Resource Paper
13.08.02

TOWARDS A COMMON STRATEGY AND MECHANISM TO FACILITATE
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
IN SOUTH ASIA CHURCHES

Wati Longchar

Theological education and human resource development go together. Theological education is centered around the visions (a) which affirms life and relationships/community, (b) which inspires rebuilding and reconstruction of community, inclusive of different and diversities, and (c) which reaches beyond the future of church and society and embraces God's entire creation. It aims at preparing leaders of Christian communities who in turn would inspire new life, renew and transform society and peoples as well as congregation. The role of theological education is not limited to training Christian ministers alone. It involves equipping whole Christian community so that they can become living witnesses of the life-giving power of the gospel. Theological education is enabling and building up community for multiple forms of ministry of and in the Christian community and wider human society. Each Christian community lives among and for the sake of a wider human community. It is in this wider human community that Christian community becomes viable community of hope and healing, community of sharing in solidarity, community that build and sustain relationship of reconciliation and mutual empowerment. Therefore, we cannot separate the task of theological education and human resource development. They are one component.

An Overview of Ecumenical Theological Education in South Asia

Most of the theological colleges/seminaries established by mainline churches in South Asia come under two theological associations^[1] : (1) The Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore College (BTESSC), and (2) The Association of Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA)

(1) The BTESSC: The BTESSC is an Association of theological schools based in India. No name is more honored in the history of modern Mission than that of William Carey, the founder of Serampore College. As a result of the vision of Carey and his successors, the Senate of Serampore College became a reality through the Bengal Legislative Act IV, 1918. The BTESSC today is one of the major representative bodies of Churches legally constituted and responsible for administering theological education in South Asia. It stands as a unique example of ecumenical participation of the churches and theological institutions in curriculum planning and evaluation towards common degrees for all and in their quest for holistic training for ministry.

The BTESSC tries to meet the demands of modern ministries effectively by responding to current social challenges and evolving newer patterns of theological education and research. Forty-eight colleges and Federated Faculties from all over India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are affiliated to the Senate of Serampore College and it reaches over to 8000 students in English and major regional languages.

The Senate of Serampore College offers the following degrees through a full-time residential study: B.Th., B.R.E., B.D., M.Th., D.Th., and Diploma in Clinical Pastoral Counseling (D.C.P.C.), M. Min., and D. Min. These degree programs are designed to train Christian leaders in various forms of ministry to offer opportunities for theological study and reflection in the light of the challenges faced by them in their own situation. Besides these residential programs, the Senate with the help of the colleges runs Bachelor of Christian Studies (B.C.S.) program for equipping and training of the laity. The program is designed to enable the laity to gain an informed understanding of Christian faith and to deepen their commitment to service in the context of their vocation. In addition, the Senate also offers Diploma in Christian Studies (Dip. C.S.). This course was introduced for the benefit of people of different religious traditions and ideologies so that they could study Christianity as a religion in its indigenous character in terms of its faith, history and practice. Through all these extension programs, the Senate reaches over 4000 students through the affiliated colleges and federated faculties.

    (2) ATESEA: The Association for Theological Education in South East Asia (ATESEA) was established in Singapore in 1957, with 16 mainline Protestant schools as founding members. It was the first formal regional association of theological schools in the non-western world. Today the membership of 92 schools in 14 countries, with approximately 9,000 students and 900 faculty members, has broadened to include Evangelical, Pentecostal and Adventist schools.

The ATESEA has five (geographical) areas in its work. The Indonesia Area, the Philippines Area, the Malaysia-Thailand Area, the Myanmar Area and the Hong Kong-Taiwan Area. It has plans to create a new region for Sri Lanka under the SEAGST in the near future. Five theological colleges in South Asia have affiliation with ATESEA. The ATESEA family continues to expand it ministry in South Asia (two in Sri Lanka, two in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh) particularly due to unstable political situation in the region.

Apart from its various degree programs, the ATESEA responses to the changing needs of theological education by running various programs through its different organs to meet the needs of theological education in the region. Some of its present programs include the improvement of the management and administration of schools, the search for a new spirituality in Christian formation, new pattern of the theological education, the promotion of closer relationship between seminary and church, the search for a more adequate understanding of excellence in theological education and the development of Asian perspective and insights in Christian theology through seminar-workshops.

Both theological associations (BTESSC and ATESEA) have been making serious attempt to make a blending of the theological and pastoral dimensions in ministry. The primary objective of theological education is seen as a vocation of discipling the nations which involves nurturing the candidates to relate faith to life, worship to work, prayer to action, proclamation to protest as authentic form of Christian obedience. The social awareness is being recognized as the key factor in the renewal of congregations. The training of women has also attained acceptance for meeting the challenges in both rural and urban situations.

