wfn.org | Women Take the Lead at Taiwanese Seminary

["David Alexander" <alexa@mail.ttcs.org.tw>]

Women Take Top Two Leadership Spots at Tainan Theological College in  Taiwan

That Dr. Lin Chuan-fen (Lim Koan-hun) became Academic Dean at Tainan  Theological College and Seminary (TTCS) on August 1, 2008, made no big  splash at the school.  For several years another woman, Dr. Wu Fuya(Ngo  Hu-nga), had filled the position. Since August of 2007 Dr. Wu had been  both Academic Dean and Acting President. Dr. Lin's appointment freed Dr.  Wu to formally take on the job of college president. Her installation  will be marked on September 15th at 3PM.

Dr. Lin, who has served the college in various capacities since 1981,  returned to Tainan in 2007 after two years advanced theological study at  McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, USA where she completed the  degree Master of Theology (M.Th.), deepening the foundations she has  already laid in Christian Social Work.  Her Ph.D. in social work and  welfare was earned at the Chinese University of Hong Kong some years  ago.  In addition to teaching social work management and theory at TTCS  she has served as an adjunct lecturer at Pingtung Technological  University, Chang Jung Christian University and Chia-Nan Technological  University.

Dr Wu comes to the President's office with a wealth of practical and  educational experience. She is a 1984 graduate of TTCS, where she took  her Master of Divinity (M.Div) degree. She served her ministerial  internship at Kong-lim Presbyterian Church until 1986 then spent a year  in Princeton, USA, where she took the Master of Theology degree.  Returning to Taiwan in 1987, she was ordained and installed as the  pastor of Kong-lim.  In 1989 she spent a term at the Ecumenical  Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, and then moved to Ta-kuang  Presbyterian Church as associate pastor, where she served three years.  During a second educational sojourn in North America she took the Doctor  of Ministry (D.Min.) degree at the Episcopal Divinity School in  Massachusetts in 1995. She then returned to the associate's position at  Ta-kuang Church in Tainan.  Over the following years she studied in the  Doctor of Theology Programme of the South East Asia Graduate School of  Theology, finishing in 2001.  Her special fields are Christian Education  and Systematic Theology. In addition to several academic articles, she  has published two books, Women in the Christian Church: The Taiwanese  Case (1996) and The Mustard Seed: A Theological Foundation for  Understanding of Taiwan's Women (2004).

TTCS bills itself as "Taiwan's First University" based on its formal  organization in 1876 to offer a four-year collegiate level course of  education, modeled on that offered in the UK, for students intending to  enter Christian ministry.  Dr. Wu is the ninth person to be installed as  president in the past 132 years.  She is the 7th president since 1948,  when Dr. Ng Chiong-hui (Shoki Coe) was appointed the first Taiwanese  president of the school.  She becomes the first woman to head a school  granting the Master of Divinity degree in Taiwan, and joins women like  Anna May Say Pa in Myanmar and Gao-ying in China who lead theological  schools elsewhere in Asia.

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For More Information: Tainan Theological College www.ttcs.org.tw

Office of the President  (06) 237 1291 ext 101

>Academic Dean's Office (06) 237 1291 ext 104

>Wu Fuya fuya@mail.ttcs.org.tw

>Lin Chuan-fen chiulin@mail.ttcs.org.tw