News of the extended network of faculty, alumni, students, visiting researchers, and mission partners is regularly updated, and some of the big ideas or major events in Global Christianity are covered in the CGCM News.
AFUA KUMA – DORA YU PAPER PRIZE
This is an exciting opportunity for scholars to submit their proposals for the Afua Kuma – Dora Yu Paper Prize, honoring research on spiritual formation and lived theology across diverse global contexts.
Applications open Nov. 15–Feb. 28—learn more: https://bit.ly/kumayuPTSEM
2025 AETE and APM Calls for Proposals
We’re thrilled to announce that the 2025 Joint Meeting of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education (AETE) and the Association of Professors of Mission (APM) is now accepting proposals.
The Grand Instrument of Converting the World
The Center of Global Christianity and Mission invites you to a talk by Layla Koch on” The Grand Instrument for Converting the World”: Childhood, Children, and Child Readers in the U.S. Foreign Missionary, 1810-1865.
Conflict Transformation
Join us for an insightful session on dialogue and forgiveness through the arts led by Dr. André De Quadros.
[Yale-Edinburgh Group] CCCW Seminar tomorrow, 8 Oct 1600-1730 GMT, and future events
Dear Yale-Edinburgh Colleagues,
Greetings from the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide! This is to inform you that our first CCCW-DivFac World Christianities seminar for the current academic year will be tomorrow, Tuesday 8th October, 1600-1730 GMT. A paper will be presented by Prof. Rohan Gideon from the United Theological College, Bangalore, who will speak on ‘Great Commission and Agency: Critical Insights from the Underside.” Venue: Room 7, Faculty of Divinity and Online. You are very welcome to join.
https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93136508607?pwd=QnRRcG55TkNndVJZbFcvUGZPMEdHdz09
Meeting ID: 931 3650 8607
Passcode: 568920
Later in the Michaelmas Term, on Wednesday 6th November, Prof Brian Stanley, Professor Emeritus of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, will deliver this year's HENRY MARTYN DAY lecture on the topic ‘Whatever Happened to Missionary Enthusiasm? The Transformation of Protestant Globalism from Bishop Selwyn’s Cambridge Sermons in 1854 to Today.’ Runcie Room, Faculty of Divinity, and Online 1600-1730 GMT. Earlier on the same day at 2 pm, in the same venue there will be a special event to celebrate the opening of the Africa Inland Mission (AIM)'s at the Cambridge University Library.
On Tuesday 19th November, for the CCCW-DivFac World Christianities seminar, Prof Frieder Ludwig from VID Specialized University, Norway will speak on ‘The World Council of Churches Assembly in New Delhi 1961 and Processes of De-Westernisation: Approaches, Negotiations and Transloyalities in the German Democratic Republic, India and Nigeria.’ Room 7, Faculty of Divinity and online, 4-5.30 pm.
You are very welcome to join these events in person or online.
With best wishes,
Muthuraj
[Yale-Edinburgh Group] CCCW Seminar tomorrow, 8 Oct 1600-1730 GMT, and future events
Dear Yale-Edinburgh Colleagues,
Greetings from the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide! This is to inform you that our first CCCW-DivFac World Christianities seminar for the current academic year will be tomorrow, Tuesday 8th October, 1600-1730 GMT. A paper will be presented by Prof. Rohan Gideon from the United Theological College, Bangalore, who will speak on ‘Great Commission and Agency: Critical Insights from the Underside.” Venue: Room 7, Faculty of Divinity and Online. You are very welcome to join.
https://theofed-cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93136508607?pwd=QnRRcG55TkNndVJZbFcvUGZPMEdHdz09
Meeting ID: 931 3650 8607
Passcode: 568920
Later in the Michaelmas Term, on Wednesday 6th November, Prof Brian Stanley, Professor Emeritus of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, will deliver this year's HENRY MARTYN DAY lecture on the topic ‘Whatever Happened to Missionary Enthusiasm? The Transformation of Protestant Globalism from Bishop Selwyn’s Cambridge Sermons in 1854 to Today.’ Runcie Room, Faculty of Divinity, and Online 1600-1730 GMT. Earlier on the same day at 2 pm, in the same venue there will be a special event to celebrate the opening of the Africa Inland Mission (AIM)'s at the Cambridge University Library.
