wfn.org | Virginia Seminary to confer honorary doctorates at Lambeth

["Christopher Took" <storm@indigo.ie>]

ACNS LC053 - 25 July 1998

Virginia Seminary to confer honorary doctorates at Lambeth

The honorary degree of Doctor in Divinity will be conferred upon
Bishop Gondi Theodore Abraham of Nandyal (South India), and
Bishop John Chien of the Diocese of Taiwan (USA), by Virginia
Theological Seminary during the Anglican Communion's Lambeth
Conference in Canterbury.  

The seminary is holding a special Academic Convocation in the
Crypt Chapel at the Canterbury Cathedral on Monday, July 27, at
2:15 p.m., for the occasion. The degrees will be awarded by the
Bishop Peter James Lee of Virginia, who is chairman of the
seminary's board of trustees. The Rev. Dr. William Stafford,
associate dean for academic affairs at the seminary, will
officiate during the Convocation. The announcement was made by
the Very Rev. Martha Horne, dean and president of the 175-year
old Episcopal Seminary.

Gondi Theodore Abraham earned the Bachelor of Science degree at
the Government Arts College at Cuddepah, India, and received his
Bachelor in Divinity at United Theological College in Bangalore
in 1966. Ordained in 1967, Abraham undertook pastoral work in
rural and urban churches. He went on to serve as deanery chairman
in Nandikotur for several years, and during that time he attended
Virginia Seminary and received the postgraduate diploma in
Theology in 1983.  Since his return to India, Abraham has served
as the bursar of Andhra Christian Theological College and then
deanery chairman of Kurnool and Proddatur. In 1994 he was
consecrated as bishop of Nandyal. 

Abraham's episcopal responsibilities have included the wide
concerns that have characterized his whole ministry: youth work,
adult literacy, lay leadership and evangelism, ecumenical
relations, and especially work with the poor and "those who have
no helper."

John Chien studied economics at Tunghai University and theology
at Tainan Theological Seminary in Taiwan. After ordination he
served for three years at St. Andrew's-by-the-Sea, a parish
consisting mostly of fishermen, and later as vicar of Grace
Church, a mission in Tainan. He then went to Virginia Seminary
and earned the STM in 1974, and returned to Taiwan to begin an
11-year ministry as rector of Good Shepherd parish near Taipei.
After a year's study in England, Chien was called as dean of St.
John's Cathedral in Taipei, where he served for two years and was
then elected bishop of Taiwan. 

Throughout his ministry Chien has been noted for his
administrative abilities, patience and pastoral skills, Christian
character, and his visionary leadership. He has begun new
initiatives in many areas of the diocese's life, expanding
ordained and lay ministries and fostering theological education. 

Transportation via coach will be provided for friends of the
honorees as well as other bishops who have studied at Virginia
Theological Seminary, leaving from Eliot College, leaving at
1:45pm and returning immediately after the Convocation. For
further information, contact Bishop Peter James Lee in Rutherford
College or Christopher T. Cunningham on campus at the Lambeth
Conference on x7336, or in the Eliot Study Center.

For further information, contact:

   Lambeth Conference Communications
   Canterbury Business School
   University of Kent at Canterbury
   Telephone: 01227 827348/9
   Fax: 01227 828085
   Mobile: 0374 800212

   http://www.lambethconference.org