Daybook, from Episcopal News Service March 9, 2006 -- People of Purpose
Nigerian priest joins California seminary community
Overseas Leadership Training Program helps diocese train ministers
By Mary Frances Schjonberg
[ENS] BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA - There is a world of difference between eastern Nigeria and the San Francisco Bay area. But the Rev. Jonathan Onyebuchi Dimobika is bridging the distance.
In the fall of 2005, Dimobika, 39, began studying for the master of theological studies degree at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), an Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, California. His presence comes by way of a partnership among Dimobika's bishop, CDSP and the Episcopal Church's Overseas Leadership Training Program.
If the world is a global village, Dimobika said, then it is good that he knows a few more things about the village.
"It helps me to interact with people of different cultures and nationalities and know there world views," he said.
That interaction works both ways, according to the Rev. Jan Wood, CDSP's dean of students. Students tell her "how lively class discussions are because there's a different perspective." Such times allow students to deal with the assumptions they have made about other cultures and people, she added.
She said Dimobika pays "wonderful, quiet and deep attention" to the people he meets.
Dimobika noted that there is a "very strict, conservative culture" in many parts of the Anglican Communion and in the Church of Nigeria. His bishop said to him, "you know who you are and where you came from and be very careful."
Dimobika said he is "firmly established" in his values and will not be "derailed" from them during his time at CDSP and in the U.S. "I came here for my academics and nothing else," he said, adding that he expresses his views and "I also hear the other side of the story but I hold my views."
The academics are a big part of the Overseas Leadership Training Program (OLTP), which is part of the church's Office of Anglican and Global Relations. Canon James Teets, BSG, who manages the program, said that there is such a great need for clergy in many parts of the Communion that most clergy get a large amount of their theological education after their ordination. Dimobika had three years of theological training at Trinity Union Theological College in Umuahia, Nigeria and earned diplomas in theology and religious studies before his ordination. Afterward, he earned a bachelor degree education. At CDSP he is studying broadly but concentrating in pastoral theology and Christian education. He said his studies involve more books and more in-depth information than his previous training.
Teets said the OLTP program begins with the needs of the dioceses and provinces. "I work for the bishops," who determine what their dioceses need and who can meet those needs but require training that isn't available locally or regionally, he said.
People who want to enter the program must have talked with their bishop first and gotten their endorsement as well as that of their archbishop or provincial secretary. They then must complete a large application and pass the English Language Skills Assessment examination. Applicants often have to travel 500-600 miles to a testing location for the two- to three-day test. They must also have a medical examination.
"Persistence is the watchword," Teets said. "There's no easy way to do this."
Dimobika began the process when G.C. Echefu was bishop of the Diocese of Ideato from 1999 to 2004. In January of 2005, Echefu's successor, the Rt. Rev. Caleb Maduoma, approved his plan to go to CDSP, as did the national offices of the Church of Nigeria.
Teets vets the applicants and submits their paperwork to all 11 U.S. seminaries associated with the Episcopal Church, which then present proposals to the applicants directly. Seminaries provide fullscholarships, stipends and insurance. Dimobika received proposals from CDSP and Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The OLTP pays the cost of the students' travel to and from the seminary each year. Dimobika is one of two participants currently in the program. Another had to go home because of illness in her family.
At the end of their studies, participants in the program must return to do the work their bishops have given them to do. Dimobika, who worked as a parish priest, cathedral administrator and in other pastoral and administrative jobs, is not sure just what his bishop plans for him.
He said that bishops in Nigeria are "powerful," adding that "they may have a plan for you but they may not disclose it to you." He suspects he may be asked to teach at the local seminary "or do some other work that will help the diocese and the province."
Meanwhile, and until December of this year or May of 2007, he is at CDSP, where he continues his work on a dissertation on mission and evangelism in Nigeria. He recently spent time at home with his wife, an elementary school teacher, and his three young sons. They have never been apart for so long and his youngest son ran away from him at first because he didn't remember him.
The training program hopes to "add richness to the mix of the student body," Teets said and Wood agreed that the richness was part of CDSP's desire to have international students. CDSP is a member of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), a consortium of nine seminaries, and the arrangement provides another source of diversity.
Dimobika said he is glad the Episcopal Church continues to offer the program. "People were really surprised that they were willing to keep up the program . . . despite the fact that there have been disagreements within the program," he said.
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