Workshop
Power-dynamics are central to our understanding of community and relationships. Key to understanding the interplay of power dynamics are questions about how we hold power over, share power with, or are disempowered by others. It is to ask, discern and name the intersecting threads that create and/or perpetuate the misuse of power. If education is believed to be the key to transforming power, then in what ways can education be used to shift understanding and practice of power? Or put another way, how can we reimagine education as a tool for transforming power to better serve God’s purposes? As churches we are currently faced with a challenge and with it a choice-
- To use education as a tool for replicating and perpetuating systems of power OR
- To see continuing education as a tool for ongoing reformation and transformation.
For the latter to guide us, there is a need for change in thinking and behaviour that is reflected in pedagogy, curriculum and education objectives and outcomes. For education to be truly liberative and life transforming there is a need for engaging in the practices of what Eleazar Hernandez names as enabling thinking/reasoning that transgresses Eurocentric assumptions, and awareness of the multipositionality and shifting patterns in the power-knowledge nexus. Affirming the integral place of education in missiological formation and vocation, this workshop is an invitation:
- To explore, and/or unravel the intersecting threads of power using the method of intersectionality which is intentional about making space for and valuing the insights and agency the marginalised bring to this process.
- To reimagine, re/inter/weave a new agenda for education that is life flourishing for all.
Within the intricate web of gender, leadership, and power, lies a nexus of injustice that permeates economic structures, perpetuates gender-based violence, and fosters a myriad of social inequalities. This triad serves as a foundational cornerstone for both the church and society at large. Gender, distinct from biological sex, is a socially constructed paradigm encompassing roles, responsibilities, and expectations, molded by cultural and socio-political forces. However, unlike immutable biological traits, gender is malleable and capable of transformation. Therefore, the pursuit of gender justice transcends the concerns of any single gender; it is a collective endeavor that implicates us all.
Within the Christian ethos, gender justice manifests as the cultivation of just and equitable relationships, underpinned by mutual respect, accountability, and a reverence for all of creation. This pursuit is integral to our spiritual journey, nurturing our connection with the divine and fostering a holistic understanding of God’s mission. As bearers of the divine image and members of the body of Christ, we are beckoned by the Holy Spirit to actively engage in the ministry of reconciliation, dismantling systems of gender injustice that pervade economic, societal, and ecclesiastical spheres.
In our quest for transformative mission, we confront the dual levels of gender injustice: procedural and experiential. At the procedural level, we scrutinize the mechanisms through which leadership and power in Christianity are gendered, often perpetuating a hierarchical paradigm where authority is imbued with a spirit of domination. This hierarchical structure dichotomizes individuals into inferior (often associated with women and nature) and superior (aligned with men and humanity), legitimizing the subjugation of the former by the latter. This paradigm affects and intersects with gendered roles, sexual violence, and harassment in daily experience.
The workshop on gender, leadership, and power will provide a space for group conversation. Participants will share their experiences of gendering and gendered leadership and power dynamics in their own contexts, whether within the Church or in broader society. These conversations will explore how we respond to these challenges in leadership and power dynamics within Christian faith, and how to effectively navigate those challenges. Revisioning gender-sensitive leadership and power-with in different contexts will lead the conversation toward life-flourishing.
Racism is a social construct that creates a social hierarchy that accrues power to some people and takes it away from others. In recent times, we have once more become aware of the hideousness of racism through the exposure of police brutality on black bodies in the US and elsewhere. These recent events have led to new anti-racism initiatives.
Building on colonial legacies of supremacy, racism is often articulated through missiological language. The church has been and continues to be vested in racism, both through its practice and theology. One cannot forget that apartheid was, first and foremost, a reformed theology. Even today, Christian unity and communion are compromised by racism.
How do we understand racism and the power and privilege it gives to some and takes away from others today? This workshop will offer an interactive space for understanding racism. This will be done through a participatory, performative reading of Genesis 16 and 21, the Hagar narratives.
Caste is integral part of Indian culture and its social relations. It divides society hierarchically, thereby creating and sustaining inequality. It normalises oppression of those who are at the bottom of social structure. However, the rigidness of caste identities and the nature of caste discrimination have undergone a considerable change. Therefore, it is obligatory to understand the modern complexities of caste oppression because it operates at dangerous levels affecting political, social, economic, and religious life of the downtrodden.
