veronis (1932-2023)

The Reverend Father Alexander Veronis, longtime pastor of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of Lancaster, entered eternal life on June 26, exactly the way he had hoped – with his beloved wife of 64 years by his side.

Fr. Veronis’s legacy is primarily one of love, faith and service. He tried to see Jesus in every person, was a champion of the underdog, and a strong advocate for the oppressed and the forsaken. He lived by the belief that a rich man is not one who has much, but one who needs little and shares his blessings generously with others. He taught and encouraged his parishioners to use their talents, time and money to promote the faith and to help those in need. He was a father and mentor to all of the people he served and loved.

Fr. Veronis considered it a privilege to be able to share in the joys and sorrows of his beloved parishioners. He relished visiting their homes, sharing in their lives, baptizing and marrying their children, and burying their loved ones. He had a strong affinity for the youth and he and his wife, Pearl, helped to establish the vibrant Metropolis of Pittsburgh Camp Nazareth summer camp program that has impacted generations of Orthodox Christians.

He was noted for his leadership in Orthodox Christian missions and in ecumenical relations. For 43 years, he chaired the Lancaster CROP WALK FOR THE HUNGRY of Church World Service (CWS), helping to raise more than $5 million dollars to alleviate hunger and poverty in Lancaster and in 80 countries worldwide. His dream was that no person would go to sleep hungry anywhere.

Another lifelong passion of Fr. Veronis was missions and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world. He helped establish the Orthodox Christian Missions Center (OCMC), the premier Orthodox Christian mission agency in the USA, and was named as the president emeritus following his retirement.

He also helped to establish the Endowment Fund for Orthodox Missions (EFOM) which endowed the Missions Institute of Orthodox Christianity at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. A highlight of his life was making a mission trip with his wife to Kenya to build a medical clinic in 1988, joining his son, Luke, who was serving there. He never stopped marveling about the joy he experienced worshiping alongside his African brothers and sisters.

Father Veronis was born in Paterson, N.J., the son of Nicholas and Angeliki Veronis, beloved Greek immigrant parents from Crete, Greece. He was the fifth of six children. He served Annunciation Church, his first and only parish, for 62 years as Pastor and Pastor Emeritus (1961-2023).

He graduated from Lafayette College (B.A.), Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (B.D.) , Boston University School of Theology (S.T.M), and Athens University School of Theology. He received an honorary doctorate (D.D.) from Lebanon Valley College in 1992. In 2015 Boston University School of Theology recognized him as a “Distinguished Alumnus.”

Ordained to the priesthood in 1961, Father Veronis began his parish ministry at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of Lancaster. Back in the 1960s, he was among the first in the Orthodox Church to establish regular Bible Studies. He was among the editorial committee to establish the first Orthodox Study Bible in 1993.

In 2008, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and his fellow priests honored his philanthropic and progressive ministry by bestowing on Fr. Veronis “The Distinguished Ministry Award” - the highest tribute given to any Greek Orthodox priest in the country.

Surviving, in addition to his beloved wife, Presbytera Pearl of 64 years, are their five children: Catherine, wife of David Garman (deceased); Nicholas, husband of Susan (Zervanos); George, husband of Christine (Reid); Rebecca (Veronis), wife of Matthew Michalopoulos; and Father Luke, husband of Presbytera Faith (Stathis). He had fourteen grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

To his final breath, Fr. Veronis gave gratitude for his wife, Pearl, his faithful companion and loyal partner in Christ. His love for her knew no bounds, and he often said that he could never have been the leader and the priest he was without her support. She was, in every sense of the word, his co-minister. Their love for each other showed their children and parishioners how joyful and fulfilling a Christ-centered marriage could be.

The family will receive visitors at the viewing on Thursday, June 29 from 3:00-9:00 pm, with the Trisagion Service at 6 pm, at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 64 Hershey Ave, Lancaster. A Divine Liturgy will be held Friday, June 30, at 9:30 am, followed by the funeral service at 11 am. Following the service will be the internment at Conestoga Memorial Park, 95 Second Lock Road, Lancaster.

