The Rev. Njeri Wagana Hughes joins Global Ecumenical Partnerships team
Africa-focused ecumenical liaison brings experience in cross-cultural ministry, global partnerships and the Reformed tradition
The Rev. Njeri Wagana Hughes will join the international Global Ecumenical Liaison team in Global Ecumenical Partnerships on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Based in New York, Wagana Hughes will serve as an Africa-focused ecumenical liaison, accompanying partner churches and helping strengthen relationships among African partners, African immigrant and diaspora communities in the United States, and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations and mid councils. She will work alongside Doug Tilton, the other international Global Ecumenical Liaison serving Africa, as they discern how best to share the work.
“I am delighted that Njeri is joining the international Global Ecumenical Liaison team,” said the Rev. Ellen Sherby, Wagana Hughes’ supervisor. “She brings a wealth of experience from ecumenical service and congregational ministry across three continents. Njeri will be a valued colleague as we explore together what it means to center relationships, mutual learning and advocacy in support of restorative justice, leader formation and thriving church communities around the world.”
A minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbytery of Western New York, Wagana Hughes was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. Her life and ministry have been shaped by deep roots in the African and Reformed traditions and by more than two decades of cross-cultural experience in Kenya, the United Kingdom, Hungary and the United States.
Wagana Hughes spent more than a decade studying and ministering in Budapest, Hungary. Her work there included serving with the Ecumenical Office of the Reformed Church in Hungary, where she helped host international delegations, communicated with churches and ecumenical organizations and interpreted the church’s ministry for a global audience.
She also served an international congregation whose members represented more than 20 nationalities and worked with programs supporting refugees and Roma communities. In the United States, Wagana Hughes has provided pastoral leadership to congregations in transition, including serving as bridge pastor of All Nations Presbyterian Church in North Miami Beach, Florida, during the Covid pandemic. She most recently has served congregations throughout the Presbytery of Western New York.
Wagana Hughes is fluent in English, Swahili and Hungarian. She is also completing doctoral studies in Systematic Theology at Károli Gáspár Reformed University in Budapest, with a focus on African and Aesthetic Theology.
“My ministry has consistently been oriented toward accompaniment and bridge-building,” Hughes wrote in describing her call to the position. She said the opportunity to serve as a connector between the PC(USA) and its African ecumenical partners feels like “a natural continuation of my calling.”
In her new role, Wagana Hughes will accompany, connect, interpret, equip and advocate. She will help partners and PC(USA) constituents share knowledge, deepen mutual relationships and discern together how God is calling the church to ministry.
The position also advances Presbyterian Life & Witness priorities by bringing the perspectives and experiences of African partners and diaspora communities into closer relationship with the wider church. Those connections can enrich disciple formation and leadership development, strengthen mid councils and help PC(USA) communities recognize and address historic and ongoing harms collaboratively.
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