Friends Launch
On Tuesday 26th January, the ‘Friends of CCCW’ was launched.
It was a wonderful event, with 62 of our old and new friends of CCCW joining the launch from across the globe.
Since the founding of CCCW in 1996, and the inception of the Henry Martyn Trust in 1881, numerous friends have played a huge and active role in different ways in supporting the work of the Trust and the Centre. As we celebrate the Silver Jubilee of CCCW in 2021, and 140 years of the Henry Martyn Trust, we are delighted to launch the ‘Friends of CCCW’ to continue their support and actively engage with the work of the Centre.
Friends and supporters of CCCW’s work over the years gathered all over the globe for an online launch event. Canon Sarah Snyder, Chair of the Henry Martyn Trust and Director of the Rose Castle Foundation, welcomed all participants and opened in prayer, giving thanks for gifts and energy of the many friends involved in the work of CCCW over the years.
Rt Revd Dr Graham Kings, Chair of the Friends of CCCW and Hon. Asst. Bishop in the Diocese of Ely, introduced the Friends scheme, which offers opportunities to support the work of CCCW through a monthly or annual subscription, donations, as well as through regular prayer. Bishop Graham also highlighted the opportunities for fellowship and exchange offered to Friends through regular invitations to events, including discounted access to conferences.
Bishop Graham conducted short interviews with a number of Friends of the Centre, including several former directors. Those interviewed included Prof Kirsteen Kim, Paul E. Pierson Chair in World Christianity at Fuller Theological Seminary and Prof Sebastian Kim, Robert Wiley Chair of Renewal in Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary. Kirsteen Kim spoke of the value of CCCW’s archives for enabling the study of world Christianity, whilst Sebastian Kim reflected on all that he learnt during his time as director of the Henry Martyn Centre – as well as the platform it offered for undertaking new research in Christianity in Asia.
Prof Brian Stanley, Professor in World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, spoke of the pioneering role played by CCCW in offering a space for practitioners and scholars to reflect together:
The Centre is a place for exchange of ideas, for challenge, for reflection. And it brings together academic perspectives and those who are practitioners – and those two aspects of the world church are so often separated.
Prof Brian Stanley Professor in World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh
Dr Emma Wild-Wood, Senior Lecturer in African Christianity and African Indigenous Religions at the University of Edinburgh, reflected on the unique character of the Centre’s archives and library:
For historians, the archives are absolutely superb: they give us those private papers, those insights, those glimpses that we don’t always get in big institutional archives. They provide a different perspective on things … I miss the library a great deal – the ability just to step outside one’s office and find oneself in a place where all the books you want are at your fingertips.
Dr Emma Wild-Wood Senior Lecturer in African Christianity and African Indigenous Religions at the University of Edinburgh
Revd Dr Jesse Zink, Principal of Montreal Diocesan Theological College, likewise reflected on the space the Centre provides for conversation and for offering hospitality to visiting scholars.
Revd Dr Lydia Mwaniki, Director for Gender, Women and Youth in the All Africa Conference of Churches, and Dr Jörg Haustein, Lecturer in World Christianities in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, both underlined the value of the connection between the Centre and the University of Cambridge, through the shared seminar series and Henry Martyn lectures in particular.
The discussion included time in breakout groups to catch up with old friends and create new connections.
Revd Dr Muthuraj Swamy, Director of CCCW, thanked the participants and informed them of planned upcoming events, as part of CCCW’s Silver Jubilee year. He highlighted the unique nature of CCCW – working at the intersections of Church-Academy-Mission, and connecting the Global South and North through research in World Christianity, exchange and encounter – that will continue to define its directions.
He closed the event with prayer, inviting all present to say the grace in their mother tongue.
To watch the video of the launch of the Friends of CCCW click here.
For more information on becoming a Friend of CCCW click here.
To get in touch with us, please contact us on centre@cccw.cam.ac.uk.
If you would like to make a donation to the work of CCCW please click here.