A couple of developments that have altered caste relations in India are the rise of regions nationalism and neo-liberalism. Hindu religious nationalism, defined as ‘Hindutva’ has become a dominant political ideology that is defining the social, cultural, economic and political process in India. While, Neo-liberalism aims at enhancing capitalist interest and also reduction/elimination of state social programmes that benefit the working class. While neo-liberalism blurs caste boundaries, Hindutva strengthens religious boundaries. As a result, Dalits and are absorbed into the caste structure and it becomes easy for the dominant communities to reinforce caste ideology by promoting communal projects that encourage religious animosity and separation. The context of new economic order resembles such an ideology as it has resulted in strengthening oppressive hierarchies that produce inequalities, oppression, and discrimination. Therefore, religious nationalism and neo-liberalism become perfect allies.
Both, neo-liberalism and Hindutva are similar ideologies and entail in themselves an aspect of fascism. Both, Neo-liberalism and religious nationalism have been challenged in India. However, there is an inherent weakness on how both these ideologies have been confronted. They both are considered diverse ideologies and thereby neo-liberalism invites only economic critique while Hindutva invites religious critique. Considering both, Hindutva and neo-liberalism as separate ideologies divides resistance into two different and unrelated approaches and thus both remain unchallenged. Such is the power of discrimination.
In such a context, “Rise to Life” means that we seek alternative strategies of liberation that seeks justice in a complex world where diverse discriminative powers intersect each other to produce an overall hegemony on the downtrodden. Therefore, this workshop seeks to explore potential avenues that not only helps us to analyse systems and structures from below but also helps us to develop effective transformative social action.
Millions perish at the alters of imperialist security which proclaim a War Paradigm rather than a Peace Paradigm (peaceful negotiations) as the way forward in resolving global conflicts. Many are maimed, raped, widowed, and orphaned. Millions have been expelled from their homes, fertile lands and shores, and turned into zones of extractivism and geo-strategic locations protected by digitalized walls, minefields, military complexes, high tech surveillance cameras and torture chambers. The world is being disfigured into the ‘image and likeness’ of the empire. Hundreds of thousands are forced to camp in the far corners of the deserts and as they wait for food are bombed.
Elsewhere, some, to save their lives, attempt to cross the seas herded onto dangerously overladen boats, many of which never reach the far shore. The political borders of the countries that lead the empire have been tightened. Security guarantees in the name of Right to Defend are given to the allied states by the superpower reconfiguring different regions of the world as its war frontiers and strategic locations. Seas have been occupied by the navies of the empire to secure routes for geo-strategic domination. When the imperial rule cannot be maintained through lands and seas the empire moves to the skies through aerial bombing, drones, and satellites. Even the limitless space is not spared. Weapons are manufactured to cause maximum destruction and utilized often outside the centres of empire at the margins who proclaim an alternative agency. The intergenerational impact is immeasurable. Militarization is nothing but a power projection of the empire across the planet which terrorizes the wretched of the earth who yearn for life, land and livelihood with the hope of life and continuity of life, not simply for themselves, but for all. It is a claim to not simply power, but absolute power, global dominance. It is the Golden Calf of our times. We are promised peace by the empire by keeping the world in a permanent state of war.
As those who proclaim the faith in God of life and in the One who gives life and life in abundance let us deeply reflect on the ways in which we can denounce the Golden Calf of military dominance/War Paradigm and expose its false promise of peace and prosperity. Whose peace? Whose security? Let’s discern the movements of the Spirit within us and around us to promote peaceful negotiations to conflicts across the world in creative ways and empower each other in building life-affirming communities against the cult of death/security/war.
Housed at SOAS Library, University of London, since 1973, the archives of the Council for World Mission are a unique resource for the study of the global spread of the Christian faith over the last 200 years, used by academic researchers, family historians, churches, and communities from around the world. Spanning the whole history of the organisation from the foundation of the London Missionary Society in 1795, to the creation of the Council for World Mission in 1977 and its early decades, the archive comprises over 3,000 boxes of letters, diaries, reports, minutes, photographs and maps, in addition to a library of printed books, pamphlets, periodicals, vernacular texts and translations. This workshop will be led by the CWM Archivist, Jo Ichimura, who will provide an overview of these historical collections, including case studies on research and use of the materials. There will also be an opportunity for participants to learn how to use catalogues and explore online digitised materials. The workshop will end with a Q&A session on the collections and the management of archives more broadly, which will also provide an opportunity for participants to consider and share ideas around the potential of the collections for future research.