In lieu of flowers, donations made be made in Father Alexander Veronis’s memory to Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church’s renovation of the Church Social Hall, 64 Hershey Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603 or to The Missions Institute of Orthodox Christianity at Hellenic College/Holy Cross School of Theology, 50 Goddard Avenue, Brookline, MA 02445.

IAMS 2026

In June, the new executive committee of the International Association for Mission Studies met in Seoul, Korea to plan for the next quadrennium. In addition to setting the location for the 2026 meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, Michele Sigg, the North American representative, and the other delegates selected the theme "Walking Together in Mission: Facing Global Challenges for a Sustainable Future." More details and reflections on the meeting were put into a short video by IAMS.

Jean Luc Enyegue (’18): New Publication

Jean Luc Enyegue published a new book, The Jesuit Ethos: A Social and Spiritual History. The book analyzes how the Jesuits exploited their diversity of cultures and politics to build a global ethos, and how this global organization was sustained for the last five hundred years. Enyegue draws relevant lessons from the past to address the ongoing challenges of the Jesuit global community. While speaking to a broader, global-oriented audience, such a history might be the first of such by an African (thus its originality), in a context of shifting demographics in the Church and the Society of Jesus, and questions about the identity of its institution and mission.

Enyegue is  the Director of the Jesuit Historical Institute in Africa, and lectures at Hekima University College in Kenya.

 

Soojin Chung (’18) Becomes New Director of OMSC

History is being made as the Overseas Ministries Study Center at Princeton Theological Seminary welcomes Dr. Soojin Chung as its eleventh director. Incorporated in 1922 in Ventnor, New Jersey, by American Baptists Marguerite and Ida Doane, OMSC relocated to New Haven, Connecticut in 1978 and continued its work there until 2019. In 2020, OMSC returned to New Jersey, this time to the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, where it is now fully embedded in the center of that historic campus. For the first time since 1972, OMSC will again welcome a woman as director.

A gifted professor, author, and scholar of World Christianity, Chung begins her tenure August 1, 2023. The Assistant Professor in the School of Theology and Director of General Education at Azusa Pacific University brings a commitment to equity and justice, and a record of service in India, Thailand, Japan, and China, where she worked with missions organizations and conducted community-based research on the relationship between ethnicity and religious experience. As a faculty member and curriculum developer at the evangelical university in Southern California (2021–23), Chung designed and taught World Christianity, Asian and Asian American religions, Christian missions, and comparative religion courses. She also led diversity seminars for first-year students, oversaw faculty development and program assessment, organized conferences. 310 International Bulletin of Mission Research 47(3) and seminars, managed the operational budget and grants, represented the General Education program at campus and external events, and conducted a Department of Ethnic Studies research project on “Faith Integration and Race.”

Prior to joining the Azusa Pacific faculty, she organized World Christianity seminars and conferences as Director of Intercultural Studies and Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies at California Baptist University (2018–21.) Since 2019 she also has been developing reading and writing curriculum for international students and teaching academic writing at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, Chung was a missionary with Youth With A Mission, Children’s Pastor at Boston Onnuri Church in Woburn, MA, an international student ministry leader at the historic Park Street Church in Boston, the English Ministry Pastor of Changshin Holiness Church in Seoul, and a Student Pastor at Boston Hope Church in Waltham, MA.

As Associate Editor of Missiology: An International Review, the American Society of Missiology journal, she acquired articles and book reviews, conducted preliminary screening of submissions, served as the liaison between publishers and authors, facilitated the peer-review process, and assisted in setting editorial guidelines—all of which will be a part of her portfolio when she assumes the editorship of the International Bulletin of Mission Research in 2024. Hastings, who retired in June, will continue as
the IBMR editor for another year.

While completing a PhD in World Christianity from Boston University School of Theology (2018), with Dr. Dana L. Robert as her mentor, Chung managed the daily operations of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission, supervised graduate assistants as Director of the Korean Diaspora Project, and assisted with the Chinese Christian Posters Project. A native English and Korean speaker and writer, who has a basic reading ability in Chinese, she earned a Master of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (2012) and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia (2008).

