[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Nida.jpg” caption=”Reverend Eugene Nida”]Thirty graduands of Divinity College will receive degrees and certificates this evening at the college's Spring Convocation.

Degrees to be conferred at the 8 p.m. ceremony in Convocation Hall are: doctor of ministry (3), master of theology (3), master of divinity (8), master of religious education (4), and master of theological studies (10). Certificates for Christian studies and parish nurse will also be presented.

This year Divinity is awarding honorary degrees to pastor Joao Samuel Matwawana and biblical translator Eugene Nida. Nida will deliver the Convocation address.

Eugene Nida

Doctor of Letters

Rev. Nida has enjoyed a long and influential career as a biblical translator and a theorist in biblical translation. He received an MA in Greek at the University of Southern California (1939) and a PhD in linguistics and anthropology at the University of Michigan (1941). For most of his working career, he was employed by the American Bible Society, acting for many years as the society's executive secretary for translation. He is the author of two classic works in the field of translation theory, Toward a Science of Translating (1964), and The Theory and Practice of Translation (with co-author C.R. Taber, 1974). Both books span the fields of translation theory and practice, anthropology, linguistics, semantics and the Bible. Nida postulated the theory of dynamic or functional equivalence translation that focuses on the meaning rather than the literal wording of a text. He will also be remembered for his association with The Good News Bible – an innovative and controversial (at the time) translation of the Bible into contemporary English. Born in the United States in 1914, Rev. Nida currently resides in Belgium where he continues to conduct research and to write.

Joao Samuel Matwawana

Doctor of Divinity

Following graduation from Acadia University with a master of divinity, Rev. Joao Matwawana served in a variety of pastoral ministries in Canada and abroad. From 1967 to 1975, he was chaplain and deputy superintendent at the IMB Hospital in Kimpese, Zaire, offering spiritual guidance to both to patients and staff. For three years (1975-77), he was a co-ordinator with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Zaire, helping to co-ordinate relief services for Angolan refugees. After serving as pastor at the Lockeport United Baptist Church in Lockeport, Nova Scotia, in the early 1980s, Rev. Matwawana spent nearly 10 years as the prison chaplain at the institution in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. Most recently, he has worked as a trainer/facilitator with the Canadian Baptists Ministries for the Congo/Rwanda/Kenya region, training clergy and tribal leaders in conflict management, mediation and reconciliation. Fluent in six languages, Rev. Matwawana has extensive knowledge about and understanding of African culture, politics and economics.

Note: Photo of Matawana unavailable at press time.

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