However, theological community in South Asia faces many problems. I would like to mention only three problems:

a) Financial viability: The present system of ministerial formation involves a high capital investment. Till today most of the ecumenical theological schools in South Asia have been heavily dependent on external sources - mission agencies and evangelistic associations in the West and in North America. The salary of teachers, construction of buildings and other infrastructure, the implementation of masteral and doctoral programs are still expected from external agencies. Now that assistance from partners is dwindling for various reasons, there is an acute financial crisis in most of our ecumenical schools. Many schools suffer from the "everybody's-baby-but-nobody's baby" syndrome. The initial enthusiasm of inter-denominational ventures is slowly disappearing, leaving many schools without a proper owner. Several schools have now sprouted in lines of denominational affiliation. The other sad aspect is that Christians in many two-thirds world have not been educated to support ecumenical formation. Many churches in Asia do have resources to support theological education, but many churches do not want to invest resources on theological education; they are more interested in "mission". Besides, students including those who can afford to do so do not pay for their education. People seem to have a notion that money for theological education should come from mission agencies. As a result of these wrong understandings, the role of principals in many theological schools in South Asia has been reduced to that of fund raising. We need to consider this problem seriously. We cannot go on depending on ecumenical partners in the West for maintenance of our theological schools. Measures have to be taken to share the resources wherever possible. The co-operation of the members' schools and churches in several matters will certainly ease the financial burden.

b) The church's involvement in theological education: A common criticism that many theological schools face today is that graduates are alienated from the church and society. The churches often accuse theological institutions as elitism and the churches tend to think that the kind of training received in the theological schools is not suitable for the rural context and not helpful to the spiritual nurturing of congregations. Some even complaint that theological graduate with B.D., M.Div., M.Th. degrees cannot deliver a good sermon relevant to people's situation. The churches often criticize graduates as not being fully equipped to deal with crisis situations such as sickness, mental break-down, family quarrels, HIV-AIDS problem and so forth. On the other side, those leaders responsible for theological schools often express disappointment about the church leaders' lack of commitment to theological education. Sometimes theological schools blame the churches for their irresponsible screening of candidates and lack of support. All these problems show that there is no sufficient interaction between the church leadership and theological institutions. What are the ways to bridge the gap between the theological educators of the institutions and the pastor of the congregation? We must address this problem if we want to make theological education relevant in today's context.

    c) Male biased theological education: The structure of theological education in South Asia is mainly male dominated - almost 80% theological students; 90% teachers; 95% members of the governing board. The Serampore University has incorporated Women's Studies as a branch in theological curriculum at the graduate and post-graduate levels of study. But we have not achieved gender justice both in theological colleges and other forms of Christian ministries. It has proved that an addition of one subject or department alone is not enough to bring gender justice in the church and society. We are yet to integrate women's perspectives in the process of theological education. The integration of the perspective of women in theological education will create awareness of discriminatory gender realities and help people to do something concrete to change the oppressive structure.

Involvement of ETE-WCC towards Viability of Theological Education^[2] in South Asia

    For more than four decades, the ETE-WCC has been addressing to the needs and concerns of theological education and ministerial formation, especially in the churches of the South, through Theological Education Fund (TEF), 1958-77 (originally a program of the International Missionary Council in 1958), Programme of Theological Education (PTE), 1978-1990 and since 1991 Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE). The change in the name reflects the renewed orientation in the life and mission of the churches and the ecumenical movement.

    TEF focused on the message that theological education needs to be integrally related into the mission of the churches, to assist the missionary vocation of the churches. TEF attempted to facilitate the churches of the South, which were in the process of autonomy from the founding missionary(s)/churches, to search for Quality, Authenticity and Creativity through the process of contextualization in mission. These churches were encouraged to take ownership of theological education and ministerial formation processes.

    PTE continued the work of TEF^[3] but with an emphasis on financial viability of theological education and ministerial formation in the South. This new focus tried to remove the misleading impression that TEF was a donor agency and to insist that funding should be seen as secondary to generating visions. New visions for theological education were then directed to theology by the people of God, which rediscovering the biblical intimations on the priesthood of all believers and the quest for spirituality.