To talk the language of hospitality is to go against the grain of the world in which we live. The prevailing trend is one of protection and exclusion. We have formed a world where those on islands of privilege defend what they have by repelling everyone else. It is a world of walls and barriers – all about keeping people out, not welcoming them in. The stranger or “other” is seen as a threat to be countered, not a gift to be received. Anti-immigration policies win elections.Very different is the biblical vision. Thirty-six times in the Hebrew Bible, God’s people are commanded to care for the foreigner and the stranger in their land. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews urged the first Christian community not to neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. Hospitality is in the DNA of our faith – a radical openness to the other. In today’s world those who follow Christ are therefore people of protest – resisting the injustice that is routinely imposed on those in need of hospitality.
As we engage in such resistance, might we at the same time discover a new kind of evangelism – one that is fit for our time? Evangelism too is in the DNA of the Christian faith – ever since Jesus proclaimed, “Repent and believe in the good news.” Yet in our time its reputation has suffered as it has become associated with arrogance, aggression, coercion and unequal power relations. Can we think again about evangelism?
This workshop suggests that radical hospitality might represent a rediscovery of authentic evangelism. Taking hospitality as a primary mode of engagement takes us into a realm where the mutuality of giving and receiving sets the tone. In this environment evangelism too becomes a matter of mutuality. In place of the know-all Christian and the know-nothing other person, there is a recognition that we know only in part, and we always have much to learn from another. The presence of God is not our possession. In fact, the Spirit of God works often in the most surprising places and among the most surprising people. Our encounter with our neighbours can be filled with expectation of how we can learn more from them about God’s love and salvation. Then we are being evangelised just as much as evangelising. Might vulnerability, humility, generosity and hospitality be the hallmarks of true evangelism today?
As followers of the Tri-une God, we hold that life flourishes when it is centred on God and not ourselves. Recognising that life arises from relationship with God, we learn from the Bible, and see modelled across historic traditions, the importance of spiritual practices. With the Pentecostal/charismatic movements of the 20th century, reformed/evangelical churches have worked to define which faith habits are core for us. Research from the last 25 years has prompted many churches to highlight how their particular habits grow individuals and communities in Christ-like-ness. These spiritual practices serve to nurture and nourish disciples and form them for participation in God’s mission. In this workshop, we look at different spiritual practices and how attention to these inspires and strengthens churches and missions. We look at the core list for our churches today (prayer, reading of scripture, sacraments, giving and service), scriptural examples (fasting, singing, sacrifice of praise, group discussion, healing, anointing) and we expand into extensions (pilgrimage, creativity, meditation, labyrinth, and many more…).
Mission and its ties to colonialism and capitalism through the Doctrine of Discovery continue to impact Indigenous peoples globally in different ways. As such our missiological and theological understandings and practices need always to be open to ongoing critique, decolonisation, and reconstruction as a journey of reconciliation, truth telling, justice, healing and peace that is wholistically integrated. A critical and key aspect of this process is the active engagement and involvement of Indigenous Peoples, their experiences, insights, and wisdom. This workshop explores the Indigenous Vision for a transformed world through the perspective of wholistic liberation and shared global ecumenical Indigenous concepts. Wholistic liberation is in essence reimagining an alternative theological narrative and worldview that values Indigenous epistemologies as sources that can guide and shape our theologies and mission. Wholistic liberation embodies the unravelling and reweaving of three key threads:
- The Indigenous wisdom that liberation is interwoven with the healing of creation.
- The fragile interconnection between a liveable future and the full restoration of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- The power of Agency – the understanding that Indigenous Peoples are active participants in their own liberation.
This workshop invites an openness and willingness to listen, engage and consequently act in ways that bring about transformative change.
What does it mean to bear witness to the God of justice in places of profound inequity? To assert the presence and the priority of the Prince of peace at places where war is prepared? To hear the word of the Lord in the temple of mammon?
