wfn.org | [ENS] Listening: Renewing theological education is pledge of TEAC

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Episcopal News Service
Listening, Learning & Epiphany

Monday, January 30, 2006

Listening: Renewing theological education is pledge of TEAC meeting

[ENS, SOURCE: Anglican Communion News Service] The working group
Theological
Education for the Anglican Communion (TEAC) ended its week-long meeting
in
South Africa January 21 with commitments from its members to continue
working on concrete proposals for professional, ecumenical, and
contextually
sensitive theological education.

The 34-person group gathered at a conference center just east of the
Johannesburg International Airport on January 14 to draft its proposals
for
the reshaping of Anglican theological education, as mandated by the
Primates
in 2002.

The secretary general of the Anglican Communion, Canon Kenneth Kearon,
also
attended the TEAC meeting. It demonstrated, he said, "the importance of
theological education for Anglicans and its potential as a unifying
force
within the Communion."

"The work achieved this week will influence the direction of theological
education within the Communion for many years to come," he added.

Ongoing work

TEAC's members spent much of the week in five "target" groups, working
on
proposals to renew theological education in the Anglican Communion.

Four of the groups focused respectively on the formation of lay people;
vocational deacons, catechists and licensed lay leaders; priests and
transitional deacons; and bishops. The fifth group worked on "the
Anglican
way," drafting suggestions for enriching the distinctively Anglican
elements
in theological education at all levels, from parish and diocesan
training
schemes to Provincial seminaries, ecumenical TEE programs, and
universities.

TEAC's ongoing work will mainly be carried forward by Clare Amos, newly
appointed director of Theological Studies in the Anglican Communion. It
will
be overseen by the TEAC steering group chaired by the Primate of the
Southern Cone, Bishop Gregory Venables of Argentina, or -- when he
cannot
attend -- by the Rev. Canon Robert Paterson, until recently Principal of
the
Council for Mission and Ministry of the Church in Wales.

The target groups will remain in contact with each other through email
and
correspondence. Members of TEAC were also encouraged to share its work
with
their local church.

TEAC's work-in-progress will be considered by the Primates early in
2007,
and then taken to the 2008 Lambeth Conference. In the meantime, the
draft
documents of the target groups will be available for testing and comment
in
TEAC's pages on the Anglican Communion web site, and practical elements
in
the target groups' proposals will be implemented in appropriate ways.

A culture of teaching and learning

During the meeting, TEAC endorsed four principles for theological
education
drafted by the TEAC steering group and target group conveners in July
2005.
The principles declare that, within their common life and worship,
Anglicans
will:

* encourage a culture of teaching and learning across the Anglican
Communion
to support the life of all the baptized;
* strengthen awareness of Anglican identity and promote an understanding
of
the Anglican way;
* be a communion of Word and Sacrament, Christians who read and study
the
Bible together;
* and strive to deliver theological education with professionalism and
ecumenical awareness appropriate to context.

'Restore mission to the heart of theological education'

On the first evening of its meeting, TEAC heard an appeal for Anglican
theological education to rediscover its missional heart. This came in an
address by the Rev. Mike McCoy, a course coordinator at the ecumenical
Theological Education by Extension College of Southern Africa (TEECSA),
corresponding secretary of the African Network of Institutions of
Theological Education Preparing Anglicans for Ministry (ANITEPAM), and
chaplain to the TEAC meeting.

McCoy outlined the major changes experienced by South African
institutions
of theological education, following changes to legislation governing
education in that country. This had led to a far-reaching revision of
the
style, methods, and content of theological education -- including a
decision
to make missional perspectives central to the study of Christian
theology
and ministry.

Urging the discovery of a common purpose in theological education as one
way
to promote Anglican unity, McCoy suggested that this should be "to equip
all
God's (Anglican) people faithfully and courageously to embody, enact,
and
announce the good news of God's realm of peace -- the long-awaited reign
of
God made present in Jesus Christ."

"We need to rediscover a passion for serving God's transforming mission,
and
give it its rightful place at the heart of our endeavors in theological
education," he said.

The local church encountered

Recognizing that worship is central to the Anglican way, TEAC members
spent
much of Sunday, January 15 in nearby parishes in the host Diocese of the
Highveld, attending parish eucharists and meeting local people.

On the next evening the group had dinner at the home of diocesan Bishop
David Beetge and his wife Carol.

On Wednesday, January 18, TEAC visited diocesan HIV/AIDS projects. (See
Listening: South African HIV/AIDS projects show 'hope amidst despair'
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_71071_ENG_HTM.htm)

Thursday, January 19, was given to learning about the African context of
theological education. Canon Oliver Duku, principal of the Bishop
Allison
Theological College -- a college of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS)
currently based in Arua, Uganda -- outlined the history of the Sudanese
church and of its trials under persecution and civil conflict since the
1960s.

Despite -- or because of -- its suffering, Duku said, the church in
Sudan
was the fastest-growing in the Communion.