    In the 1990s, from Canberra to Harare new challenges in the churches and ecumenical movement, and in particular the WCC, placed renewed orientations in the programmatic work on theological education. ETE entered a study process of viability of theological education and ministerial formation. The focus was how programs and processes of theological education and ministerial formation can be renewing and transforming. The word "ecumenical" in the new name was to foster ecumenism in denominational theological institutions and to strengthen ecumenical formation among theological students. One of the major focuses of ETE is to facilitate and encourage the training and equipping the effective leaders and managers (ministers, theologians, administrators, and educators) of the member churches and other church related institutions in ecumenical ministerial formation. As a result, ETE attempts to create critical ecumenical consciousness and practice in the churches and theological institutions. Since ecumenism attempts to respond to the biblical imperative of engaging in God's mission in unity while affirming and embracing our God-given diversities and differences, we are also mandated to ask who is missing at the ecumenical table. For many years, women and other marginalized groups and their theological voices have been missing at the table of theological education and ministerial formation. As such, ETE pays attention to issues related to gender equality and justice and the inclusion of all God's people. Recently, the network of the people with disabilities, refugees and internally displaced persons has also brought to our attention their exclusion and the need for theological institutions to pay critical attention to their concerns. The ETE has identified the following areas as priority for ecumenical partnership:

• Faculty development in Ecumenical Theological Institutions and faculties of theology who wish to improve the level of their staff in undertaking Masters or Ph.D. degrees;

• Library development, especially for books that promote the practice and teaching of ecumenism, mission and women-articulated theologies and from other marginalized and minority groups such as Dalits, Aborigines, Tribals societies, etc.;

• Creative and innovative patterns and models of ecumenical theological education, which are relevant, contextual, inclusive and authentic. A good example are models that provide the full integration of women-articulated theologies and life-threatening issues as HIV/AIDS epidemic, violence and ecological crisis;

• Theological Education by Extension (TEE) and Distance Education Programmes;

• Exchange of faculty and theological students for conferences, seminars and short studies;

• Theological Associations of Theological Institutions (for assemblies or conferences)

Through the new programs of ETE, the colleges/seminaries and theological associations in Asia continue to receive support for different programs of theological education.

The South Asia Solidarity Fund

A major project created through the initiative of PTE-WCC (the predecessor of ETE) can be considered as the South Asia Solidarity Fund (SASF). This Fund was developed in 1977 in co-operation with Churches, Mission Boards and other ecumenical bodies in Europe and North America. The idea grew out of the concerns of the Theological Education Fund for contextuality and viability in theological education in the churches of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Caribbean and the Pacific, to strengthen regional associations and structures through self-reliance plans and handing over of decision making in resource sharing. The purpose of the Solidarity Fund was to promote contextualization, self-reliance, and regional cooperation in Asia and ecumenical joint action in the field of theological education among the churches in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. The following areas of theological education have been identified as priorities for support through SASF:

1. Contextualization of theological education and its implication to curriculum, learning experiences and researches.
2. Focus on Christian ministry.
3. Developing an Asian theology in the context of poverty for social justice, and religious pluralism.
4. New ways of doing theology through action/reflection process.
5. Non-formal, non-residential and extension forms of theological education.
6. Continuing theological education.
7. Faculty and library development.
8. Participation of women in theological education and ministry of the church.
9. Ecumenical Perspectives and co-operation.

Each country is allocated a capital fund and it is managed by National Solidarity Fund of their respective countries. India, having registered the Solidarity Fund Trust as a legal body, has withdrawn its entire allotted fund. The capital funds for Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, and part of Sri Lanka capital fund is still with the ETE. It is quite encouraging to note that the fund is being used productively for the promotion of theological education in the region.

A part of the SASF is reserved for common programs for churches and theological schools in South Asia. A Committee manages the regional fund. The purpose for the creation of "common fund" is to promote and encourage joint ecumenical action and cooperation in the field of theological education in the region. Several programs such as consultation, ecumenical exposure programs, publication of contextual theologies, etc. have been initiated through this fund. We should continue such activities even in the future.

Towards a Common Strategy and Mechanism

    Today theological schools face both Internal and External problems. The Internal problems relate to the structure, administration, curriculum, pedagogy and finance. The External challenges are like terrorism, economic injustice, religious intolerance, ecological destruction, mass poverty, child laborer, gender injustice, political corruption, globalization, identity problem, the HIV-AIDS pandemic, etc. Mathews George Chunakara has already elaborated those problems in the background paper. Can we find a common strategy and mechanism to facilitate theological education and human resource development in South Asia? I would like to offer a few suggestions for our deliberation:

