Meet the 2024 McGeachy Senior Scholars!
The 2024 McGeachy Senior Scholars
The United Church of Canada Foundation’s McGeachy Senior Scholarship fosters the development of those inspiring and challenging the church toward creative and faithful mission. This spring, the Rev. Dr Michelle Voss and the Rev. Sungmin Jung were named the 2024 McGeachy Senior Scholars!
We caught up with these engaging and inspiring leaders to learn more about how their work is progressing. Both scholars are working towards exciting projects! Congratulations to Michelle and Sungmin. It’s a blessing to support your ministry, we’re praying for this vital work. Read on to hear from Michelle and Sungmin.
Bridging the Gaps in Cultural Understanding
Like many of our congregations, interfaith organizations often end up attended mostly by white, mainline Christians. Why is this?
Michelle currently serves as a professor of theology at Emmanuel College. Notably, she made history as the first woman to lead the institution as principal from 2018 to 2021. Michelle’s project addresses the United Church of Canada’s commitment to becoming intercultural, in relation to interfaith teaching and research at Emmanuel College. She poses a crucial question: “Like many of our congregations, interfaith organizations often end up attended mostly by white, mainline Christians. Why is this?”
Michelle suspects that cultural differences are contributing. “We are all shaped by culture, even if it’s invisible to us because it’s the dominant one. I’m interested in how Christians can bridge the gaps in cultural understanding that impede both congregational and interfaith engagement.” Her research aims to identify the gaps in cultural understanding that hinder both congregational and interfaith engagement. She says that while recognizing commonalities is important, understanding and adapting to cultural difference is what ultimately improves interactions in churches and interfaith settings.
An Allegorical Approach
I pray my project may inspire and challenge our United Church toward creative and faithful mission.
Originally from South Korea, The Rev. Sungmin Jung has ministered at St. John’s United Church in Alliston, ON since 2017. He was ordained by the Maritime Conference in 1999 after graduating from the Atlantic School of Theology. For Sungmin, the McGeachy Senior Scholarship enables him to publish his second book, expected in July 2025. His first book, Finding Christ in You—the Hope of Glory: Re-reading the Bible in an Allegorical Way, (July 2023), interprets the stories of Jesus through an allegorical lens. Sungmin says it is a “testament to my commitment to rejuvenating the church of Christ in the present and future.”
In his second book, Sungmin is applying the same allegorical approach to the Hebrew Bible. “The Old Testament contains many heroes and heroines… which most Christians learned about through Sunday School and Hollywood movies,” Sungmin tells us. “My project is to revisit these heroes and heroines and again find deeper meanings in them using allegory and metaphor. I pray my project may inspire and challenge our United Church toward creative and faithful mission.”
Working with the Foundation
Throughout the application process for the scholarship, Michelle and Sungmin found the support from the Foundation invaluable. “Engaging with the Foundation provided me with a deeper understanding of its priorities and its profound investment in the contemporary church,” Michelle shares. Sungmin thanks the Foundation for allowing him to work on his upcoming book, “I am deeply grateful. This grant is instrumental in my project of publishing a second book.”
Upcoming Events
Michelle will present some of her research at the upcoming Alway/Emmanuel Symposium. “Bridges and Boundaries: Religious Diversities in the 21st Century Classroom“, takes place January 12-14, 2025, hosted by Emmanuel College and St. Michael’s College. It will feature an array of panels and presentations, including a keynote address on interreligious dialogue by theologian Marianne Moyaert.
Scholarship Background
The McGeachy Memorial Fund represents a substantial bequest from the estate of William A. and Margaret H. McGeachy, an agricultural family in southwestern Ontario. Their commitment to the Christian church and its role in society is memorialized in the McGeachy Senior Scholarship. The scholarship aims to develop leaders who will provide The United Church of Canada with discernment and direction, inspiring and challenging the church toward creative and faithful mission. The McGeachy Senior Scholar expresses the prophetic vision of the church and interprets Christ’s call to justice and peace in our pluralistic world.
The scholarship frees individuals to concentrate efforts on a project of enduring value to the Church. Scholars are named every other year on “even” years. Other recent McGeachy Senior Scholars include The Rev. Alexa Gilmour (2020), the Rev. Dr. Rob Fennell (2022), and the Rev. Dr Sandra Beardsall (2022). “We hope it enhances the life work of the Scholar at a pivotal moment in their development,” says Foundation Lead Erik Lo Forte. “This can yield ongoing benefits for both the individual and the community”.
Thanks to gifts from United Church people who value the pursuit of education, the Foundation can support and nurture gifted students following God’s Call to ministry, teaching, and research through opportunities like the McGeachy Senior Scholarship.
Please consider making a gift today that will help the Foundation’s capacity to support these talented scholars! Your gift will ensure that we’re providing meaningful financial support to those who need it. Visit canadahelps.org/en/dn/92658 to donate.
