Allan’s
Annual Newsletter
CHRISTMAS 2016
66 St Denis Road, Birmingham B29 4LR, UK Tel:+44 (0)7979 811 809
Email: allananderson@uk2.net
Dear family and friends
This
year has flown and it is time to bring you my annual news, a tradition of over
twenty years! After a tough 2015 with prostate cancer treatment, my health has
returned to ‘normal’ and my blood PSA is still low, PTL. But now my attention
has moved to increasing pain through osteoarthritis in my left ankle, the one
that was not operated
on in 2014! The orthopaedic surgeon will try me on an injection first in the
hope of avoiding surgery again.
I
was on study leave this year, first spending almost five months at Yale in New
Haven, Connecticut, where I shared a weekly graduate teaching seminar on World
Christianity with the renowned Professor Lamin Sanneh. I was Senior Mission
Scholar in Residence at the Overseas Ministries Study Center, a short walking
distance from the Yale Divinity School, where I led a three day seminar for the
scholars there (mostly Presbyterian Korean missionaries) and gave two public
lectures. Because of misinformation provided on my need for a work visa, I had
to leave the US after three months for a week in April when my friend Michael
Wilkinson arranged for me to take a graduate seminar. I stayed with Michael and
his family in Langley, BC and I also had opportunity to visit with Cam and Marg
Connor, my aunt and uncle. Tragically, on the morning I left BC Michael and
Val’s 19-year-old son Alex, died of an accidental drug overdose. Michael took
me to Vancouver Airport early on 13 April and he discovered Alex on his return
home. I learned the devastating news in a short note from Michael when I
reached Boston that afternoon.
My
trip to Boston was twofold: to visit with my former doctoral promoter Inus
Daneel, now 80, and his wife Dana Robert. Inus had suffered a brain aneurism
recently, but we had wonderful times together and it was very special to talk
with him again after a very long time. Dana had also invited me to give a
lecture at Boston University, which I did on the 100th anniversary
of my mother’s birth, 14 April 1916. Then I returned to by train to New Haven
for the last few weeks that included the annual workshop of the Oxford Studies
in World Christianity (where my 2013 To the Ends of the Earth
is published). This was followed by a happy few days’ visit to my sister Carol
on Pine Island, SW Florida, with her husband Randy, my niece Janine and great-nieces
Samantha and Sarah. Carol had just taken retirement the day I arrived. Then
back to Birmingham for a few weeks in May and June, interrupted by a conference
in Uppsala, Sweden.
The
next event in July and August was a research trip to Soshanguve near Pretoria,
where I followed up on my research of twenty years ago, in preparation for my
new book The Spirit in a
Spirit-filled World, contracted for publication by Palgrave-Macmillan.
My study leave was supposed to get this finished but with all the other things
I had to do, I now hope to complete the book by April 2017. It was also great
to catch up with family and friends. Matt was with me for the first two of
three weeks, and among other things we made a three day visit to Pilanesberg
National Park. One of the highlights was a reunion with around twenty of the
graduates of Tshwane Theological College on my final Saturday, where I was
principal 1988-95. I had not seen most of them for over twenty years, and we
had all changed slightly!
I was back
in the office in September in preparation for a busy semester teaching. Nine of
my PhD researchers are in the final stages of their thesis writing. Three of
them have now submitted and passed their examinations in the past three months
pending corrections, and others will submit in the next few months. My total PhD
researchers will drop from seventeen to eight when they have all got through
and I will have 44 PhD graduates by then. I have three new supervisees this
year from Ghana, Kosova/US, and China. I now have to think and plan towards
retirement in the next few years, probably in 2019 or 2020 when my financial
commitments will have eased.
Matt
hopes to complete his PhD in biochemistry (cancer research) at the University
of Bristol by March, and has been busy sequestered in his room writing for the
past three months since he returned home to save money! He wants to find a
postdoctoral research post in Bristol, where his Spanish girlfriend will be
working from February. Tami still works at the Hilton Hotel and has just moved
into her own comfortable one bedroom flat, which she has been busy furnishing.
We will again have Christmas Eve together, as Tami has to work on Christmas Day
this year.
We
wish you a blessed, peaceful Christmas
and a happy new year.
With
love from us all,
Allan, Matt & Tami
And a merry Christmas to you, Allan, and a healthy New Year!
ReplyDeleteIt was good to see you again when you visited South Africa and catch up on all sorts of things. Good luck with the new book!