It could be argued that the climate crisis is the culminating crisis of the depredations of the socio-economic system that CWM has aptly named Babylon, the terrifying consequence of the ruthless exploitation of the planet and its inhabitants for the benefit of a small minority. The terrifying implications of this crisis for life on this planet have prompted the emergence of protest and resistance movements across the globe.
Over the past few years, a practice of liturgical protest has been emerged in the Christian wing of the climate justice movement in The Netherlands. Liturgical worship provides a space to lament present and impending loss, allows us to confess our sins, and uncompromisingly asserts the Gospel message of Gods ultimate victory over the powers of darkness. Liturgical worship also profoundly shapes Christian communities.
The words protest, and Protestant share an etymology: to bear witness to. In this workshop, we will explore these practices, and share stories of protest and public worship. We shall also explore the opportunities for mutual accompaniment and solidarity that such practices can help foster.
“What does the Lord require of you?” (Micah 6:8). Transformative Ecumenism attempts to reimagine ecumenism in response to the unsustainability of the current global dynamics and in eagerness to nurture new opportunities for transformative Christian presence. The increasing diversity, complexity, and global nature of contemporary Christian presence indicates the need for new strategies to inspire faith-based transformative responses that resonate with people’s yearnings for justice and life. While building on the contributions of the past, this step forward is toward a troubling of the waters and a listening to the wind by those daring to ask uncomfortable questions in faithfulness to God’s call and in anticipation of a new ecumenical future.
Digital media, now deeply intertwined with Artificial Intelligence (AI), is rapidly transforming our world, presenting both opportunities and challenges. This transformation is leading to unprecedented paradigm shifts in politics, economics, society, and culture. Digital media fosters cyberspace, a virtual world intricately linked to our physical space. In the digitalised world, people are carrying out their social activities online. People live, meet and communicate with other people in cyberspace.
However, the digitalised world also brings persistent challenges such as digital divides, widening inequalities, educational disparities, gender injustices, and increasing privacy and security concerns. In addition, the potential for AI to be controlled and manipulated by political entities and a handful of transnational corporations raises profound concerns.
This workshop aims to critically examine the ethical issues that emerge in the digitalised world. It seeks to propose and discuss alternative ethical frameworks from a CWM perspective to address and overcome these challenges.
In the context of a global capital economy, taxation is a means for the redistribution of wealth. Only if the state takes an income can it provides and organize the needed goods and services to enable a healthy society that protects the life and livelihood of its citizens. Today, taxes provide much-needed public goods and services such as health and education and ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are taken care of. Taxation also allows the regulation of the overall economy by taxing the public bads – for instance, the taxing of greenhouse emissions. Particularly in the context of the climate crisis, just taxation can be used to find crucial funding to mitigate the crisis by taxing those who pollute and using these funds to ameliorate the conditions of those suffering the most because of the climate crisis.
Since the 1970s, in the wake of economic liberalization and globalization, governments are increasing privatization and reducing social spending on health and education in an economic system that is increasingly driven by profit. This has been coupled with tax reductions for wealthy individuals and corporations. Most super-wealthy individuals and corporations pay little or no tax or a tax that is grossly disproportionate to income. Many dodge paying tax altogether by tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax havens; this has caused a shortage of tax revenue and plunged public finances around the world into deficits.
This workshop will examine tax justice and its use in an economy of life. It will also examine what churches, ecumenical organisations, and congregations can do to covenant for justice in the economy and the earth through tax justice advocacy. It will particularly look at re-reading Luke 19 and highlight the ZacTAX campaign.
The escalating environmental crisis, characterized by climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution, and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, presents an unprecedented challenge to the wellbeing of our planet and all its inhabitants. This crisis is not only a physical and economic issue but deeply rooted in moral and ethical dimensions, reflecting a profound disconnection from the principles of justice, stewardship, and care for creation. In response to this urgent situation, there is a growing need to mobilize communities around the world to advocate for eco-justice—a holistic approach that seeks to address environmental issues within the framework of social justice, ensuring a flourishing creation for all.
This workshop aims to galvanize the CWM Communities into action for eco-justice by:
- Educating on Eco-Justice: Enhancing understanding of eco-justice principles, including the interconnectedness of all life, the importance of biodiversity, and the need for sustainable practices that honor the Earth and its resources.
