A Festival to the Lord: the 2023 Vision Convocation of the Presbyterian Mission Agency

Currently I am teaching the course “Introduction to African Traditional Religion” at Nile Theological College in Juba, South Sudan. A recent lecture and discussion focused on the role of rituals and festivals within the African Heritage. Together we discussed the role of festivals and the multiple functions which they serve. Festivals often last many days; they can even last up to one month and sometimes longer. Festivals can be a time of ritual worship, and they provide a source of entertainment through special food, music, and dancing. Festivals bring people together and they provide an outlet for thoughts and feelings to be expressed in the context of community. According to African cosmology, festivals bring together and unite the visible world with the invisible world of the spirit. Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, festivals renew the life of a community, strengthening its religious and social values.

Last month we gathered as the Presbyterian Mission Agency for our first ever Vision Convocation. We were an assembled gathering of more than two hundred staff across eight inter-related departments/ agencies:

1) Compassion, Peace, and Justice

2) Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries

3) Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA)

4) Presbyterian Hunger Program

5) 1,001 New Worshipping Communities

6) Theology, Formation, and Evangelism

7) Office of Public Witness

8) Presbyterian World Mission

This was the first time all agencies came together under one banner. It was also the first time that all Presbyterian mission-coworkers serving across the globe were gathered in one place. 

Presbyterian World Mission, all of us (almost!) gathered together
as one body perhaps for the first time

The theme of our time together was “One Band/One Sound.” We were led by Rev. Dr. Dianne Moffett, our humble and courageous leader who serves as President and Executive Director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA). In my most recent reflections on our week together, I was struck by how this gathering reflected the value of a festival according to the African Heritage. There was entertainment throughout, highlighted by music, drama, and good-natured humor. 

Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, President and Executive Director 
of the Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA)
Photo Credit: The Presbyterian Outlook 

We were led in a fun storytelling drama! 

Being led in song by Reverend Alonzo Johnson! 

We worshipped together each day, and we were able to spend time reflecting together on our social values or “culture code.” We were able to listen to one another, learn from one another, and simply be together “in-person” after three years of the pandemic stress of being separated physically. Over the last three years, we have known each other “in boxes” on a screen (Zoom). Now, we had a chance to all be together in one room, in the flesh. It was a fully orbed, inculturated, incarnational experience. I remember helping lead the liturgy on our first day of worship. I recall looking deeply into the eyes of a brother sitting near the front as I spoke words of confession and feeling an immediate bond of kinship with him, being united in that moment with my brother across race and generation, joined together in that consequential moment across the divides which our society constructs to separate us. I was deeply moved. Such experiences usually do not happen on Zoom.

The Reverend Gregory J. Bentley, Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly (2020)
of the Presbyterian Church (USA) gave a rousing, Spirit-filled devotional message 
each morning

Partaking of the Lord's Supper together 

I will be honest and share that I initially had misgivings about participating in the Vision Convocation due to various concerns. Yet, I am so glad that we were able to attend! Following the wisdom of our African ancestors and the African Heritage, I believe that such gatherings are necessary to renew the life, vision, and values of our community. Rev. Dr. Dianne Moffett and the other leaders within the Presbyterian Mission Agency were determined to bring everyone together, and for that I am eternally grateful. To God be the glory!

Other fun photos from our time together - 

Our Africa Team!

Praying together!

Learning together! (as the Africa Team)

Learning from Reverend Jermaine Ross-Allam, Director of
the Center for the Repair of Historical Harm of the Presbyterian Mission Agency,
 who came and shared his heart and vision with our Africa Team

Jeff and Christi Boyd, friends and colleagues from our
time in DR Congo

With Africa Team colleagues Rev. Cheryl Barnes and 
Rev. Paula Cooper, also Ryan White, a friend from seminary
who lives and serves in Germany with his family

With Destini Hodges, our courageous leader of the 
Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program 

Our "White Mission Co-Workers Confronting Racism" group 
which has been meeting virtually since July, 2020
(this was our first time together in person!) 

Tested positive for Covid-19 upon return to Juba;

thankfully it was a mild case!