18 Oct Friends of Regis: Gabriel Kofi Akpah, SJ (RFQ 5:1)
Friends of Regis: Gabriel Kofi Akpah, SJ
Gabriel Kofi Akpah, SJ, is at that critical half-way point in Jesuit theological studies at Regis College – 15 courses in and beginning to apply what he has learned in a pastoral setting.
The 35-year-old Jesuit from Ghana came to Regis formed by deep experience in academia. With a licentiate in philosophy, Akpah spent his regency lecturing in philosophy at a seminary in Sierra Leone. This past summer holiday, he travelled to the 47th International Wittgenstein Symposium to present a paper on “Wittgenstein’s Quietism and Ignatian Discernment.”
After acceptance into Regis, plus the critical Canadian visa, Akpah looked over the course outline he received from Regis and thought, “Oh, this is a piece of cake.”
Fifteen courses in, he’s revised his opinion.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a piece of cake,” he told RFQ.
At universities in Africa, Akpah had faced a workload of eight courses per semester – a surprising number for anyone used to the North American standard of five courses per semester. It was only when he had to tackle a weekly reading requirement of five to eight articles per course that he understood why he wasn’t allowed to take more than five courses at once.
In Africa, Akpah came to expect diversity in the classroom. Students came from all over the continent, speaking different languages and bringing with them different cultures and traditions. At Regis that multiplicity of cultures, and the distances between them, has expanded. There are students from every continent and diverse educational and professional backgrounds.
“It helps to broaden your horizon,” he said. “You are not limited to only your worldview. So that is something that is unique about this place. We have people from across the world in the same space.”
Akpah sees that diversity, and the capacity to share between cultures and make connections across divides, as essentially Ignatian qualities – and central to his own vocation.
Eight years into his life as a Jesuit, Akpah credits Prof. Susan Wood with expanding his understanding of his own vocation. Wood’s course, “Priestly People, Lay and Ordained” excited him with its vision of priestly ministry woven into the life of a priestly people. It’s a course he would like to one day teach himself.
“It demystifies the ideal of that call (to priesthood),” he said. “We are not super. We are not a special being, apart from the people. So for me, that alone is enough.”
Over the past year, Akpah has infiltrated the liturgical and pastoral life of Our Lady of Lourdes, Toronto’s downtown Jesuit parish. He’s a eucharistic minister and lector, helping out with the altar servers, and is now working with Lourdes Pastor Fr. William Mbugua to revive the parish’s youth ministry.
He’s excited about introducing young people to the Apostleship of Prayer, now better known as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. Modelled on the Eucharistic Youth Ministry, Akpah is trying to build up a youth ministry that embraces Ignatian spirituality.
“I am very comfortable with what I am doing and sharing the knowledge that I am gaining from here,” he said.