The Council for World Mission (CWM) warmly welcomes Prof. Kenneth Ross as a Partner in Mission (PIM). He is taking up a newly created post as Chair of Missiology at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. His primary responsibility will be the development of a CWM online PhD programme in Transformative Mission. This international programme will seek to enroll students with the potential to be outstanding future mission thinkers and leaders. Leading missiologists from around the world will serve as supervisors. While most of the programme will be conducted online, there will be an annual residential colloquium that will act as a laboratory of innovative thinking on mission. In addition, Ross will be expected to generate research that will be of high value to the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal and CWM, as well as the wider academic community and ecumenical networks.
Ross is a pastor, scholar and activist, originally from Scotland, who has served for many years as a University Professor in Malawi. He also served for a decade as General Secretary of the Church of Scotland Board of World Mission. His most recent role, from 2022-25, was Dean of Postgraduate Studies at Zomba Theological University. He has also been Series Editor of the 10-volume Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity (Edinburgh University Press) from its inception in 2014 until its completion in 2025. He has published many books and articles on Christian mission, including the forthcoming co-authored Hope in Times of Crisis: Reimagining Ecumenical Mission (Eugene OR: Cascade, 2025). Ross and his wife Hester are blessed with three sons and three grandsons.
Ross loves the outdoors and has climbed all 282 Munros (mountains in Scotland above 3,000 feet).