27.08.2019
Charting a Future for Theological Education in Myanmar – Archbishop Attends Yangon Conference
Earlier this month Archbishop Michael Jackson attended a conference in Yangon, Myanmar, focusing on Asian Christian leadership and theological education.
The conference was organized by Dr Lal Tin Hre, director of the Association of Theological Education in Myanmar (ATEM), with whom the Archbishop has been working for a number of years as an international resource person for successive conferences for theological educators in the theological colleges across Myanmar.
ATEM draws together the theological colleges of the various Reformed Traditions in Myanmar on a regular basis for seminars and teaching on contemporary theological issues as they will affect future clergy in a wide range of traditions.
This year’s conference drew together international resource persons from across the Far East, as well as from England and the USA. The aim was to set the scene in the understanding of Christianity, East and West, and to chart a way forward for theological education in Myanmar and more widely in Asia.
“The context in Myanmar changes all the time and I have nothing but admiration for the capacity and versatility of those who read this context and speak into it from within the varied traditions,” Archbishop Jackson commented.
Areas explored included the impact of progressive secularism and the position in which a Christian person finds him/herself as an individual and as part of an institution where interaction with the life of the society and the state are unavoidable.
PERSECUTION OF MINORITIES
“Because persecution is so much part of the life of Christians, in so many different forms and definitions and expressions worldwide, time was devoted to exploring this issue. The nexus of contemporary political and economic life makes specific regions of the world susceptible to persecution and in persecutions minorities inevitably fare badly. And Christians are among those minorities. One also realizes, once again, that for the vast majority of the world’s citizens survival itself is an achievement. Listening intently to local scholars enables the outsider, however, to sense the selflessness of Christian witness and engagement in the structuring of the common good,” the Archbishop observed.
Speakers on the first day included Dr Patrick Sookhdeo of the Barnabas Fund Oxford, and Dr HS Wilson, Executive Director of the Foundation for Theological Education in South East Asia USA.
The second day of the conference opened with the dedication of the new ATEM Research and Administrative Centre in Bawka Theihdi Street, Mayangone Township, 22062 Yangon. This is an exciting fresh development as the centre will draw together, in the local and international spheres, the capacity among theological educators in Myanmar to present their experiences both to their students and to the wider world.
The President and former President of ATEM both participated in the Service of Dedication. The Archbishop was invited to dedicate the building and used not only a Prayer of Dedication from the BCP but also the Collect for St Stephen’s Day, in thankful remembrance of martyrs worldwide, concluding with The Lord’s Prayer and a section of St Patrick’s Breastplate. All then had an opportunity to explore the facilities of the building which need support to grow and to develop.
The conference took up the theme of persecution with a second lecture from Dr Sookhdeo on Thinking Theologically with the Experience of Persecution, linking this directly with the Myanmar experience. The importance of this theme among the theological educators gathered for this Conference cannot be underestimated as it forms both the backdrop and the foreground of the experiences of the people and the churches. This continued with a further paper by the Reverend Lal Chung Lura on Theological Research for transformative Education among Ethnic Minorities.
The Archbishop led a session on persecution based in the ACC publication ‘Out of the depths: Hope in Times of Suffering’, a theological resource in times of persecution (2015). This resource was produced by NIFCON (The Network for Inter Faith Concerns) chaired by the Archbishop.
He also had the opportunity to take up the theme of martyrdom as living witness. “This brought to the fore an important perspective that Christians in Myanmar have a voice at a high level in political life and seek to use it in a spirit of service of the whole society. It is for this reason perhaps most of all that the new Research Institute needs our support as it moves forward in faith, hope and love,” he said.
NEW RESEARCH CENTRE
The opening of the centre on August 8 was attended by 25 college principals, local Bishops and leaders from 12 denominations along with Archbishop Jackson and Church of England priest, Canon Dr Joshva Raja from the Diocese of Salisbury.
The centre was funded by the Barnabas Fund and by Federation of Theological Education for South East Asia.
The Archbishop and Canon Raja have visited and provided leadership among the 32 theological colleges who are members of ATEM for many years. The Anglican Church in Myanmar plays a leading role in bringing all these theological colleges together. Recently they set up a consortium with the help of ATESEA – the Association for Theological Education in the South East Asia – at the advice of Canon Raja. This consortium will fully support the admission and other processes for a PhD programme with collaboration from three colleges and is the first of its kind.
The theological colleges have more than 50 PhD holders in the country and previously had to source faculties for development and research overseas. The new centre will provide leadership and research programmes so that people can get their degrees, serve and witness Christ in their own country.
At present three colleges that are running postgraduate studies will start running PhD programmes under Association for Theological College for South East Asia and this will be extended to many other colleges in Yangon and surrounding areas next year.