On Tuesday 19th November, for the CCCW-DivFac World Christianities seminar, Prof Frieder Ludwig from VID Specialized University, Norway will speak on ‘The World Council of Churches Assembly in New Delhi 1961 and Processes of De-Westernisation: Approaches, Negotiations and Transloyalities in the German Democratic Republic, India and Nigeria.’ Room 7, Faculty of Divinity and online, 4-5.30 pm.
You are very welcome to join these events in person or online.
With best wishes,
Muthuraj
Lausanne 2024 Photo
We are delighted that many people from the CGCM are playing a role at Lausanne IV. The people shown are CGCM affiliates (L-R): Rev. Dr. Casely Essamuah, Dr. Tyler Lenocker, Dr. Jesudas Athyal, Dr. Soojin Chung, Dr. SuYeon Yoon. Rev. Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst and Rev. Dr. Daewon Moon are not pictured.
Migration and Mygration Conferences
Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary will host two events on migration on October 4 - 5. On the 4th, there will be the graduate student conference on "Migration and Belonging," and on the 5th, there will be the church-centered event "Mygration." Justo Gonzalez will be the keynote speaker.
Pentecostalism, Latinx Community and Hip-Hop
Dr. Jonathan Calvillo will give a lecture, "When the Spirit is your Inheritance: Testimonios in Borderlands Pentecostalism."
Remembering Inus Daneel
I met Inus Daneel in 1998 when I took his class on African Traditional Religion at Boston University. I had just spent two years living in West Africa and was trying to make sense of the significance of that experience for my own future. We quickly connected over our love of Africa and by the time I finished my second class with him on African Christianity we had forged a close bond, fortified by his wonderfully hospitable presence and by long talks in his office in the African Studies Center.
In class and out, I came to see him as more than a professor seeking to help us students understand and grow professionally. He made himself available as a companion and guide through the landscapes of the spirit we walked, ever ready to help us meet the different challenges we faced in life.
I thought for a time I too might become an Africa scholar and even spent ten days in Masvingo exploring some research possibilities with him. But I eventually sensed my path lay in a different direction. Yet he remained a good friend and mentor after that and always an inspiration for the depth of his Christian witness, for his adventurous, observant, and joyful spirit, and for his lifelong closeness to the Shona people of Zimbabwe, including at great personal sacrifice during the civil war there in the 1970s.
I treasured meals with him in the BU student union and was honored by his presence at important moments during my remaining graduate school years in Boston—at my doctoral exams during which he argued for my passing with distinction, after my dissertation defense when he offered a congratulatory toast before family and friends, and in sending me significant and unanticipated counsel after my wife Susanna and I decided to marry.
Somewhere along the way I realized that he had become a father figure to me—that he fit that role in my life—and when I last saw him in 2023 he said something close to that, saying that he thought of me as a younger brother. However best to describe the connection, after twenty-five years it was something we both recognized, though with him as the elder I know I am far more indebted.
Amid the different encounters we had over the years, he taught me some very important things: courage in time of trial, fighting for a worthy cause, standing on principle, humility before the divine mystery, attentiveness to the Spirit’s presence, and perhaps most of all, trust in God’s providence. Life to him, I know, was a sacred sojourn, miraculous and intensely interesting. It is obviously marred by terrible tragedy and evil, but because it is ultimately supported by God’s love and goodness, we can have faith in creation and in each other, walk across walls and barricades, and look out for the new things that God is doing this day.
Since Inus passed, I have been remembering many of the stories he told me—of growing up at Morgenster Mission, of his theological training in South Africa and in the Netherlands, of living among the Shona and enduring the war, and of promoting ecumenism, theological education, and earthcare. These stories were always captivating, yet they were also sometimes sad because he endured some difficult years and often lived close to those with heavy burdens to bear.
I have also been remembering other scenes—of praying with him before meals, watching him befriend Shona strangers by comparing ancestral lineages, him writing out for me an English translation of a Dutch Reform Church service in Afrikaans, hearing him address a village congregation on reconciliation within a ring of stones under a tree, and most recently, marathon talks with him at his and Dana’s home in Somerville.
Reflecting on all this, I cannot measure the gift of having walked these paths with him since that first class day in 1998 or of having witnessed the testament to God’s love, abundant creativity, and surpassing faithfulness that was his life. Farewell, Inus! May the Lord meet you on your way and bring you home!
By William (Bill) Gregory