At its May 7 meeting the Board of the Global Episcopal Mission Network elected several officers for the organization:
Ms. Ayda Patricia Martin
was re-elected as president. A member of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic, she is serving her second three-year term on the Board. Patricia has worked in the diocese’s missionary teams coordination office and has contributed to the growth and strength of the mission of the church. With administrative experience in multinational companies, she is a member of the Iglesia San Andrés de Santo Domingo. She completed secondary studies at the San Andrés Episcopal College, studied business administration at La Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo, and is currently in medical school.
The Rev. Dr. Paul Rajan
was reelected as vice president. Vicar of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Wantage, New Jersey, he is the Global Mission Advocaate in the Diocese of Newark, where he is convening a newly formed Global Mission Commission. He is also a member of the Racial Justice and Healing Commission of the diocese. Paul is originally from Tirunelveli Diocese in Church of South India, a third-generation Christian from the ministry of Bishop Leslie Newbigin, who was a missionary bishop to Madurai Diocese in Tamil Nadu state, and a famed theologian and ecumenist. Paul served as a cross-cultural missionary in the neighboring state of Karnataka after he completed a BTh degree in Chennai (Madras) in 1986. The churches pioneered by him are now managed by the Friends Missionary Prayer Band, the largest missionary agency in India.
Paul moved to New Zealand in 2000 and worked among migrant communities of Samoans, Tongans and Fijians, Fijian Indians, Sri Lankans, Ghanaians, Nigerians and the Asian and Indian diaspora communities under the umbrella of Global Peace Mission, Ethnic Voice New Zealand, and the government of New Zealand. His missional experience involves working among various communities in India, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Pacific Islands, Australia and Japan.
Paul has served alongside missional networks such as the India Missions Association (IMA), the Karnataka Missions Network (KMN) and the Federation of Non-Residence Indian Christian Societies (FONRICS). He pioneered Christian Life Service in India and Global Peace Mission in New Zealand. When he came to the USA he founded InterChristian Initiatives, a 501c3 mission to reach and teach, which has become a GEMN member organization.
Paul is member of the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE) and has done supervisory-level education at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey. He trains chaplains for various ministries, including parish-based chaplaincy. He also offers CPE as a tool in the hands of indigenous missionaries who are not allowed to share the gospel directly.
Paul holds an MA in English from Madurai University, India, an MDiv from the Interfaith Seminary, New York, where he served as dean of students for five years, and a DMin in chaplaincy from Liberty University. Currently he is studying for the DMin from Bexley Seabury Seminary in congregational development. He holds an honorary doctorate from Bethania Theological Seminary in Chennai, India.
Mr. William Kunkle
was re-elected as treasurer for GEMN. Bill has decades of experience as a mission leader and as an independent construction contractor in the Tampa area. He served as executive director of the Dominican Development Group, a freestanding mission organization that carries out a wide range of mission work in collaboration with the Episcopal Diocese of the Dominican Republic, including dozens of short-term mission trips each year from dioceses throughout the Episcopal Church and from other denominations. For many years, Bill traveled to the Dominican Republic with Tampa Deanery mission teams that helped build churches and schools in Mozoví, Montellano, Santana, San Pedro de Macorís, Barrio Las Flores, Ingenio Santa Fe, and the San Simón project supported by the Dioceses of Michigan. He is executive director of the Province IX Development Group.