*kicks tires*

“Does this thing still work?”

*dusts off hood*

“Looks like it’s at least worth a shot.”

OK, so it’s been a little while since I last wrote here. I guess you can call it an unannounced sabbatical.

In my (limited) defense, however, I was spending my writing energies seeking other avenues for publication. And I’m delighted to report that I’ve found some.

In June, I presented a paper at the Tri-History Conference in Raleigh, NC. It was a conference of historians, organized by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, National Episcopal Historians and Archivists, and the Episcopal Women’s History Project, but somehow they let me in to present a paper that was more missiological in nature titled “Local Control vs. Noblesse Oblige: Reconciling Conflicting Mission Values in Mthatha,South Africa.” As the title no doubt reveals, it stemmed from my time in Mthatha.

Earlier this month, I received my copy of a book of a handful of essays from youth around the world in commemoration of the Edinburgh 2010 mission conference. The book is called Edinburgh 2010: Youth Perspectives, ed. Kirk Sandvig (William Carey, Pasadena, CA). My contribution is entitled, “‘The Word Became Flesh and Lived Among Us:’ The Missiological Implications of an Incarnational Christology.” (The winner of this worldwide contest was my fellow YASC alum Andrew Thompson for an essay on the Anglican missionary Roland Allen.)

And I’ve just learned that a paper of mine about Stephen Bayne and “Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence” will be published in the Anglican Theological Review next year. (Bishop Bayne was the subject of my most recent blog post.)

So… I hope you’ll forgive me my absence.

I’m gearing up for a trip to Bishop Gwynne Theological College in Juba, Sudan in September. More on that in another post, which I promise will not be too far distant.