Ordained Minister
Nominated by Nakonha:ka Regional Council
I was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, a town bordering the Senegal River, the Atlantic Ocean and the Sahara Desert. The city is under threat to disappear from the dual perils of desertification and erosion. Environmental issues are a matter of life and death.
In the village of Kelle where I grew up, our family was one of the only two Christian families, yet we enjoyed warm and friendly relationships.
After graduating from the Université des Sciences Humaines in Strasbourg, France, I was ordained and installed as the pastor of Église Protestante du Sénégal. Nine years later, I went to Chicago, obtained my PhD, and went on to teach in North Carolina at Hood Theological Seminary, an AMEZ (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church) graduate seminary. After eleven years, I left academia to return to my first vocation. I became the pastor of Saint-Pierre et Pinguet United Church, Quebec City, before being called to Plymouth-Trinity United Church in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where I have served for almost eleven years now.
My peregrinations across three continents and my experience as a national of a long-colonized country exposed me to the injustice and misdeeds of neocolonialism, racism and the shameless exploitation of creation and its children.... and also to the minute degree of separation between peoples: we are One. Along my journey, I have served as a pastor in different countries and congregations.
From the moment my journey with the United Church of Canada started, I served on executive committees of the Laurentian and Quebec Presbyteries; I’ve also served the Synode Montreal et Ottawa Conference, and the executive of Nakonha:ka Regional Council. I am now finishing my second term on the General Council executive.
If elected moderator, I will bring my international and multicultural experience to engage in what I see as a three-year multi-layered conversation under the palaver tree.
The journey continues....
