CANCELLED - Lecture by Maman Monique Misenga Mukuna

The event is a mini-seminar in African Studies and a book signing, to celebrate African women as witnesses to and agents of Christ’s gift of abundant life and ministry of social justice. Monique Misenga Mukuna recently published her memoir, Cradling Abundance: One African Christian’s Story of Empowering Women and Fighting Systemic Poverty (IVP 2021). She will talk about some of her work, and a group of young scholars and pastors will respond, to create a lively discussion which the audience will be invited to join. Among the respondents will be Ms. Ruth Amwe, a doctoral student in Religion and Society at Princeton Theological Seminary, from Nigeria. Other respondents will come from Princeton University, Drew University’s Religion and Global Health Forum, Moravian Seminary, Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal, and other churches. There is also an opportunity for interested participants to network.

This event is co-hosted by the Betsey Stockton Center for Black Church Studies and Continuing Education at Princeton Seminary and sponsored by the Overseas Ministry Studies Center; the Center for Theology, Women and Gender; the Women*s Center; the Association of Black Seminarians; the International Student Association at Princeton Theological Seminary; and the Religion and Global Health Forum at Drew University.

Monique Misenga Mukuna is a lay Presbyterian leader in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A teacher by training, a businesswoman by necessity, she is a tireless activist for educating girls and women and empowering them to imagine new possibilities and create means to support themselves and their children with dignity.

With an ecumenical group of friends, in 1999 Monique Misenga Mukuna established a nonprofit to fight gender violence and female poverty. After the others left or passed on, “Maman Monique” (as she is affectionately called) and her friends persevered, serving hundreds of “the least of these” with fellowship, education, and income-generating projects as well as refuge from abuse and ways to rebuild their lives. Maman Monique has been a leader also at the national level of women’s work in Congo, and in international bodies of the church such as the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the World Council of Churches, as well as serving multiple times as a Peacemaking Visitor in the PC(USA).

There is no cost for this event but registration is required.

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