| Serving as a regional liaison has given Doug a deeper appreciation of the importance of ministries of accompaniment. “Wherever I go, I am often surprised and profoundly moved by the ways in which God works through the mutual recognition, affirmation, and encouragement shared among brothers and sisters in faith from different parts of the world,” remarks Doug. “It is humbling to visit a church where people have walked for several hours to welcome you, to share fellowship, and to celebrate together our common humanity and faith.”
Doug was commissioned as a mission worker in 1992. He was initially assigned to work with an ecumenical agency engaged in peacemaking and community development in a semi-rural area on the tropical upper south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, just south of Durban. From that vantage point, he witnessed South Africa's inspiring transition from minority rule to non-racial democracy. During the country's first democratic elections in 1994, Doug served as the provincial administration and financial officer for the KwaZulu-Natal Electoral Observer Network, the structure established by church and civil society organizations to provide electoral education and promote a free and fair poll.
For the next ten years, he was seconded to the South African Council of Churches (SACC), working first as a researcher in the Council's Parliamentary Office in Cape Town and later in the General Secretariat in Johannesburg. From the time of its formation in 1968, the SACC was one of the leading voices calling for democracy, human rights, and social justice in a land that was long blighted by institutionalized racial discrimination. After 1994, the SACC sought to help a new society to address the social and economic legacies of apartheid, including poverty, inequality, and racism.
Doug’s interest in Southern Africa and his involvement in the anti-apartheid movement began while he was an undergraduate at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He graduated from Macalester with a B.A. in history, political science, and economics. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he received an M.Phil. in politics in 1985 before working for a year as legislative coordinator for the Washington Office on Africa in Washington, D.C. In that position he facilitated the office’s advocacy work on Southern Africa issues, including its support for the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. Doug returned to England and received a D.Phil. in politics from Wolfson College, Oxford. From 1995 to 1997, Doug was again based in Washington, D.C. as a PC(USA) mission specialist assigned to do policy analysis and communications for the Washington Office on Africa and the Africa Policy Information Center.
Birthday: March 30
|
