wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] New Synod of the Sun staffer brings international experience

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This story and photo available online:

www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09083<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09083

New Synod of the Sun staffer brings international experience

Raafat Zaki, born in Sudan to Egyptian missionary parents,
has also studied in Korea

>by Shane Whisler
>Synod of the Sun Communications Director
>Reprinted from Presbyterian Neighbor News

IRVING, TX ― The Rev. Rafaat Zaki brings a unique
international perspective to his new work as stated clerk
and associate executive for the Synod of the Sun. He began
his new work in November 2008.

"I am blessed to have been elected and called by the Synod
of the Sun, especially in this capacity, and in such a time
as this," Zaki said. "For the greatest of all challenges
the Church faces today is to prophetically proclaim and
faithfully serve the unique calling of the Church as God's
agent for compassion and just peace."

Zaki's ancestors were Coptic Orthodox and his grandfather
was a Presbyterian clergy who was sent as a missionary by
Egypt's Synod of the Nile to serve in Sudan where Zaki was
born to a father who became a Presbyterian elder and mother
who served as a librarian, organist, and church leader.

As a young man, Zaki studied in Catholic schools in Sudan,
at the Presbyterian seminary in Cairo, following his
grandfather's path, where he received his first training in
pastoral ministry and community service. Returning to
Khartoum, he envisioned a church based community ministry
and a seminary given the second cycle of civil war and
since there were more Sudanese seminarians in Cairo than
there were Egyptians.

He continued studying abroad and earned a masters degree in
religion in South Korea, where he met his wife. He later
earned a master of divinity degree at McCormick Theological
Seminary, and completed his Ph. D. coursework at Chicago
Theological Seminary. Although he first received his
calling and was licensed for ministry by the Presbytery of
Sudan, his family decided to leave Sudan due to the
increasingly dangerous and instable political, religious
and socio-economic climate.

Ordained by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Zaki served
in various pastoral capacities in Illinois, Indiana and
Ohio from 1991-2001. The following six years he served in
Louisville as  associate for churchwide personnel services
and then as an area coordinator for Central, South and
Southeast Asia with the then Worldwide Ministries Division.

Judy Fletcher said the Synod of the Sun "is fortunate to
have called such a capable person in Raafat Zaki."

"His international experience will bring an interesting
dimension to this work," Fletcher said. "We are delighted
to have him on board."

Zaki is particularly hopeful about the role this synod can
play in extending God's compassion and just peace.

"The Synod of the Sun (which includes Texas, Oklahoma,
Louisiana and Arkansas) is well positioned and equipped to
serve and resource key constituency and functions essential
to the transformation and growth of the PC(USA)," he said.

Zaki most recently served in Atlanta as the director of
global faith engagement and church relations with Habitat
for Humanity International. His family, including his newly
immigrated Korean father-in-law, will be relocating to the
Dallas-Ft. Worth area in the coming months. In the spirit
of the radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, he said he is
"married to one strong wife, and blessed with three above
average children."

Zaki's associate position is new to the synod, which
recently restructured. As stated clerk he succeeds, the
Rev. Elizabeth Johnson Pense, a classmate of Fletcher's at
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, who  served seven
years as synod stated clerk while serving a number of
interim pastorates in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

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