Global Forum on Theological Education" Follow-up to AFTE-WOCATI meeting

Letter from Working Group Facilitator

 

Dear colleagues,

I trust that all of you who were at the AFTE/WOCATI meeting in Seoul have now arrived safely at home or at your next destination.

Dietrich, you were named many times during the meeting; we missed your wisdom and your company! Wonsuk, the wish that you might have joined us was mentioned a number of times.

 

In the final session of the meeting it was agreed that a working group would be nominated to explore the formation of a "common table" on issues of theological education. The table would not be owned or led by any one faction, but would provide an opportunity for mutual sharing among evangelical, Pentecostal, and ecumenical theological educators. 

 

We (those receiving this email and myself) were nominated to serve on the working group, namely: 

PoHo Huang, Dan Aleshire, Manfred Kohl, Riad Kassis, Joseph Shao, Wonsuk Ma, Dietrich Werner, David Esterline.  (This list and other notes from the final session can be found in the minutes taken by Steve Chang and circulated a day or so ago by PoHo.)

When a few of us gathered at the close of the meeting, I was asked to facilitate the initial communication of the group (hence this email) and Dan Aleshire offered the administrative services of ATS. 

 

Here are a few notes from the AFTE/WOCATI meeting—primarily for Dietrich and Wonsuk:

Many expressed interest during the meeting in finding a new venue or forming a new organization of some kind in order to provide a way for theological educators to meet and listen to each other—to learn from those doing similar work, with similar commitments, but whose faith tradition might be different from one's own. Several times it was said that we need to get to know each other, we need a chance to talk, to share experiences. The hope is that this new common table or forum will provide a common platform to explore commonly held commitments and common areas for collaboration. Participants might be individual theological educators, leaders of schools, representatives of associations, funding agencies, and others who support theological education.

 

The Global Christian Forum was named as a potentional model for this new endeavor and the term "Global Forum on Theological Education" was used as shorthand for what we hope will develop. However, questions were raised about how "global" our initial efforts might be and the working group was asked specifically to reconsider the term "forum." Having said this, I believe that the Global Christian Forum (as process and experience) was generally accepted during the meeting as one viable model for a new common table on theological education. I distributed print copies of Dietrich's proposal (for fear that it had been lost in the email forwarded by Namsoon a few days earlier) which generated conversation at different times. The proposal was appreciated; it was agreed that it would be used by the working group as a resource rather than as an agenda or a set of recommendations. To put this another way, the working group is expected to come up with the agenda; we are to decide on the work we are to do and the nature of the new "forum." We have the freedom to invite others to join us.

 

One of the points that was most clear during the conversations in Seoul is the conviction that this new endevor must not be controlled by or aligned with any one faction. 

 

To others who were present for the final session in Seoul: please feel free to correct or edit what I have said here!

 

PoHo and I traveled together to the airport after the meeting and continued the conversation. We identified a few agenda items we will want to consider before long in addition to the items mentioned above (when and where might the first meeting of a "forum" be held; potential themes; questions of funding; etc) and discussed how  we might conduct the business of the working group. We may be able to do significant work by email and through on-line meetings and document sharing. 

 

Please "respond to all" to confirm that we have the right email addresses. Add, subtract, or comment on the notes above from the Seoul meeting. Please add your own thoughts and recommendations on both the process and substance of our task as a working group and your hopes for the "forum" itself.

With prayers for God's blessing to you all, and prayers for this new endeavor,

David