Cathy Ross (missiologist)

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Cathy Ross
Born1961 (age 62–63)
Auckland, New Zealand
NationalityNew Zealand
Occupation(s)academic, missiologist

Cathy Ross (born 1961) is a New Zealand-born academic and scholar of missiology. She leads the Pioneer Mission Leadership Training centre of the Church Mission Society, in Oxford, England. She is also canon theologian at Leicester Cathedral. She is the author of Women with a Mission: Rediscovering Missionary Wives in Early New Zealand.

Contents

Biography

Born in New Zealand, Rose graduated from the University of Auckland in 1983. She worked for a time as a teacher of French and German. [1] In 1991, she went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire), as a mission partner with the New Zealand Church Mission Society. [2] She also served in Uganda and Rwanda. [1]

In the late 1990s, she studied at the Melbourne College of Divinity, where she completed a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1998. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Auckland in 2004. [3] She has taught at the Bible College of New Zealand. [2]

Ross moved to England to work with the Church Mission Society in 2005. [3] She was the head for CMS's mission exchange and the scholarship program. [2] She also held an appointment as Tutor of Contextual Theology at Ripon College Cuddesdon. [3]

In August 2008, Ross became the general secretary of the International Association of Mission Studies. [4] She led the organization for eight years, stepping down in 2016. [3]

She was installed as canon theologian at Leicester Cathedral in 2018. [5] In May 2019, Ross was selected to lead Church Mission Society's Pioneer Mission Leadership Training programme in Oxford. [2] [6]

Works

Ross has written on pioneer women's mission work. She authored a book examining the lives of four women who engaged in mission with their husbands in New Zealand in the 1800s. The book, entitled Women with a Mission: Rediscovering Missionary Wives in Early New Zealand, was published in 2006. The women featured in the book are Charlotte Brown, Elizabeth Colenso, Kate Hadfield, and Anne Wilson. [7]

In 2008, Ross co-edited, with Andrew Walls, a collection of essays on missiology, entitled Mission in the Twenty-First Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission. [1] [8] [9]

She also edited a collection of essays by Anglicans involved in mission who had attended the centenary celebration of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June 2010. The publication was entitled Life-Widening Mission: Global Anglican Perspectives. The book was published as part of a series by Regnum Press, about the Edinburgh 2010 gathering. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the foreword to the collection. In the preface, Ross noted that her mother passed away in New Zealand, while she was attending a workshop for the project in Toronto, in August 2011. [10]

Ross has collaborated on several books with Jonny Baker, the director of mission education at Church Mission Society. [11] They co-edited The Pioneer Gift , published in 2014, and Pioneering Spirituality, published in 2015. [1]

In 2015, Ross co-edited, with Steven Bevans from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, the book Mission on the Road to Emmaus: Constants, Context and Prophetic Dialogue. [12] In 2018, Ross co-edited Missional Conversations: A Dialogue between Theory and Praxis in World Mission, with Colin Smith. [13]

In 2020, Ross and Baker published Imagining Mission with John V. Taylor, about the missiology of Taylor, who was general secretary of the Church Mission Society and the former Bishop of Winchester. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

Missiology is the academic study of the Christian mission history and methodology. It began to be developed as an academic discipline in the 19th century.

Church planting is a term referring to the process that results in a new local Christian congregation being established. It should be distinguished from church development, where a new service, worship center or fresh expression is created that is integrated into an already established congregation. For a local church to be planted, it must eventually have a separate life of its own and be able to function without its parent body, even if it continues to stay in relationship denominationally or through being part of a network.

Indigenous churches are churches suited to local culture and led by local Christians. There have been two main Protestant strategies proposed for the creation of indigenous churches:

  1. Indigenization: Foreign missionaries create well-organized churches and then hand them over to local converts. The foreign mission is generally seen as a scaffolding which must be removed once the fellowship of believers is functioning properly. Missionaries provide teaching, pastoral care, sacraments, buildings, finance and authority, and train local converts to take over these responsibilities. Thus the church becomes indigenous. It becomes self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing.
  2. Indigeneity: Foreign missionaries do not create churches, but simply help local converts develop their own spiritual gifts and leadership abilities and gradually develop their own churches. Missionaries provide teaching and pastoral care alone. The church is thus indigenous from the start. It has always been self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church Mission Society</span> British mission society

The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission partners during its 200-year history. The society has also given its name "CMS" to a number of daughter organisations around the world, including Australia and New Zealand, which have now become independent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ripon College Cuddesdon</span> Church of England theological college in Cuddesdon

Ripon College Cuddesdon is a Church of England theological college in Cuddesdon, a village 5.5 miles (8.9 km) outside Oxford, England. The College trains men and women for ministry in the Church of England: stipendiary, non-stipendiary, local ordained and lay ministry, through a wide range of flexible full-time and part-time programmes.

David Jacobus Bosch was an influential missiologist and theologian best known for his book Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (1991) — a major work on post-colonial Christian mission. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK), also known by its English abbreviation DRC. On Freedom Day, 27 April 2013, he posthumously received the Order of the Baobab from the President of South Africa "for his selfless struggle for equality ... and his dedication to community upliftment. By doing so, he lived the values of non-racialism against the mainstream of his own culture."

