The Council for World Mission welcomes three new senior management staff. After being approved with unanimous consensus by the Board of Directors who met on 11-12 June 2022, the General Secretary, Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum, is pleased to announce that Mr Sudipta Singh, Rev. Dr Young-Cheol Cheon, and Rev. Daimon Mkandawire are appointed as Deputy General Secretary -Programmes, Mission Secretary – Communications and Mission Secretary – Ecology and Economy respectively.

With wide-ranging experience in non-profit organisation management, Mr Sudipta Singh is currently serving as Country Director of World Concern (WC) Bangladesh, where he develops and executes its strategic plan in line with WC global strategies, provides operational management, and oversees program design, proposal development, and program delivery. Prior to this, he was CWM Mission Secretary – Research and Capacity Development from 2012-2020 where he implemented strategies for new programme development, and led overall development, implementation, and evaluation of all projects. In his new role as DGSP, Mr Singh will coordinate the framing of the missional agenda to guide CWM’s engagement with member churches, ecumenical partners and other organisations as he integrates and provides leadership, guidance and support to the CWM programmatic agenda.

Rev. Dr Young-cheol Cheon is presently General Secretary of Korean Diakonia, an ecumenical organisation in Korea, and has served extensively in the ecumenical movement as a communication leader. Dr Cheon holds a Ph.D. in Media, Religion and Culture at the VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands, and has been teaching Christian communication and media as Adjunct Professor at Seoul Jangsin University since 2019. Dr Cheon was awarded Honorary Life Member of World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) for his contributions. In his new role as CWM Mission Secretary – Communications, he will develop and implement a long-term communications vision and strategy for CWM, and lead the development of regional and global influencing strategies for effective engagement with key stakeholders in communicating CWM’s message.

Rev. Damon Mkandawire is currently Consultant (Fellowship Programme) of GreenFaith International, a global, interfaith, environmental and climate justice organisation, and Hospital Administrator of United Church of Zambia (UCZ) Mbereshi Mission Hospital. In the final stage of obtaining a Master in Business Administration in University of Lusaka, he served as Zambia National Climate Change Secretariat, Lusaka from 2013-2015. As CWM Mission Secretary – Ecology and Economy, he will be responsible for developing and implementing programmes to equip and enable member churches towards ecological integrity and economy of life in doing God’s mission in the world. The incumbent will also work in partnership with ecumenical partners, and people’s movements in promoting life-flourishing economy and ecology while taking the responsibility for an assigned CWM Region.

The appointments will begin on 1 September 2022.