This August marks the 10 years since the founding of Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World (CMMW)! To celebrate this significant milestone in our history, we had a celebratory event on the 10^th of August at the Evangelical Alliance offices in London. The theme of the event was Mission, Research, Education and in attendance were around 40 mission and church leaders from across the UK. The event was divided into three parts: Part One: Looking back, Part Two: The Present and Part Three: Looking forward to the future

Part One: Looking back

We began the day by reflecting on the genesis of the initiative through a four-way conversation that involved Dr Usha Reifsnider, Rev Tayo Arikawe, Dr Harvey Kwiyani and Rev Dr Israel Olofinjana. Usha started by saying: “Never been with a group of men so real and supportive with me” She then asked us difficult questions around our involvement with the centre from the start. I shared my own story as a reverse missionary sent from Nigeria to the UK to plant a Nigerian Pentecostal church but ended up leading an English Baptist church in south-east London. This singular experience propelled me to think about other reverse missionaries in the UK and what kind of a support will they need. Meeting others on this journey led to the idea of a centre that could bring support, training and equipping to Majority World missions in the UK

Harvey Kwiyani who works mostly as an academic shared about his belief that God has called us from around the world, no matter where from or irrespective of our skin colour. When we become Christians we are to be part of God’s mission in the world.  A lot of mission happens through migration; therefore, how do we enable migrants to engage in God’s mission – to be a church without a sense of mission is not to be a church at all.

Tayo Arikawe – who leads Langham Partnership International that publishes 50-60 books annually mainly from the Majority World shared about the tension that he sees, how do we help others who are coming into this context? We don’t want them to go through the same challenges and mistakes that earlier pioneers made but also how can we help our indigenous friends understand how to work with them?  Can the West be quiet now and let us speak! We do have a voice, not given to us by westerners therefore important to acknowledge this in partnership.

Usha shared her experience as a second generation South Asian Hindu background believer in full time ministry and how often she feels alone in mission circles.  Born as a Guajarati in Britain, Usha, expressed how sometimes she feels like a foreigner in church and Christian leadership.  She was also the first Asian, woman and convert within CMMW.

Usha commented that having these different experiences and perspective among the team has made us quite rich. Centre, but not the focal point but something we go outward from, no membership or someone telling us what to do – just get on with it! We get on with what we have to do and we have this lovely network that seeks to connect.

This four-way conversation was opened up so that attendees could interrogate us which they did! One of the questions from participants was whether our first 10 years focused on African diaspora mission because of the majority of our team being African. Another question was around the strong evangelical background and work of the team members and whether we are open to other Christian expressions? Other questions were around engagement with second generation who sees their identity very different to ours, the need to interrogate the colonial past through a justice lens and the complexities of whiteness, Englishness and what does it mean to be British?  In discussing the question around whiteness, Harvey shared that there is something about whiteness that needs to be seen and called out – it’s a culture and way of doing things – some of the whitest churches I’ve seen are black majority! Harvey continued by sharing about his children that when they become teenagers they’ll realise British people don’t really see them as British, that tension will shape their lives. Being seen as a threat, locking their doors – then everything changes, and the church has to be there to help them process it.

Rev Valerie Taiwo who have attended CMMW events since the first one shared how the centre has been a blessing to her through resources produced by the centre members. This has been useful in writing her masters dissertation. But she was also encouraged to develop her own voice and write therefore she contributed to the book on African voices: Towards an African British Theologies

Speaking about the centre, Rev Valerie Taiwo commented, “It’s a voice I believe is needed, I still regard myself as a missionary don’t want to be swallowed up despite living amongst majority British, still feel voice coming out from organisations like this should still remain, believe me I am still pushing, really do want us to hear voices – things are still not understood”

Part Two: The Present

The second part of the day kicked off with reflections on experiences of women involved in mission.  This was in a two-way conversation with Usha Riefsnider and Brenda Amondi talking about how reverse mission can feel like a man’s world! Brenda shared her experience of how she came as a missionary from Nairobi Chapel in Kenya to serve in an Anglican church in London.

Brenda commented – “coming into a world where you’re not really recognised, to be seen not heard, they determine where you’re to be seen therefore very lonely” –  Brenda met Usha when Usha was speaking in a meeting, she felt connected immediately with someone who understood where she was coming from as a woman in a world of men. Reflecting on serving in some teams, Brenda recalls not really affirmed in a team as the only woman been referred to as the secretary of team. This made her feel very small, with no one there to prepare or support her.

Brenda and Usha shared how very lonely it is for women, even if accepted there is a personality profile of who a leader is, energetic, outspoken, extrovert and so on. Therefore, women are relegated to children’s ministry or prayer ministry but men can do all!

Usha talked about the limitations sometimes placed on women of colour in ministry such as, make samosa and sing special song, or preach on something to do with majority world, but we’re theologians/teachers of word of God!

We still have a lot of work to do within CMMW, not just in regards to generational and other diasporic identities but intentionally creating spaces for women, younger women to speak.

Brenda shared about her experience of becoming part of CMMW – “being part gave me a sense of affirmation, I was very young, didn’t have credentials per se, coming into community of people doing PhDs, people who have written books, felt like I was not in the right place, but over time interacting, sense actually I have something to offer, don’t need credentials – gave me confidence to call myself a missionary in this country” Brenda also talked about how some of the opportunities given her at CMMW have been affirming, “Whether it’s training, informal training being tagged along into conferences – writing a reflection on the conference, was affirming and built confidence”

Usha and Brenda continued the discussion by saying, in a world where men are always considered first before women, we need that support, men need to elevate us without you still feeling that you’re above us – humble yourself enough to step aside, as much as I’m qualified, there’s someone I would like to take my place.  Give us a chance – especially for introverts who like to observe and reflect, when you see people like that, encourage and push them up and affirm them.

After Usha and Brenda finished their discussions, the floor was opened for questions with the intentionality of asking women to lead first with the questions therefore men were muted!

Rev Dr Girma has been another person that have attended our events from the first one therefore was asked to share his reflections on the centre. He started by saying – “thank you for ruining my life!  What Girma meant by this was he was comfortable in the past to focus on a monoculture strategy of mission but with his continued interaction with CMMW he was forced to think along the lines of intercultural mission engagement.  He also spoke in the context of western mission accepting and welcoming reverse missionaries about the posture of receiving as very important especially when used to giving therefore can see receiving as a sign of weakness. If not receiving that could mean not acknowledging me as human. In essence, there is something about receiving that speaks about our humanity.  The heart of mission is loving people; we are here to reach out to international community in Britain as well as host community. Give grace and space for people to process and embrace the changes God is bringing – the centre is creating that platform.

Girma’s sharing was followed with highlighting one of our current significant collaboration. This is working with other stakeholders to found Christ Theological College (CTC). Dr Naar Nfudisi-Holloway and Dr Eben Adu who are part of the faculty of CTC shared about the vision of the college to provide diaspora training to equip majority World pastors and leaders as well as white British church leaders.

As part of the day two members of the team who could not attend was Dr Samuel Cueva and Trizernia September. They both shared in a short video reflection about their work with the centre. Another member of the team who could not attend is Peter Oyugi who lost his father recently.  

Part Three: Looking forward to the future

The third part of the event was looking briefly at the future aspirations and projects that the centre would like to engage. There are two significant areas:

1. Our aspiration and hope for the future is to develop a Journal of Diaspora and Intercultural Missiology that can encourage and empower more voices from the Majority World to write and speak.
2. A second aspiration is doing more work in Europe helping European Christians and organisations connect with diaspora Christians and reverse missionaries from the Majority World.