Noteworthy
Announcing
The Association of Polish Missiologists, Stowarzyszenie
Misjologów Polskich (SMP), was formed in 2007 and now
serves thirty-three missiologists from the major universities
and seminaries of Poland, including members from Katowice,
Warsaw, Kraków, Lublin, Poznań, Opole, and Olsztyn. With
leadership from president Jan Górski (Katowice) and vice
president Wojciech Kluj, O.M.I. (Warsaw), SMP promotes
interdisciplinary collaboration in the study of missiology
and is the local affiliate of the International Association for
Mission Studies and the International Association of Catholic
Missiologists. Each year the association publishes Studia misjologiczne, an academic journal that focuses on mission history
and theology, portions of which are now being published in
English, Italian, and German. For additional information, go
to www.misjologia.pl.
Urban mission is the theme of the American Society of
Missiology–Eastern Fellowship of Professors of Mission
annual meeting, November 6–7, 2009, at Maryknoll Mission
Institute, Ossining, New York. Doug Hall and Bobby Bose,
respectively president and global urban ministries education
coordinator of the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston (www
.egc.org), will be among the speakers. For conference information, visit www.asmef.org.
The Sociology of Religion Study Group (SOCREL, www
.socrel.org.uk) of the British Sociological Association will hold
a conference April 6–8, 2010, at the University of Edinburgh on
the topic “The Changing Face of Christianity in the Twentyfirst Century.” Brief proposals for papers and panels are
being solicited until October 31, 2009, particularly if these are
focused on “contemporary Christian performance and belief,
world Christianities and migration or Diaspora Christianities,
(or) Christianity in the public arena.” The University of Edinburgh Institute of Geography and the New College School of
Divinity are cosponsors. The conference organizers include
Afe Adogame (a.adogame@ed.ac.uk), New College lecturer
in world Christianity.
The Andrew F. Walls Centre for the Study of African
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and Asian Christianity, Liverpool Hope University, will hold
its third annual world Christianity conference June 11–13,
2010, on the topic “Christian Unity in Mission and Service.”
Brief proposals for papers and panels are being solicited until
December 18. Center director Daniel Jeyaraj is professor of
history of missions and an IBMR contributing editor. For more
information, contact conference coordinator Ursula Leahy,
leahyu@hope.ac.uk.
An international conference on the theme “Politics, Poverty, and Prayer: Global African Spiritualities and Social
Transformation” will convene July 22–25, 2010, at the Nairobi
Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, Kenya. The conference
will “provide a platform in which researchers on African and
African-derived religions and spiritualities encounter practitioners of religious traditions and communities firsthand” and
will provide “information on beliefs and practices of religious/
spiritual traditions and how they impact their communities
and the larger society.” For details, contact program organizers Afe Adogame (a.adogame@ed.ac.uk), Ishola Williams
(isholawilliams@yahoo.com), Grace Wamue (gwamue2000@
yahoo.com), and Mark Shaw (markshaw2020@gmail.com).
Indian missiologist Siga Arles has announced expansion of the scope of the Consortium for Indian Missiological
Education and the Indian Institute of Missiology Research
Centre through the launching of a postgraduate research
study center—the Centre for Contemporary Christianity,
Bangalore. The center will offer master of theology and doctor of philosophy degrees in missiology and in holistic child
development, with accreditation from the Asia Theological
Association and in cooperation with the Global Alliance for
Advancing Holistic Child Development. Arles, editor of the
Journal of Asian Evangelical Theology, is also developing a journal called Contemporary Christian. For additional information,
e-mail Arles, sigaarles@gmail.com.
Historical records, including financial reports, correspondence, committee memos and minutes, articles, and
newsletters related to the work of the Evangelical Committee
on Latin America are available at the Billy Graham Center
International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 33, No. 4
Archives (www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/guides/646
.htm). Founded in 1959 as a joint committee between the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies (EFMA) and Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association (IFMA), the ECLA
served as a liaison between the two organizations and Latin
American church leaders for the effective growth of the regional
church, providing assistance through consultation, conferences,
and research. The committee was disbanded in 1977.
The Congregational Library and Archives, Boston, has
compiled an index of obituaries of Congregational clergy and
missionaries (www.congregationallibrary.org/resources/
necro-search). Patrons may search by last name to find obituaries in Congregational yearbooks and missionary periodicals,
most of them from after 1850.
Personalia
Appointed. Graham R. Kings, 55, vicar of St. Mary’s Church,
Islington, London, as bishop of Sherborne, U.K., effective
June 24, 2009. After ordination Kings served as a curate in
inner city London for four years. In 1985, as a Church Mission Society mission partner, he taught theology for seven
years at St. Andrew’s College of Theology and Development,
Kabare, an Anglican Church of Kenya affiliate. An IBMR
contributing editor, Kings moved to Cambridge in 1992 to
become the first Henry Martyn Lecturer in Mission Studies in
the Cambridge Theological Federation, founding director of
the Henry Martyn Centre for the Study of Mission and World
Christianity, and affiliated lecturer in the university’s Faculty
of Divinity. He founded Fulcrum (http://fulcrum-anglican.org
.uk), a network and online journal for evangelical Anglicans
seeking to renew the center of the evangelical tradition within
the Church of England. Kings served on the Mission Theological
Advisory Group of the Church of England and the Anglican
Communion Network for Interfaith Concerns.
Died. H. Eugene Hillman, C.S.Sp., 84, missiologist, author,
and Congregation of the Holy Spirit member, in Bethel Park,
Pennsylvania, August 5, 2009. A native of Boston, he worked
for eighteen years in the missions of East Africa in Tanzania,
October 2009
Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, as well as in Nigeria, South
Africa, and Zambia. In 1965 he attended Vatican Council II as
a guest of Misereor Foundation. Beginning in 1974 he taught
for over twenty-five years at the Institutes of the University of
San Francisco, St. John’s (Jamaica, N.Y.), Yale Divinity School
(New Haven, Conn.), Weston (Mass.) Jesuit School of Theology, Maryknoll School of Theology (Ossining, N.Y.), Duquesne
University (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Salve Regina University (which
included the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, R.I.), Nairobi’s
Institute for Development Studies, and Brown University’s
Watson Institute for International Studies (Providence, R.I.).
He was the recipient of many fellowships and awards and
the author of numerous books and articles, especially in the
fields of missiology, ecclesiology, and social ethics. His noted
books include The Church as Mission (1966), Polygamy Reconsidered (1975), and Toward an African Christianity: Inculturation
Applied (1993).
Died. James Hudson Taylor III, Sinologist and theologian,
in Hong Kong, March 20, 2009. The great-grandson of missionary pioneer J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland
Mission in 1865, he was born August 12, 1929, in Kaifeng,
Henan, and was raised in China. In June 1955 Taylor and
his family arrived in Kao-hsiung, Taiwan, to join the staff of
Holy Light Bible School, founded that year by his father. The
younger Taylor worked there as a lecturer before succeeding
his father as principal in 1960. In 1970 he became president of
the new China Evangelical Seminary in Taipei. From 1980 to
1991 Taylor served as general director of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship, now OMF International, the mission founded
by his great-grandfather. He was the first Taylor descendant
in this role, and under his leadership OMF saw growth in
Japan, Philippines, and Hong Kong, as well as in publishing.
In 1994 he formed Medical Services International, now MSI
Professional Services, to bring teams of Western professionals
into China to work on health and community-development
projects. He is coauthor of a book on the life of Hudson Taylor’s
father-in-law, Even to Death: The Life and Legacy of Samuel Dyer
(OMF, forthcoming).
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