The 2008 recipient of the E.H. Johnson Award is Mercy Amba Oduyoye of Ghana. The award is named for the late Rev. Dr. E.H. Johnson and is given to someone on “the cutting edge of mission.”
Oduyoye created The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in 1989, which draws attention to African women's theology and still serves as coordinator of study commissions. She also established the Institute of African Women in Religion and Culture at Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Ghana, where she currently serves as its director. She taught at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in the Department of Religious Studies, for 12 years, and is also a published author of both prose and poetry.
Oduyoye has been involved in the ecumenical movement for more than three decades, with 13 years service in various capacities at the World Council of Churches. Her dedication to ecumenism highlights a personal spiritual yearning that all should be one. A Ghanaian Methodist, she is married to Adedoyin Modupe Oduyoye, a Nigerian Anglican.
“It is amazing, the opportunities that have come my way,” said Oduyoye in a press release, “all arising from the then-unusual step of entering university in 1959 to study theology. Glory to God.”
The award will be presented during the E. H. Johnson luncheon during the 134th General Assembly in Ottawa next June.
