Taiwan Church News
3342 Edition
March 14 – 20, 2016
Editorial
The Last Mile Of TTCS To Be An Accredited University In Taiwan
A final meeting on the future development of Tainan Theological College and Seminary(TTSC), deciding whether she is qualified to be an university accredited by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, will be held recently. If everything is going well, it is expected that TTCS will receive a pass to recruit students from January 2017. The development of TTCS is orientated toward a combinations of different graduate schools. Undergraduate college will mainly focus on religious social works and church musics. In order to prepare the future ecclesiastical clergy, graduate studies will be divided into three divisions: theology, church musics and religious social work respectively, each accrediting the degree of Master of Arts(MA).
If the student wishes to serve as a minister of PCT, after she succeeds to receive an MA degree from TTCS, she could apply to TTCS for the course of Master of Divinity(M. Div). Such special design is compliant to PCT’s educational policy to extend her pastoral training for church service amn and woman into 4 years long. In the meantime, TTCS will also invite PCT’s partner churches to join into the program of local church ministry, in order to equip the MA students with real pastoral experiences in local church.
In addition, to set up an image of TTCS as the first heart of Taiwan church, TTCS also positively engages in repairing the school’s old buildings and dressing up the campus. In TTCS, there are not only many classical buildings over a century but also many centennial trees, which are absolutely deserved to pay a visit. The Shoki Coe House will be renamed as the Hugh Ritchie and Eliza C. Cook House to receive the visiting guests. The northern part of the campus is to be redesigned as a pedestrian gallery like a green pasture yard at UK’s Cambridge University. All these hardware modifications are under way to fulfill the education ideal of Rev. Shoki Coe: establish TTCS as a an outstanding and elegant learning place to cultivate the first-rate pastor and clergy for Taiwan church.
As the Shoki Coe Memorial Library and PCT’s Historical Archives House are soon to start their construction inside TTCS campus, a new site to relocate those trees of Honduras mahogany is promised by TTCS’s administration. Therefore, TTCS not only needs a new site and believers’ donation to relocate those Honduras mahogany, but also a gigantic cooperation project from Taiwan’s all walks of lives to maximize the efficiency of Taiwan church’s historical data. TTCS will also rebuild the old library as the William Campbell House, exhibiting the church antiques and relics at the first foor; Elder John Lai’s Archives and his collections at the second floor; TTCS school history and the past data of TTCS faculty and clerk will be exhibited at third floor.
After passing the accreditation of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, TTCS’s “contextualizing” theological education not only needs to dialogue with our living contexts but also requires to integrate with other fields of knowledge like philosophy, religious studies, sociology, church musics, psychology and etc. Philosophy can make our theology more logical, our deliberations about life more thoughtful; religious studies can expand our theological perspective to learn the meaning of the religious histories residing in a pursuit of “ultimate concern”, not any particular idol worship; sociological investigation saves us from a secular vulgarization steeped in a stereo-typed religious life of success and blessing only; church musics will facilitate our liturgies become a peaceful garden in this restless world; psychology will supply theology with more empathy to warm up the human’s heart. Only under these endeavors to build up a theological education in Taiwan’s context, TTCS’s accreditation by Taiwan Ministry of Education could be justified. With more concerns, care and donations for TTCS’s theological education, let us take up the challenges together!