English Wesleyan Mission was a British Methodist missionary society that was involved in sending workers to countries such as New Zealand in the 19th century and China during the late Qing Dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Taylor (missionary)</span>

Richard Taylor was a Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary in New Zealand. He was born on 21 March 1805 at Letwell, Yorkshire, England, one of four children of Richard Taylor and his wife, Catherine Spencer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marathi Christians</span>

Marathi Christians are an Ethno-religious community of the Indian state of Maharashtra who accepted Christianity during the 18th and 19th centuries during the East India Company, and later, the British Raj. Conversions to Protestantism were a result of Christian missions such as the American Marathi Mission, Church Mission Society and the Church of England's United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

Mary Rebecca Stewart Bird (1859–1914) was a Church Mission Society (CMS) missionary who pioneered Christian ministry to Iranian women and women's medical missions in the CMS.

Marianne Williams, together with her sister-in-law Jane Williams, was a pioneering educator in New Zealand. They established schools for Māori children and adults as well as educating the children of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. The Māori women called her Mata Wiremu.

Robert Clark (1825–1900), and his colleague Thomas Henry Fitzpatrick, were the first English Church Mission Society (CMS) missionaries in the Punjab. Clark was the first missionary to the Afghans, and was the first agent of the Church to enter the city of Leh.

The International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS) is an international, inter-confessional, and interdisciplinary professional society for the scholarly study of the Christian mission and its impact in the world and the related field of intercultural theology. It is based in England and South Korea.

The New Zealand Church Missionary Society (NZCMS) is a mission society working within the Anglican Communion and Protestant, Evangelical Anglicanism. The parent organisation was founded in England in 1799. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) sent missionaries to settle in New Zealand. The Rev. Samuel Marsden, the Society's Agent and the Senior Chaplain to the New South Wales government, officiated at its first service on Christmas Day in 1814, at Oihi Bay in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.

Katharine Alice Salvin Tristram was a missionary and teacher in Japan with the Church Missionary Society. She was also the first resident lecturer at Westfield College and one of the first women to gain a degree from the University of London. She was the first woman missionary with the Church Missionary Society to have a degree.

Dana Lee Robert is a historian of Christianity and a missiologist. She is a professor at Boston University, where she has worked since 1984. She was the co-founder of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission in 2001, one of the first university-based Centers on World Christianity in North America. For years, Robert held the School of Theology's Truman Collins Professorship in World Christianity and History of Mission, but in 2022 she was installed in the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professorship, the highest distinction bestowed upon senior faculty members who remain actively involved in research, scholarship, teaching, and the University’s civic life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Kemp (missionary)</span>

Charlotte Kemp was a missionary for the Church of England, co-founding the second Church Mission Station in New Zealand at Kerikeri. Born in England, she came to New Zealand with her husband, James Kemp, in 1819 and settled in Kerikeri where the CMS station was founded. She taught at the station's schools and raised her eight children. One died as an infant and this led to her having a mental breakdown. She recovered and by 1840, she and her husband were the only missionaries in Kerikeri. During the Flagstaff War, they were two of the few Europeans to remain in the area during the conflict. She died in Kerikeri at the age of 70.

Stephen Bennett Bevans, SVD is an American Roman Catholic, priest, theologian, and the Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD Professor of Mission and Culture, Emeritus at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He is known for his work Models of Contextual Theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Kemp (missionary)</span> New Zealand missionary

James Kemp was a missionary for the Church of England, co-founding the second Church Missionary Society (CMS) station in New Zealand at Kerikeri. Born in England, he came to New Zealand with his wife, Charlotte Kemp, in 1819 and settled in Kerikeri where the CMS station was founded. He taught at the station's schools and conducted services in nearby villages. He also supervised the building of the Stone Store in Kerikeri. By 1840, he and his wife were the only missionaries in Kerikeri and during the Flagstaff War, were two of the few Europeans to remain in the area during the conflict. He died in Auckland at the age of 75.

Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi is a Puerto Rican theologian, historian, teacher, academic and author. He holds the Frederick E. Roach Chair in World Christianity at Baylor University.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "160+ Australian and New Zealander Women in Theology You Should Know About | Graham Joseph Hill and Jen Barker". The GlobalChurch Project. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Cathy Ross to lead CMS's Oxford pioneer training". Church Mission Society. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Dr Cathy Ross | Ripon College Cuddesdon". www.rcc.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  4. ↑ "IAMS Matters Issue 5". www.missionstudies.org. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  5. ↑ "Dr Cathy Ross made canon theologian at Leicester cathedral". CMS Pioneer Mission Leadership Training. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  6. ↑ "A woman of principal". Church Mission Society. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  7. ↑ Ross, Cathy (2006). Women with a mission : rediscovering missionary wives in early New Zealand. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin. ISBN   978-0-14-302050-9. OCLC   156801280.
  8. ↑ "Mission in the 21st Century. Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission by Andrew Walls and Cathy Ross (eds)". International Review of Mission. 98 (1): 185–187. 2009. doi:10.1111/j.1758-6631.2009.00015_4.x. ISSN   1758-6631.
  9. ↑ "Mission in the Twenty-first Century: Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission". missionexus.org. January 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  10. ↑ Ross, Cathy, ed. (2012). Life-widening mission : global perspectives from the Anglican Communion. Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers. ISBN   978-1-62032-164-5. OCLC   792927942.
  11. ↑ "Director of mission education". Church Mission Society. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  12. ↑ Hess, Mary (1 March 2016). "Book Review: Mission as Prophetic Dialogue: Cathy Ross & Stephen B. Bevans (eds), Mission on the Road to Emmaus: Constants, Context and Prophetic Dialogue". The Expository Times. 127 (6): 308. doi:10.1177/0014524615621657l. S2CID   170408058.
  13. ↑ "Missional Conversations: A dialogue between theory and praxis in world mission, by Cathy Ross and Colin Smith". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  14. ↑ "Imagining Mission with John V. Taylor, by Jonny Baker and Cathy Ross". www.churchtimes.co.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
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