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CEUM Leader Helping Update Ministry 'Dictionary'

NEW HAVEN, CT (March 31, 2005) - Lygunda Fohle, a former leader in the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM), is adding several articles to the Dictionary of African Christian Biography. The dictionary is the ambitious undertaking of the Overseas Ministries Study Center, which seeks to include information on every Christian leader in the African church, ranging from the first Christians to leaders of today. Lay leaders who have made significant contributions to African Christianity are included along with missionaries, pastors, church leaders and theologians.

The center hopes to publish the articles in English, French, Arabic, Swahili and Portuguese, which are the major languages of Africa. Fohle so far has written ten biographical entries in French: Covenant missionaries Paul Carlson, Titus Johnson, Vanette Thorsell, Sirgurd Westberg; CEUM members Bonganga Mosamboko, Sakofio Way, Doko Kambeke and Jacob Saba; as well as Isaac Pelendo and Simon Boimandja. Fohle is the former director of the Cabinet of the President of the CEUM.

Fohle is researching and writing the entries as a Project Luke fellow, which provides for his expenses at the center. Two fellows are chosen from applications each year. Contributors to the dictionary are being drawn from academic, church and mission communities in Africa and elsewhere. Because the Christian history in Africa cannot be defined by Euro-American standards of orthodoxy, the dictionary "aims at exclusiveness rather than inclusiveness."

The depth of detail provided varies among the more than one thousand entries, ranging from one or two sentences to several thousand words. The dictionary is needed, writes Jonathon J. Bonk, the project director, because Africa has been part of Christian history from its beginnings until present, and the fastest growth of Christianity in recent history has been in the third world. Bonk adds, however, that little has been written about the African context and history.

The center has made the searchable dictionary available without charge online at Dictionary.

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