However, the years of upheaval had severely disrupted theological
education.
Since 2002, ECS had sought to reconstruct it, and was now planning a
four-tier structure with one university-level college, four Provincial
Diploma colleges, several Bible schools serving clusters of dioceses,
and
diocese-level training schemes for laity and untrained pastors.

Outcomes-based education

The Rev. James Massey, principal of the TEE College of Southern Africa
(TEECSA), told TEAC how the college was responding to legislated changes
in
education in South Africa, and outlined the courses and qualifications
it
offered its 2,800 students, built on the principles of outcomes-based
education. (See www.tee.co.za)

These qualifications, he said, were the result of wide consultation with
the
churches about what they sought in their emerging leaders. As a result,
the
courses focus on developing students' competence rather than just giving
them knowledge.

"Mainline theological education in South Africa has always been
contextual,"
Massey said. "Now transformation is also central to what we do."

Members of the ANITEPAM Governing Council -- who met immediately after
the
TEAC consultation, and attended several of its sessions -- then gave
TEAC an
impression of the state of theological education in Africa.

Representing West, East, Central, Southern, and Francophone Africa, they
described distinctive challenges each of their regions faced, as well as
common issues they had to resolve, such as the acute lack of resources.

They also described ANITEPAM's support for theological education in
Africa
through staff and student exchanges, continent-wide consultations, book
grants to theological colleges, regular news bulletins and a journal,
and a
web site (www.anitepam.org) dedicated to theological education in
Africa.

'The plane has taken off'

The rest of the TEAC gathering was given to refining the work of the
target
groups so that their recommendations could be tested around the
Communion.

In the meeting's final session on Saturday, January 21, Clare Amos told
TEAC
members that there were several ideas and proposals that TEAC could
implement even while it awaited the response of the Primates in 2007.

These included a joint project with the Compass Rose Society to send a
core
collection of books on Anglicanism to seminaries around the Communion;
to
compile a database of Anglican theologians; to develop the TEAC section
of
the Anglican Communion web site (www.anglicancommunion.org/teac); and to
edit and publish resources for theological education.

Canon Andrew Norman, secretary for International, Anglican Communion,
and
Ecumenical Affairs at Lambeth Palace, used a topical image to describe
TEAC's work.

Alluding to the nearby airport, he said that TEAC was like a plane that
had
taken off. "We must now make sure that it doesn't just circle the
airport,
but goes somewhere," he said.

That "somewhere" is the way that theological education is actually
delivered
around the Communion.

Walking and working together

TEAC's chair, Bishop Greg Venables, said that the Primates wanted
theological education to be done much better, while respecting one
another's
autonomy.

"The present crisis [over human sexuality] has made us more open to
asking
who we are as a Communion," he said. "The real issue is how we do
theological education as Anglicans, and act in a united way. How do I
walk
with an Anglican who does things differently? How do we stay in
communion?
That's an issue for theological education."

The Primate of Brazil, Bishop Orlando de Oliveira, agreed. "We want to
share
resources regionally and around the Communion. The process we have
started
here may help us with all the difficult issues that divide us. TEAC is
showing us that it is possible to live together, work together, and do
theological education together."

'God responds to the cries of our hearts'

Canon George Hobson of the American Cathedral in Paris, France, felt
that
TEAC was a sign of God's providence. "It is very encouraging that TEAC
was
raised up just as the crisis of division [over human sexuality] was
happening. This is providential: God is responding to the state of the
Communion, answering the cries of our hearts," he said.

The Rev. Dr. Guen Seok Yang of the Sungkonghoe Anglican University in
Seoul,
Korea, urged the Communion to look beyond the dispute over human
sexuality.
"There are life and death issues in the world," he said. "We need to
hear
the voice of the Primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury on these
issues
too -- they are the real background to what we do in theological
education."

Old and new treasures

The TEAC meeting ended with a Eucharist in the conference center's small
chapel. In a short homily, Robert Paterson, vice-chair of TEAC, drew
attention to the parables in Matthew chapter 13, and in particular to
those
about the treasure in a field and the pearl of exceptional value.

"These are stories for disciples of Jesus, the people of God, among whom
we
are all included, no matter how well qualified, nor how humble or
exalted in
the hierarchy we may be," Paterson said.

"If we are convinced that improved theological education will change the
Anglican Communion -- indeed, change the world -- for the better, it
will
not happen simply by improvements in the education of ministers."

"Only when the people of God, 'the salt of the earth', also are helped
to be
more articulate in God-talk will we begin to notice the change we long
for,"
he said.

Paterson urged Anglican theological educators to become learners too.
"Teachers who become learners acquire a treasure-chest which has in it
for
us to pull out what Jesus calls 'the old' - the inheritance, the
tradition,
that which is faithfully handed on from one to another."

But, he added, "from that treasure-chest also come 'new things' -- the
immediate, the local, the contextual, that which stares us in the face
every
day."

Paterson concluded: "We who are deeply concerned about Theological
Education
for the Anglican Communion must be learners in the ways of God's reign,
recognizing our dependence on the Lamb of God, the way, the truth, the
resurrection and the life. And we must stay there, always learners in
the
kingdom school, having the new and the old to bring out from our
treasure."

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