The Synod of the North East: 31st RACIAL ETHNIC CONVOCATION (OCTOBER 5-6, 2007) (original) (raw)

Wednesday, September 19 2007, 09:39 AM EDT

Contributed by: NLomberk

The 31st Annual Racial Ethnic Convocation is schedule for October 5-6, 2007, at Stony Point Conference Center. "Jesus and Other Immigrants: Ministry to the Whole Church" is the theme for this year.

The Keynote Speaker is Dr. Luis N. Rivera-Pagan, Henry Winters Luce Professor of Ecumenics and Mission in the Department of History at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He holds an S.T.M., an.A., and a Ph.D., all from Yale University. An American Baptist and a native of Puerto Rico, he is editor of the official report of the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Brazil, 2006).

Dr. Luis N. Rivera-Pagan is the author of more than a dozen books, most written in Spanish, including the English language edition of A Violent Evangelism: The Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas (Westminster John Knox Press, 1992) which reveals the heart of a thorough researcher, and the brilliance of a passionate thinker and gifted writer. One cannot walk away from having read A Violent Evangelism without having been affected, particularly by the way in which those who were both discoverers and conquerors tended to homogenize and degrade the native peoples whom they encountered in what became known to Europeans as the New World. The world’s continents, wrote Dr. Rivera-Pagan, separated until the late 15th century, became “conjoined in the birth of modernity and universal Christianity. The peoples and nations that inhabited those far away lands and territories were brought together by the force of European weapons and the strength of Christian faith.” (p. 270-71). The “discovery and conquest also produced a collision of ideas and conceptual perspectives with no parallel in history.” He notes how inappropriate it is to speak of “two cultures,” for in doing so “the rich and complex diversity of the nations and indigenous peoples is devalued. The importance of the accomplishments and differences, the particular traditions, symbols, customs, languages, and institutions are obliterated.” (p.15). Dr. Rivera-Pagan’s work reminds us that just as the European culture began to dominate the New World, and tended to homogenize in thought and action the indigenous peoples whose land was expropriated, so in our current circumstances, the church may not adequately appreciate the particularity of cultural gifts and graces that come to the church through various immigrant peoples. With a focus on Jesus Christ as immigrant, and other immigrants in the Bible, presentations by Dr. Rivera-Pagan promise to bring increased enlightenment to our understanding and approach to ministry with and among those who, originating from different places, come to call the United States home.

Dr. Rivera-Pagan holds an S.T.M., an M.A., and a Ph.D., all from Yale University. A native of Puerto Rico who is an American Baptist, Dr. Rivera-Pagan served as editor of the official report of the Ninth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (Brazil, 2006). He teaches courses on Latin American theology, Third World liberation theologies, theological readings of world literature, and problems and issues in the 16th-century Christianization of the Americas. Major publications include A Violent Evangelism: The Political and Religious Conquest of the Americas (Westminster John Knox Press, 1992) Mito, Exilio y Demonios: Literature y Teología en América Latina (Publicaciones Puertorriqueñas, 1996) and Essays from the Diaspora (Centro Luterano de Formación Teológica, Publicaciones El Faro, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Centro Basilea de Investigación, 2002).

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