- Inspiring Action for Environmental Stewardship: Sharing successful case studies and strategies for community engagement in environmental conservation, climate action, and sustainable living.
- Empowering Churches for Grassroots Movements: Equipping participants with the tools and knowledge to mobilize their communities towards effective advocacy and action for eco-justice.
- Fostering Collaboration: Creating a network of activists, community leaders, and organizations committed to building a global movement for eco-justice, facilitating the exchange of ideas, resources, and best practices.
The world of today seems to be comfortable with a development culture that fosters and sustains all forms of violence, injustices and blatant abuse of the dignity of creation, especially the brutality that characterize human relations. The world needs recalibration and reengineering employing and entrenching a development culture that safeguards the dignity of all creation rooted in authentic justice for all. This demand is hinged on the recognition of the existence of forces that threaten and suffocate life in its entirety. These forces include and not limited to economic exploitation sustained by capitalism, political exclusion, climate change merchants, gender based violence, silencing the minorities, authoritarian regimes, shrinking space of civil society, territorial occupation, militarism, weaponization of aid, famine and hunger, consumerism, racism, xenophobia, casteism, populist nationalism, patriarchy, tribalism, misleading theologies and commercialization of the gospel messages, trafficking
in persons, illicit financial flows, transborder crimes, and the list goes on and on. The convergence of these forces makes the world fragile, toxic, injured and apparently fragmented. Therefore, if development is a process that creates growth, progress, positive change in the physical, economic, environmental, social and demographic components of human existence, and noting that the purpose of development is to uplift the level and quality of life of the population, and the creation or expansion of income and employment opportunities, without destroying the environment. The sordid reality of existence of the evil forces that deny experiencing Shalomic life calls for fresh and compelling ecumenical thinking, that will evoke new consciousness among the people to envision a new culture of development that fosters living with dignity, thereby renouncing and denouncing ideologies of the forces that deny life-flourishing relations within the ecosystem.
Therefore, this workshop seeks to stimulate fresh imagination on the nature and methods of community de(en)velopment that manifest real transformation not deformation anchored on the transformative notion of communitarianism that transcends boundaries created by greed and individualism. The workshop will challenge participants to rethink their roles as agents of transformation in the wider society. Hopefully, participants together with the facilitator will conceptualize initiatives that will contribute in both small and big ways toward transforming lives for the better, and also challenging systems and structures that destroy lives. Methodologically, the workshop will be guided by a short presentation on the nature and approaches in community development that demonstrates in concrete ways transformation that are taking place in the lives of the people and their communities as a whole withoutcompromising the integrity of the ecosystem. Some tangible case studies will be shared during the presentation. Thereafter, participants will be engaged in group discussions and plenary reporting for harvesting and making of proposals for actions.
In a world where the perspectives and energies of young people are often overlooked within the church, ecumenical space and in mission, there exists a pressing need to re-evaluate and redesign these spaces. “Creating Space: Addressing the Frustrations of Youth in Mission” is a workshop designed to bridge this gap. It aims to shed light on the specific frustrations that youth face in the mission field, such as feeling undervalued, not being adequately listened to, or lacking opportunities to influence decision-making processes.
The workshop intends to foster a more inclusive and engaging environment where the voices of young people are not just heard but are integral in shaping the mission’s future directions. This session will serve as a catalyst for meaningful dialogue and action, paving the way for a mission that is more reflective of and responsive to the needs and ideals of its younger members. This workshop will also identify and address the key sources of frustration among youth in mission activities and explore innovative strategies to incorporate youth perspectives effectively into mission planning and execution.
Workshop Facilitators
Rev. Dr Carroll is currently the Academic Dean and Lecturer in Cross Cultural Ministry and Theology at the United Theological College (UTC), School of Theology, Charles Sturt University, Australia.
As an interdisciplinary theologian whose research falls into the categories of public, contextual and practical theologies, Rev. Dr Carroll was the Programme Executive for Mission, Mission from the Margins/Ecumenical Indigenous Peoples Network with the World Council of Churches based in Geneva, Switzerland prior to joining UTC.
She has also worked with Uniting World as a theological researcher on climate and gender and the church partnerships manager (Pacific) facilitating church relationships in Australia and the Pacific.
