October 2003

Personalia

Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Massachusetts, appointed Daniel Jeyaraj as the Judson-DeFrietas Associate Professor of World Christianity, effective July 1, 2003. He is editor of Dharma Deepika, a South Asian mission research journal. 

Paul-Gordon Chandler, president and CEO of Partners International, Spokane, Washington, resigned to become rector of the Anglican Church of St. John the Baptist, Cairo, Egypt. He is the author of God’s Global Mosaic (2000). The new president/CEO as of August 2003 is Jon Lewis, vice president of research and planning for Mission Aviation Fellowship, where he served in various positions for twenty-six years, including as a missionary pilot in Africa. 

The Overseas Council Canada, Vancouver, appointed Gordon T. Smith president as of June 1, 2003, succeeding William Armerding. Smith is author of Beginning Well: Christian Conversion and Authentic Transformation (2001) and The Voice of Jesus: Discernment, Prayer, and the Witness of the Spirit (2003). He was academic vice president and dean of Regent College.

Died. Paul Wilson Brand, 88, medical missionary in India and leprosy specialist, July 8, 2003, in Seattle, Washington. Born to missionary parents in South India, Brand returned in 1946 as a medical missionary, with his wife, Margaret, also a medical doctor. Trained in orthopedic surgery, he revolutionized medical conceptions of leprosy and its treatment, especially reconstructive surgery of the hands, as he taught surgery at Vellore Medical College. In 1961 he was named a commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1966 he became chief of rehabilitation at the National Leprosarium of the United States Public Health Service in Carville, Louisiana, and taught surgery and orthopedics at Louisiana State University. He also served as president of the Leprosy Mission International, based in London. His story is told by Dorothy Clarke Wilson in Ten Fingers for God (1989). Brand’s “My Pilgrimage in Mission” was published in the IBMR in July 2002.

Died. William (“Bill”) R. Bright, 81, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, July 19, 2003, in Orlando, Florida. A California businessman, he became a Christian in 1944. While studying at Fuller Theological Seminary, he founded Campus Crusade in 1951 as a ministry to students at the University of California at Los Angeles. From that beginning, the organization has grown to a staff of 26,000 people in 191 countries, with 68 special ministries and projects that reach almost every segment of society. In 1957 he summarized the Christian message into 77 words, known as the “Four Spiritual Laws.” The feature-length “Jesus” film was released by Campus Crusade in 1979. Since then it has been seen by more than five million people in 236 countries, and translated into more than 700 languages. Bright was the recipient of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1996. 

Died. Robert Edward Harlow, 94, cofounder of Emmaus Bible College, now located in Dubuque, Iowa, and founder of Everyday Publications, Inc., March 10, 2003, at home in Frostproof, Florida. Harlow wrote more than fifty books, including Come and Dine: New Testament Readings for Every Day (1976). His Can We Know God? (1958) was the first of a series of books he wrote in simple English. It has sold some 500,000 copies in more than a dozen languages. A native of Toronto, he was also a missionary in the Congo. 

Died. Daniel Joseph Harrison, 62, missionary and agency administrator, May 18, 2003, in Madison, Wisconsin. Born in China of missionary parents, he served with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea, in international mission administration, and with the English Language Institute in China from 1966 to 1987; he also was vice president and director of Urbana Mission Conventions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship from 1987 to 1997. After leaving InterVarsity, he was the director of Middle East Media and then founded Leadership Development International, which started a Christian university in China.

 Died. Paul T. Lauby, 78, missionary scholar and administrator for the advancement of Christian higher education in Asia, May 20, 2003, in Mount Holly, New Jersey. He served from 1953 to 1969 as a United Church of Christ missionary  at Silliman University in the Philippines, where at various times he was senior pastor of the University Church, dean of the divinity school, vice president of the university, and acting president. From 1969 until retirement in 1989 he was head of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, which works with nearly one hundred institutions in nine countries, including China. His books include Sailing on the Winds of Change: Two Decades in the Life of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, 1969–1990 (1996) and A Man Without Guile: The Life of P. T. Chandi (1998). 

Died. Ype Schaaf, 73, a Netherlands Reformed minister and journalist, on August 16, 2003, in Dokkum, Netherlands.He served with the United Bible Society in Africa, 1959–68. Following his return to the Netherlands, he became assistant general secretary of the Dutch Bible Society, later becoming chief editor of Friesch Dagblad, a daily Christian newspaper,and secretary of the missionary journal Wereld en Zending (World and mission). Until the end of his life, he devoted his time to Africa, especially to the Bible in Africa and theological publications by Africans in Africa. He is best known for his book On Their Way Rejoicing: The History and Role of the Bible in Africa (1994).

 Announcing 

The Church Meets the Muslim Community: An Anabaptist Consultation on Islam will be held October 23–26, 2003, at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Harrisonburg, Virginia. The featured speakers will be Dudley Woodberry, John A. Lapp, Lamin Sanneh, and Chantal Logan. For details, including suggested reading, visit www.emu.edu/churchandislam 

The Centre for Mission Studies at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India, will hold its tenth annual mission consultation January 15–17, 2004, with “Nationalism and Hindutva: A Christian Response” as the theme. Contact: Mark Laing, cms@ubs.ac.in or visit www.ubs.ac.in/cms/cms.html. 

The English Department of Peking University, Beijing, and the Daniel R. Grant Center for International Studies of Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, are cosponsoring a conference Missionaries and Translation: Sino-Western Cultural Exchange in Early Modern Times, 1840–1950, to be held May 23–25, 2004, at Peking University. For information, go to www.obu.edu/intstudies. 

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, in Deerfield, Illinois, will host a consultation on missiology June 21–22, 2004, with the theme “Doing Theology in a Globalizing World.” The consultation will honor Paul G. Hiebert, distinguished professor of mission and anthropology at TEDS. Contact: Craig L. Ott, associate professor of mission, cott@tiu.edu.

In September 2003, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, renamed its School of World Mission to School of Intercultural Studies. Dean C. Douglas McConnell also reports expansion of the school’s offerings in Islamic studies with the addition of Evelyne Reisacher and Joseph Cumming to the faculty, and the availability of a new concentration, Mission to Children at Risk. 

New possibilities for missiological research in Norway are now available at the Norwegian School of Mission and Theology, Stavanger. The school has received government accreditation to offer the Ph.D. in theology with a concentration in missiology. 

Thirty-four Anglican theologians from twenty-two countries met May 13–16, 2003, at Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to establish a voluntary network of Anglican Contextual Theologians. The network will provide a forum for multiple theological voices within Anglicanism to be heard and will advance resources for theological education and leadership formation for the Anglican Communion. For details, visit www.anglicancommunion.org/acns.

The first National Missionary Congress of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil drew more than 400 participants in July 2003. Discussion of mission at the congress gave particular attention to poverty, diversity, and martyrdom. The congress, held at the initiative of the National Missionary Council, was scheduled in preparation for the Second American Missionary Congress and the Seventh Latin American Missionary Congress to be held in November 2003 in Guatemala City.