Rose Uchem, MSHR, Ph.D, is a missionary and a senior lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where she teaches post-graduate and undergraduate courses in Christian Religious Education as well as Comparative and International Education. Previously, she taught Systematic and Contextual Theologies at the Spiritan International School of Theology, Attakwu-Enugu, where, for eight years, she brought in a gender-analytical perspective to the training of priests. Early on, she served her order as directress of candidates’ formation for seven years (training young women missionaries). Her cross-cultural missionary engagement were in Bo and Pujehun (Sierra Leone), Dublin (Ireland), Kaduna (northern Nigeria) and the United States of America. She holds a Ph.D. in Theological Studies from the Graduate Theological Foundation, Indiana, and MA in Religion and Religious education from Fordham University, New York. Prior to this, Rose had studied in Ireland in the ‘Faith and Mission Programme’ at the Mission Institute, Navan; as well as ‘Spirituality’ at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, Dublin. She obtained her basic degree (B.Sc. Education) from Obafemi Awolowo, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

Rose belongs to the congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary. She is a member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, and is the African Regional Representative on the executive committee of the International Association for Mission Studies (2008-2012). She is founder and executive director of Ifendu For Women’s Development (a non-profit organization in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC since 2010 and registered, no. 16525, with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria since 2004). In this capacity, Rose has also engaged the wider society (nationally and internationally) through workshops, seminars, conferences and publications, focusing on gender, culture and religion. She is listed in the American Biographical Institute’s Contemporary Who is Who (2004/2005) and Great Women of the 21st Century (2004). Her numerous publications include: ‘Shifting Perceptions of Mission: Values for Missionary Religious Life Today,’ SEDOS Bulletin (2009/261); ‘Gender Inequality as an Obstacle to Mission, SEDOS Bulletin (2006/270); ‘The Challenge of Marginalization: The Experience of Africans in Europe and the United States;’ published in Jenda Journal: A Journal of African Culture and Women Studies (2001); accessible from: http://www.jendajournal.com and her pioneering work, Overcoming Women’s Subordination (2001), available through ifendu52@yahoo.com

During her time with CMS as ‘Missiologist in Residence’ (2010) at the Crowther Centre for Mission Education, Oxford, Rose will be unraveling ‘Cross-Cutting Issues in Mission Today.’ She will be drawing from her over twenty-five years’ lived experience as a life-time ‘Missionary Religious’ and ten years’ prior experience of lecturing in contextual theology and on gender, religion and culture. Among other streams, she will be offering theological reflections on insights from the new scientific discoveries about the universe in conjunction with culturally-based and bible-based stories of origins and the implications of these multiple narratives for mission today.

Published: 2:23 PM :: Monday, October 11, 2010 :: 1372 views :: 0 Comments :: Former missiologists in residence