Facilitating Workshop:
Education Transforming Power (Life-Flourishing Education) – 15 June
Indigenous Vision – Transformed World – 17 June
Rev. Dr Minwoo Oh is the Programme Coordinator for Gender Justice at the World Communion of Reformed Churches. She is an ordained pastor at the Presbyterian Church of Korea.
Rev. Dr Oh also serves with Council for World Mission as a Mission Partner. She holds a Ph.D. conferred by the Kwazulu-natal University, South Africa.
Facilitating Workshop:
Gender: Leadership and Power (Gender Justice) – 15 June
Rev. Philip Vinod Peacock is the current Executive Secretary, Justice and Witness of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.
Facilitating Workshops:
Racism: Power and Privilege (Racial Justice) – 15 June
Tax Justice for an Economy of Life (Life-Flourishing Economy) – 18 June
Rev. Samuel Mall is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Christian Theology at Bishop’s College, Kolkata, India. He worships at the Church of North India (CNI).
Prior to joining the college, he has worked as the Program Co-Ordinator for Training, Development and Empowerment for the Synod of CNI. His study interests include contextual theologies in India and the contemporary manifestations of discrimination in a globalized Indian context.
Facilitating Workshop:
Caste: Discrimination and Power (Dalit) – 15 June
Prof. Jude Lal Fernando is Associate Professor at the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin and the Coordinator of MPhil in Contextual Theologies and Interfaith Relations Programme and M.Phil. in International Peace Studies Programme.
Prof. Jude is the Co-ordinator of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka (Dublin-2010, Bremen-2013 and Berlin-2022) and has been living in exile in Ireland nearly for 20 years due to his opposition to the war against the Tamils in Sri Lanka and ongoing human rights violations against all communities.
Prior to his arrival in Ireland he was the director of the Justice and Peace Desk of Tulana, the Centre for Interreligious Dialogue and Research in Kelaniya, Sri Lanka (1989-2004), and engaged in social movements for justice and peace under the mentorship of pioneering Asian liberation theologian and Indologist, Father Aloysius Pieris S.J..
Facilitating Workshop:
Dismantling Militarised Empire – 15 June
Jo Ichimura is a qualified archivist with many years of experience working with archival materials in different settings in the UK including Higher Education, local authorities and scholarly libraries.
Since 2005, she has worked at SOAS Library in London where she has particular responsibility for the Council for World Mission Archive.
In this role she works closely with CWM, advising them on archives and records management, and has an in-depth knowledge of the archive, supporting academic researchers, students, authors, and private individuals looking into their family or community history.
Facilitating Workshop:
CWM Archive – 15 June
Rev. Dr Kenneth Ross is a Presbyterian pastor from Scotland who currently serves as Associate Minister at Bemvu Parish, Church of Central Africa Presbyterian, in Malawi.
He is also Professor of Theology and Dean of Postgraduate Studies at Zomba Theological University, Malawi; Honorary Fellow at Edinburgh University School of Divinity, Scotland; and Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Earlier he has served as Professor of Theology at the University of Malawi, General Secretary of the Church of Scotland Board of World Mission, and Chair of the Scotland Malawi Partnership.
He is a scholar of World Christianity and currently Series Editor of the Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity (Edinburgh University Press).
His many publications about mission include the co-edited volume Ecumenical Missiology: Changing Landscapes and New Conceptions of Mission (WCC, 2016) and Mission Rediscovered: Transforming Disciples (WCC, 2020) Publications). His latest monograph is Mission, Race and Colonialism in Malawi: Alexander Hetherwick of Blantyre (Edinburgh University Press, 2023).
Facilitating Workshop:
Radical Hospitality as Evangelism (Life-Flourishing Evangelism) – 17 June
Rev. Dr Amelia Koh-Butler is an ordained minister from the Uniting Church in Australia. She is currently serving with the CWM as Mission Secretary-Education, Formation, and Empowerment as well as the Regional Secretary for the Pacific, where she displays her giftings as a missional integrator of worship, service, education, story-telling, and hospitality.
Her love in music, creative arts, theology, and education has led her to complete intercultural doctoral research through Fuller (Pasadena) in Integrated Missiology, Ethnomusicology, and Fresh Expressions of Church.
A Chinese-Scottish-Aussie, Amelia is connected to the land of Ikara and to her children and grandchildren.
