Fall Ministry Day 2016
Dr. Celestin Musekura is president and founder of African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries
What: Episcopal Diocese of Dallas: Fall Ministry Day: Forgiving as We've Been Forgiven: Gospel Reconciliation and Justice in a Wounded City
When: Oct. 4, 2016, 9 a.m. to 11:45
Where: Saint Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, 8011 Douglas Ave, Theater
Who: All clergy and other ministry leaders in the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas
On July 7, five white Dallas police officers protecting a peaceful Black Lives Matter march were killed by a gunman who had expressed racial hatred and anger at recent police shootings of black men in New Orleans and St. Paul, MN. This tragic event followed a long series of shootings and protests in the United States, including the Charleston shooting of summer 2015, in which a white man killed nine black church members gathered for prayer and Bible study. It seems that many American whites and blacks, civilians and law enforcement have become increasingly on edge, angry, divided, and distrustful towards each other, with deep and irreconcilable grievances. What does the Gospel of Jesus Christ mean for us today? How can we as church leaders, entrusted with Christ's "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18), be advocates of God's justice as well as God's forgiveness? How can a city and country with such deep and old wounds ever heal?
Dr. Celestin Musekura has written and spoken widely on the topic of forgiveness, drawing from a deep engagement with Scripture as he and his family went through the crucible of the Rwandan genocide. After the mass killings of 1994, Dr. Musekura returned from his studies in Kenya to Rwanda, training pastors to be ministers of biblical repentance and forgiveness. In 1997, he lost five members of his own family and seventy members of his church in revenge killings, putting him and the Gospel message he was preaching to the test. Could he forgive the murderers? Was that really what God wanted?
Since then, Dr. Musekura has continued his ministry as the president and founder of ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries), traveling around the world as a speaker and author. His degrees include a M.S. in Justice Administration and Leadership from the University of Texas at Dallas, and an M.T.S. and Ph.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary, along with further training in conflict resolution, mediation, and reconciliation from Eastern Mennonite University and Southern Methodist University. He has taught systematic theology at Dallas Theological Seminary and Criswell College. His publications include Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Peace, co-authored with L. Gregory Jones of Duke and Baylor (Intervarsity Press, 2010), and Assessment of Contemporary Models of Forgiveness (New York: Peter Lang Publishers, Inc., 2010).
Celestin is married to Bernadette, and they have four children. They live in Dallas.
No meals will be served, but coffee and snacks are provided.
RSVP to Kim Lanore at or at 214-826-8310.
For more information about the event contact The Rev. Canon Dr. Jordan Hylden at .
Please help us provide adequate space and hospitality for this event. This diocesan event is free to all clergy and ministry leaders (defined broadly!) of the diocese. This clergy continuing education event is sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, which thanks St. Michael and All Angels for their gracious hospitality.
Additional Resources
Celestin’s Story
By Jeff Hartman, worldnextdoor.org
Celestin Offers Forgiveness to Rwanda (dts.edu)
Celestin Musekura offers a ministry of reconciliation to war-torn Rwanda.
Forgiving As We’ve Been Forgiven: Community Practices for Peace
Intervarsity Press, 2010
by L. Gregory Jones and Célestin Musekura