Africa University choir tours Western Jurisdiction for first time
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Photo courtesy of Western North Carolina Conference The Africa University Choir performs during the Western North Carolina Annual Conference session June 9-12.
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The
Africa University Choir performs during the Western North Carolina
Annual Conference session June 9-12. A UMNS photo courtesy of the
Western North Carolina Conference Office of Communications. Photo
#05-440. Accompanies UMNS story #360. 6/22/05 |
June 22, 2005 A UMNS Report By Linda Green* The
Africa University Choir has crisscrossed the United States visiting
annual conferences six times, but it has always missed the Western
Jurisdiction—until now. The
Western Jurisdiction appearances are part of a busy summer for the
choir, which will perform in other U.S. regional conferences, at local
churches and at the biggest United Methodist Men’s event of the
quadrennium. Wearing
luminous-yellow traditional African clothing, the choir comprises 11
women and five men who sing African-based spiritual choral music in 15
different languages. Two members are recent graduates—Domingas Palmira
Lunga and Adilson Almedia, both from Angola. The
choir hadn’t ignored the West; it just couldn’t get its schedule worked
out to perform there until now, according to James Salley, the
university’s vice chancellor of institutional development. “We
have been supported from the beginning by the Jubilate Choir of the
Pacific Northwest Annual Conference,” Salley said. “They have started a
music endowment, and we’ve always wanted to provide support for that
effort and have the choir itinerate in the Western Jurisdiction. We just
could not make it happen in the past.” The
choir has been performing throughout California and in parts of
Washington state, New Mexico and Arizona. In addition to western
performances that began June 9, the choir has sung at this year’s
Mississippi, Louisiana and Western North Carolina conferences, as a way
of showing appreciation for major financial campaigns that those
conferences have launched for the school.
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Photo courtesy of Western North Carolina Conference The Africa University Choir performs during the Western North Carolina Annual Conference session June 9-12.
|
The
Africa University Choir performs during the Western North Carolina
Annual Conference session June 9-12. A UMNS photo courtesy of the
Western North Carolina Conference Office of Communications. Photo
#05-441. Accompanies UMNS story #360. 6/22/05 |
The choir will
give three performances at the United Methodist Men’s conference July
15-17 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. More than 9,000 are
expected to attend that event. Tour
arrangers, including Betty Henderson of Philadelphia, worked to do
everything possible to enable the choir to perform in annual conferences
in the west during the 2005 annual conference season, which runs from
May through June in the United States. “We
find that there are people all over the church that do not even know
that the United Methodist Church has a university in Zimbabwe,” Salley
said. The United Methodist-related university is based in Mutare and
serves students from all over Africa. The
choir will not perform in all areas of the Western Jurisdiction, “but
we will be able to itinerate in the majority of them,” he said. The
choir members are “wonderful ambassadors” for the university, and they
understand that their mission “is to interpret the ministry of Africa
University and help the United Methodist Church and people beyond
understand that we are a United Methodist-related institution that is
unique to Africa and is making a difference in countless lives around
the continent,” he said. When
the Africa University choir departs the United States on July 18,
following a July 17 evening concert at St. Mark United Methodist Church,
Chicago, the members will have 40 performances under their belts,
according to Henderson, the 2005 choir tour coordinator. Although this
choir is smaller than previous choirs on tour and the gender ratio is
not equal, “they have been making beautiful music together,” she
said.
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Photo courtesy of Western North Carolina Conference The Africa University Choir performs during the Western North Carolina Annual Conference session June 9-12.
|
The
Africa University Choir performs during the Western North Carolina
Annual Conference session June 9-12. A UMNS photo courtesy of the
Western North Carolina Conference Office of Communications. Photo
#05-442. Accompanies UMNS story #360. 6/22/05 |
Normally the choir
reflects the pan-African composition of the student body and faculty.
This year, due to challenges in obtaining visas for the international
students to travel to the United States, the choir has a large number of
Zimbabwean students as well as a higher number of women than men,
Salley said. The
tour gives the choir members an opportunity to thank United Methodists
for supporting the school—and for providing the students with an
education that otherwise might have been difficult or impossible to
obtain. The choir also promotes the Africa University Fund, scholarship
support for students and general awareness of the school in the church. “Further,”
Salley added, “it provides an opportunity for local churches and annual
conferences to see a return on their investment (the students) in this
ministry.” Africa
University was launched by the denomination’s 1988 General Conference
and officially opened in 1992. It has six schools or academic
disciplines, as well as an Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance
that promotes good government on the continent. More than 1,900
students have graduated from the school. *Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn. News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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