Facilitating Workshop:
Affirming Life-Flourishing Spiritualities – 17 June
Rev. Jasmijm Dukman was drawn to climate activism from a young age.
After finishing the ministerial training program for the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Rev. Jasmijm briefly pursued further academic research on the intersection of climate justice activism and Christian worship practices. This proved to be the fruit of their continuing and deepening involvement in struggles for climate justice. Jasmijm believes that the CWM family is uniquely well-positioned to both nurture and witness to a true sense of global neighbourliness and must work in unity in this global climate crisis.
Facilitating Workshop:
Missional Congregation – Witnessing in Public Space (Life-Flourishing Church in Action) – 17 June
Rev. Dr Graham McGeoch is the Mission Secretary-Discipleship, Spiritualities, and Dialogue. He is based in the CWM London Office.
Facilitating Workshop:
Transformative Ecumenism: Mission from the Margins (Life-Flourishing Ecumenism) – 17 June
Rev. Dr Jaeshik Shin is an ordained pastor from the Presbyterian Church of Korea. He is also the Professor of Systematic Theology with the Honam Theological University and Seminary, Gwangju, Korea
From 2014 to 2023, Rev. Dr Shin has served as a Faith and Order Commission Member in the World Council of Churches. He is also the current Co-convener in the Korean-Hungarian Theological Forum.
Rev. Dr Shin has written and translated books and articles on Christianity and Science, Contemporary Theologies, Ecumenism, and Korean Theology. He is also an Editor of a four-volume series on Korean-Hungarian Reformed Theology.
Facilitating Workshop:
Transformative Ecumenism: Mission from the Margins (Life-Flourishing Ecumenism) – 17 June
Rev. Dr Young-cheol Cheon is the CWM Mission Secretary-Communications, based in the Singapore office.
An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK), he has more than 28 years of experience in ecumenical communications with the WACC, WCC and CWM.
He holds a Ph.D. in Media, Religion and Culture at the VU University Amsterdam, and has taught Christian communication and media as Adjunct Professor at Seoul Jangsin University and the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary in Korea.
Facilitating Workshop:
Mission in Digitalised World – 18 June
Rev. Daimon Mkandawire is an ordained minister in the United Church of Zambia and currently serves as the Mission Secretary for Ecology and Economy in the Council for World Mission. Passionately dedicated to the intersection of faith and Eco-justice, he focuses on issues of ecology and economic justice. Daimon is committed to advocating for sustainable practices and equitable economic policies that uplift communities and preserve the environment. His work involves engaging with member churches and other likeminded movements to promote ethical stewardship of resources and foster a just global economy. Daimon’s dedication is driven by his deep faith and belief in transformative change.
Facilitating Workshop:
Building a Movement for Eco-Justice (Life-Flourishing Creation) – 18 June
Rev. Dr Lesmore Gibson Ezekiel currently serves as the Director of Programs (DOP) at the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) with its head office in Nairobi. He oversees and coordinates all programs of the organization. Previously, he also served as Director for Peace, Diakonia and Development.
Rev. Dr Lesmore holds a NCE in Agricultural Science, BA in CRS, B.Th. (Hons), M.Th., Advance Master’s in Ecumenism, and a PhD in Ecumenical Theology and Ministerial Studies.
He is an unrepentant Pan-Africanist influenced by Afro-philosophy of “Ubuntu”. He is known for his passion for a Just World rooted in Justice, Equity, and Inclusivity.
Facilitating Workshop:
Community De(en)velopment Towards Transformation – 18 June
Marcelo Martinez is the General Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), elected in 2021. Prior to this role, he held positions as the Regional Secretary for WSCF Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) from 2012 and as Director for WSCF’s Global Program on Ecological Justice starting in 2016.
His journey with WSCF began as a member of the Student Christian Movement of Uruguay from 2005 to 2011. Before joining WSCF as the interim regional secretary for LAC in 2011, Marcelo worked as a Social Educator, Campaigner, and Accompanier for youth-related programs and projects in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Marcelo pursued his education at Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay, studying Social Work for two years and Philosophy for four years, graduating in 2011. Since 2012, he has actively participated in Climate Justice Advocacy, contributing his expertise to various groups, including the WCC Climate Change working group and the ACT Alliance Climate Justice Group.
Facilitating Workshop:
Creating Space? Frustrated Youth – 18 June