Cathy has worked in South Asia and the Middle East in areas of development, education, church and women’s activism, as well as leadership in mission. She is passionate about women and change, particularly how the transforming power of the Kingdom of God, expressed in the message of the Gospel, is foundational to challenging the structures that mediate Muslim women’s lives. In her PhD Cathy explored this theme through the lives of women activists in Pakistan. As one of the Founders of the When Women Speak … network Cathy is engaged in enabling women to understand the experience of faith for women living under Islam and ensuring women’s voices are part of our understanding of faith and mission.

Research interests

women, Islam and mission; women, social activism and change; issues that impact discipleship for women followers of Jesus out of Islam, honour and shame as experienced by women, and the intersection of women’s social activism and the gospel

Georgina is a Fellow of the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies in Oxford and Research Associate of the University of Gloucestershire, UK. She has taught courses on Islam, Gender and Mission and Scriptural Engagement part-time at a variety of institutions, such as Redcliffe College, All Nations Christian College, London School of Theology and Bristol Baptist College. She founded an activity called the Holy Book Club which brings Christians and Muslims together to have conversations based on texts from the Bible and Quran. She has published on female characters of the Quran and Bible, as well as historical reflections on relations between Muslims and Christians in southern Africa.

Research interests

female characterisation in religious literature, life and work in Muslim contexts, scriptural engagement as inter faith dialogue

Dr Cathy Ross is Head of  Pioneer Leadership Training at CMS (Church Mission Society) and  Lecturer in Mission at Regent’s Park College, Oxford.  She comes from Aotearoa/NZ.    Until 2016 she was the General Secretary of the International Association for Mission Studies. She has previously worked in Rwanda, Congo and Uganda with NZCMS. 

Her recent publications include Women with a Mission, Rediscovering Missionary Wives in Early New Zealand, (Auckland:Penguin, 2006) and Mission in the 21^st Century, Exploring the Five Marks of Global Mission (ed with Andrew Walls); (London:DLT, 2008), Life-Widening Mission: Global Anglican Perspectives (Oxford:Regnum, 2012) and Mission in Context (with John Corrie, Ashgate, 2012), The Pioneer Gift (with Jonny Baker, London:SCM, 2014), Mission on the Road to Emmaus, (with Steve Bevans, London:SCM, 2015), Pioneering Spirituality (with Jonny Baker, London:SCM, 2015), Missional Conversations, A Dialogue between Theory and Praxis in World Mission (with Colin Smith, 2018), Bearing Witness in Hope, Christian Engagement in Challenging Times (with Humphrey Southern, 2020), Imagining Mission with John Taylor with Jonny Baker, London:SCM, 2020).

She is married to Steve, a GP in Oxford and they have 3 children and 4 grandchildren.  She enjoys tennis, swimming, coffee, travel and watching the All Blacks and Silver Ferns.

Research interests

mission, world Christianity, contextual theologies, feminist theologies, hospitality

Verena studied Applied Theology (BA/MTh) at Regents Theological College in the UK, after which she served as a theological educator in South Sudan from 2007-2011. She started her PhD in Educational Leadership at Columbia International University (USA) in 2011, which she finished in 2017. She spent 5 years in Mozambique with SIM working as a theological educator in Pemba and then as Academic Dean of the Instituto Teológico de Lichinga in Lichinga training pastors for the local evangelical churches. In September 2021, she started to work as a Regional Consultant for Theological Education in Africa with the Overseas Council.

Research interests

African theology, theological education in general and in Africa in particular, curriculum design for theological schools. She has published on pneumatology and has taught on many NT books and theology in general.

Xiaoli has been serving in Australia and overseas as a lecturer, pastor and mentor over the last twenty years.  Her PhD offers a conversation between the Chinese soul-searching and the gospel of Jesus Christ through a unique contextual poetic lens (Leiden: Brill, 2018).  She has published widely for both academic and general readers. She is also a spiritual director and serves on the Executive Committee of Australian Association of Mission Studies and the Editorial Board of Australian Journal of Mission Studies.

Academic profile: https://staff.divinity.edu.au/staff/xiaoli-yang/

Personal website: https://zadokperspectives.wixsite.com/website

Research interests

intercultural theology; world/Asian Christianity, poetic theology, comparative theology, ethno-hermeneutics, Christian spirituality