Chung’s Boston University School of Theology dissertation, published in December 2021 as Adopting for God: The Mission to Change America through Transnational Adoption (New York University Press, https://nyupress.org/9781479808885/adopting-for-god/), explores the role played by missionaries between 1953 and 2018 when some 170,000 Korean children were adopted by families in dozens of countries, with Americans providing homes to more than two-thirds of them. The book “shows that, somewhat surprisingly, both evangelical and ecumenical Christians challenged Americans to redefine traditional familial values and rethink race matters,” Chung wrote. “By questioning the perspective that equates missionary humanitarianism with unmitigated cultural imperialism, this book offers a more nuanced picture of the rise of an important twentieth-century movement: the evangelization of adoption and the awakening of a new type of Christian mission,” she added.

The new OMSC@PTS leader is also the author of numerous articles including “The Seed of Korean Christianity Grew in the Soil of Shamanism,” (Christianity Today, November 2022); “The Missiology of Pearl Sydenstricker Buck,” (IBMR, April 2017); “Transnational Adoption: A Noble Cause? Female Missionaries as Pioneers of Transnational Adoption, 1945–1965,” (Evangelical Missions Quarterly, October 2016); and book chapters including “All God’s Children: How Missionaries Fostered World Friendship through Transnational Adoption,” in Unlikely Friends: How God Uses Boundary-Crossing Friendships to Transform the World, (Wipf and Stock Publishers, July 2021); and “Baptists, Global Christianity, and the Christian Tradition,” in Baptists and the Christian Tradition: Toward an Evangelical
Baptist Catholicity, (B&H Academic, June 2020).

“I am deeply humbled to join the Overseas Ministries Study Center team as the next director. I am excited to continue the legacy of the Doane sisters, who founded the Center as Houses of Fellowship that welcomed missionaries on furlough. The Center carries on this tradition through residential programs where global partners, students, faculty, and staff experience fellowship together and enrich the scholarship of their respective fields,” Chung said. “The importance placed on theological praxis—where scholarship and practice are necessarily entwined—makes OMSC a unique host for a community that lives and learns together. I look forward to carrying on the innovative programs of OMSC and envision new programs focused on women in mission and World Christianity,” she added.

“I am so glad to welcome Dr. Soojin Chung as the new director of OMSC@PTS. She brings us excellent scholarship, strong administrative and team-building skills, and a great love for the church and its mission. We are confident that she will continue the wise and winsome leadership that OMSC has enjoyed over its century of service,”said Dr. Joel A. Carpenter, provost emeritus at Calvin University and an OMSC@PTS Advisory Committee member.

“We are delighted by the search committee’s appointment of Dr. Chung. She brings significant gifts of mission experience, scholarship, and administration to OMSC@PTS, and as she continues the legacy of this unique ministry and helps to shape its future, she will be assisted by the extraordinary academic and administrative gifts of Dr. Easten Law and Ms. Caitlin Barton,” noted Dr. Hastings.

“A highly competent and impressive scholar of mission and global Christianity, Dr. Soojin Chung brings creativity and fresh visions to the OMSC at PTS. I am delighted to learn of her appointment, and I look forward to the future of our beloved institution,” commented Dr. Dana L. Robert, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University School of Theology.

--Excerpted from Dan Nicholas, "Soojin Chung Appointed OMSC@PTS Director as Thomas J. Hastings Retires," International Bulletin of Mission Research 47, no. 3 (2023): 309-311.

Between Hindu and Christian

Kerry P. C. San Chirico, who intersected with the Center for Global Christianity and Mission when he was a PhD student at Boston College, recently published, Between Hindu and Christian: Khrist Bhaktas, Catholics, and the Negotiation of Devotion in Banaras (OUP, 2023). Among others, he specifically thanks Dana L. Robert for her role in writing the book.