Category: News

The European Adventist academic community gathered in the European Adventist Society of Theological and Religious Studies (EASTRS) suffers with their Ukrainian colleagues, their families, their churches and all those associated with them. Our compassion includes fervent prayer, asking God to inspire the leaders of our world to put away weapons and guarantee a free and peaceful living space for all.

Yet, we also realise that human conflict will remain until the end of times. “And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 25:6-8).

We know that liberation is coming. As a community, we look forward to the Advent hope, to the eternal theocracy of peace. We know that ultimately only one is victorious: Jesus the Christ.

Collonges

The Adventist Faculty of Theology at Collonges has now 101 students, a fitting amount for the 101^st academic year of the school!

62 students are in the Licence’s program and 39 are in the Master’s program. 22 are new students: 9 in the distance learning Licence, 11 in the presence Licence, 2 in the Master. 29 students are following our e-learning Licence.

The proportion of women represents 21% of the total number of students. The origin of the students is very varied since no less than 8 GC Divisions are represented: mostly come from the Inter-European Division (half of them) and the Inter-American Division (20+), but also from the South-American Division, the South Pacific Division, the North-American Division, the Southern-African & Indian Ocean Division, the West Central African Division and the Middle East North African Mission

Besides budding theologians, there are a large number of French program students. They come from different countries such as the United States, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom end even Bermuda. Most of them stay for one year in order to become fluent in French. Learning the language and about the French culture is a requirement for some of them who accomplish their studies at an Adventist universitiy and for others it will help in future job searches.

Maruševec

On the graduation weekend, 8-10 October 2021, eleven MTS students from Adriatic Union College were awarded their diplomas at the graduation ceremony held on the campus of Friedensau Adventist University. Six graduates were pastors from the South-East European Union, Serbia and five from the Adriatic Union Conference, Croatia.

Although due to the Covid-19 travel restrictions only three students were able to attend the ceremony in person the graduation weekend provided the rewarding and joyful conclusion to their six years long studies. The only remining student in that program is expected to graduate in 2022. Since 2014. Adriatic Union College in cooperation with Friedensau Adventist University has run part-time MTS program designed to provide pastoral education for ministers and lay members of the Adriatic Union Conference and the South-East European Union. In the words of many graduates this collaborative educational project is a testament to the importance and relevance of the Adventist theological education for pastors and lay members alike.

In the academic year 2021/2022 the Adriatic Union College  has enrolled three full-time students in BA in Theology and two part-time students in BA in Religion program. The study program designed for part-time students is only offered online with the purpose of providing spiritual nourishment and Adventist theological education to the non-ministerial students. The primary aim of this program is to strengthen the lay members involvement in the church life while providing a distinctive Adventist vision of theological education and mission.’

Professor Emeritus Jean-Jacques Henriot (Collonges) has passed away at age 80.

After a degree in Classics (French-Latin-Greek, University of Paris Sorbonne), Jean-Jacques Henriot taught for a few years in the National Education system in the Paris region, in the middle of which he spent two years working at the Adventist College in Tananarive, Madagascar. He then taught and directed at the Adventist College of Fianarantsoa (Madagascar), and then created and developed the Adventist College of La Réunion. Eleven years in all passed in the Indian Ocean, after which Jean-Jacques Henriot was for six years editor and responsible for the book sector at the Maison d’éditions Vie et Santé in Dammarie les Lys. Finally, from the beginning of the 1986 school year, in Collonges sous Salève, at the Maurice Tièche private high school, he was mainly responsible for teaching French and French literature (from the 6th to the 12th grade) and, secondarily, history-geography and education in biblical values. In 1999 he was entrusted with the teaching of Biblical Greek at the Adventist Faculty of Theology, alongside his courses at the Lycée; a teaching he continued until June 2019, well after his retirement (2006). He also collaborated for a limited time with the French as a Foreign Language Institute.

In addition to these “basic” activities, he had various responsibilities in the Indian Ocean (education department of the Reunion Mission, Voix de l’Espérance Psycho-Flash column on RFO Reunion and MBC – Mauritius) as well as in the Church of Collonges, and cultural activities in the framework of the Campus (theatre, poetry, exhibitions).

Jean-Jacques Henriot was married to Françoise, had three children and four grandchildren.