Maryknoll 2019
This year’s meeting of the Eastern Fellowship of Professors of Mission held at Maryknoll was attended by 57 people from a total of 16 institutions—a record number on both accounts. The theme of “Visualizing Mission” fired the imagination of presenters and participants alike. On Friday, Maryknoll Father Larry Lewis unveiled jewels of “God images” and signs of divine presence in several mainstream American and foreign films, emphasizing the mission of fully living out one’s humanity for God. After dinner, filmmaker James Ault played an excerpt of his new film project on Mechanic Manyeruke, considered a father of gospel music in Zimbabwe. Daryl Ireland (Boston University) prompted lively discussion with his fascinating findings on the portrayal of the cross in the CGCM’s digital Chinese poster collection (www.ccposter.com). Saturday morning, James Kim (New Brunswick Theological Seminary) showed excerpts of two Korean documentaries and highlighted some of the painful history of the coming of Christianity to Korea and the work of western missionaries. Finally, brief presentations by Meg Guider (Boston College), Michèle Sigg (Boston University), and James Taneti (Union Presbyterian Seminary) launched a plenary discussion on “Missionaries in the Movies.” Themes that emerged from the conversation included the importance of visual resources for churches in Africa, the ongoing challenge of negative portrayals of mission and missionaries in mainstream media, and the role of missiologists in evaluating these images within the evolving curriculum of mission studies and world Christianity programs.