1. Financial Viability: Ecumenical theological education runs into serious problems when it comes to the sources of fund for formation, especially in South Asia. Christians are minority and poor, and yet the churches need theological education. We need to consider some of these areas more seriously:

a) Federated Faculty: There are hundreds of theological colleges in Asia. Without counting big cities like Seoul, Manila, Chennai, Bangalore, etc. it is quite surprising to see dozens of theological schools even in a small town. Yet, there are very few advance theological research centers. Resources are utterly divided. There are few schools in Asia that offer Master and Ph.D or D.Th degrees in theology, but these have limitations. Library, human resources and other infrastructure are not adequate. Several schools admit just one or two doctoral candidates in an academic session. This cannot cater to the fast growing demands of the churches and theological communities in the region. Due to lack of advance theological research centers, researchers are compelled to go to Europe or US for theological training. Since the training there is very expensive, it puts more financial burdens on ecumenical partners. A cost of one doctoral candidate in the US can support four to five doctoral students in South Asia! On the other hand, the students undertake research that is not relevant to their own context. Students who excel in their studies do not return to their countries. We do recognize the advantage of doing theology abroad, but we must give equal importance to develop advanced theological research centers in the region. Asians must be encouraged to study in Asian context. Therefore, it is very vital that theological schools come together and worked out "Federated Faculty" for advance theological research. This will promote not only quality leadership in the churches, but also promote ecumenism, reduce financial burden and promote contextual theologies.

b) Sharing of Resources: It is not only theological colleges, but many other institutions like NCC, Student Movement, National Christian Councils, Publishers and Social Institutes are also involved in various human resource development programs. The legacy of these institutions has to be tapped and collaborate with them in different training programs. For example, the Ecumenical Christian Centre in Whitefield, Bangalore, under its theology unit (ISET) has been organizing regular courses in "Ecumenical Issues" for 10 days for theological teachers and students. It provides an occasion for students and teachers under the Senate of Serampore and other Roman Catholic institutions in the country to meet and interact on several current ecumenical issues. This is done with the financial resources of ECC, making use of the faculty resources of the Catholic and other secular and theological institutions in India.^[4] The financial dependency of the colleges/seminaries in South Asia on the Western partners could be partially solved if proper strategies and mechanism in this direction are taken and implemented.

c) Educating Congregation: Though South Asian Christians are minority and poor, there are possibilities to mobilize resources for theological education. When many churches are able to send thousands of missionaries and spend thousands of dollars for different projects, then, why not for theological education? It is imperative that we educate our churches to invest money for theological education. The churches must also realize that "theological teaching and learning contribute significantly to their own viability." The churches must own theological institutions. The church and theological schools are like two sides of one coin. It is necessary that a mutual interaction between the church and theological schools take place in terms of financial support, policy making and curriculum formation. Churches and theological schools should play not only the supportive role, but also prophetic role to each other in training future leaders in the church and society.

    d) Providing Opportunities: The present patriarchal structures of church ministry need to be changed if the partnership of men and woman is to be realized fully. Today women are not represented significantly in theological faculties and in decision-making bodies of the churches just because they are not given the opportunity. We should be sensitive to who is missing at the table and give equal opportunity. A creation of special scholarship for women at all levels of theological studies, reservation of seat for theological studies and reservation of certain position in church will promote women's leadership in the church.

2. New Area of Studies: Today we find ourselves in a historical situation where a new articulation of theological education is urgently required. The new situation of the rapid globalization of markets, media and technologies, and the counter-reaction in the form of growing fundamentalism affirming exclusive and particular national, ethnic, cultural or religious identities, demand as well as the interaction of the global and local in expressing the ecumenical vision. If theological education is to play a transformative role in human community, it is imperative that theological studies move into such new areas. Though such problems impinge on our lives and relationships, all these areas have been outside of our traditional schemes of theological education. Many of the theological educators, pastors, missionaries and Christian ministers are ill equipped to meet these new challenges. That is why our churches are losing the significance of ministry in the wider human society.

The churches spend substantial resources in various human development programs. It would be more productive, if the churches and theological colleges collaborate in such programs. It would promote a better relationship between theological community and churches. Commitment and willingness to work together will make the difference.

Notes:

1. Apart from Christian studies in secular universities, there other evangelical theological associations like Asian Theological Association (ATA) who also gives accreditation of theological degrees. Though ATA is a fast growing theological association in South Asia, I would like to limit our discussion to ecumenical theological education only.

2. I am grateful to Nyambura Njoroge for this comprehensive summary. I have taken most of the materials without making much change. For more details refer to Nyambura’s report on "Ecumenical Theological Education (ETE) Programme, Education and Ecumenical Formation (EEF) Team", Geneva, 19^th May 2000.

3. Two significant change of the TEF and PTE are relevant for us: (a) Whereas TEF was concerned only with the third world, PTE was, concerned with all continents and regions of the world, (b) Whereas TEF was a fund, PTE was a program, a catalyst in theological reflection and education: a means of renewing the people of God. There as, however, some funding activity.

4. Report on "Priorities of Theological Education in India" , Senate of Serampore Convocation, Aizwal, 7^th February, 2002.