Collonges appoints new staff

The theological faculty at Collonges (France) has appointed Dr Daniela Gelbrich and Dr. Edwin Sully Payet.

Dr Gelbrich has previously taught Old Testament and Hebrew in Bogenhofen (Austria, 2004-2005 and 2018-2019), Collonges (2011-2012) and Friedensau (2012-2016). She also served as director of Institut de français langue étrangère (Collonges, 2009-2011) and of Adra Suisse (2019). Gelbrich holds a PhD in History from the Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris (2009).

Dr Payet holds a doctorate in theology (AIIAS) and he currently teaches at Université Adventiste Zurcher in Madagascar. He has served four years as a pastor in the Reunion Conference in the Indian Ocean Division, and also as theology teacher in Université Adventiste Zurcher, Madagascar, for nine years. He enjoyed teaching and transmitting the passion of the ministry to future pastors. Dr Payet will teach theology in Collonges starting on January 2021.

Dr Gabriel Monet has been reappointed as Dean of the Faculté adventiste de théologie of Collonges (France) for a new three-year term. The faculty members are grateful for the work he has already accomplished and look forward to keep working with him in future and wish him all success in his second term.

Graduation ceremony at Adriatic Union College Maruševec, Croatia

Although, thanks to this spring’s pandemic, classes at Adriatic Union College had to adapt to the strict measures of social distancing, they continued and were finally completed as planned. However, it was evident early on that one MTS and four BA graduates would have to abandon their dream of a beautiful graduation ceremony.

These new circumstances were especially unfavourable for BA graduates who were in the process of writing their extended essays, as the crown of their theological development. However, the students took the challenge seriously and managed to complete four high-quality essays that could be very useful to the wider church community. Markelian Frasheri (Albania) was formulating a biblical theology of church according to Acts 1:1-21:16. Grace Boughner (America) was doing a critique of moral influence theory based on Genesis 1-3. Dominik Ljubić (Croatia) was exploring the mechanism of Saul’s ruin based on the narrative analysis of 1 Samuel 9-31. Ivana Šadek’s (Croatia) topic was Return to Eden: A biblical evaluation of scientific and theological answers to the 21st century ecological crisis.

As the students worked diligently to meet their obligations, the situation with the pandemic calmed down and the conditions were met to hold the graduation ceremony on Sunday 14 June. We are especially grateful to God for making our dream of a beautiful, heartfelt and God-filled graduation a reality. It also turned into a great mission event followed by a significant number of people through the media. We are grateful to God that we were able to send off our graduates further into life and ministry in a joyful and dignified manner. May God, who helped them to become better people during their education, use them as his extended hand that would make the world a better place and bring many to the precious knowledge of gim.

ETTC 2021 to be held online

Due to the ongoing global pandemic and the uncertainty regarding making future plans, the TED and EUD have decided that the 2021 ETTC will be held online. The conference is planned for 24-28 March 2021. Newbold College of Higher Education will be responsible for the academic side of the the conference, and will host the conference digitally.

The call for papers went out a few months ago, and its focus on the consequences of Corona remains current in all of Europe. Suggestions for papers are still very much welcome:

Challenges of the Post-Corona World: Responding to Ethical, Sociological, Ecological and Digital Issues

The global Corona pandemic has impacted daily life of people world-wide. Borders have closed, cities have shut down, economies have stalled, millions have lost their jobs and thousands have died. The 2021 European Theology Teachers Conference asks for reflective contributions on responding to the challenges of COVID-19 and on the changes that the pandemic has brought about. Submissions may be in any discipline of EASTRS, including biblical studies, pastoral studies and practical theology, historical theology and church history, systematics and biblical theology, ethics, and sociology of religion.

The challenges and responses to the pandemic are immeasurable. We are open to any topic that falls within the fields of the theology and religious studies and welcome all perspectives on these topics. We are specifically interested in the following topics, but these are not an exhaustive list:

Ethical issues

What ethical issues has Corona caused or highlighted?
Topics could include: Life-and-death decisions, access to health or pastoral care, inequality, altruism and egotism, and the problem of evil.

Sociological issues

How has Corona affected society and which sociological issues were exacerbated by the pandemic?
Topics could include: Class issues, privilege and the lack thereof, access to health care and education, homelessness, (social) justice, political responses and policies, secular and religious leadership and responsibilities, freedom, social distancing, anxiety and psychology.

Ecological issues

What ecological possibilities and challenges has Corona brought forward?
Topics could include: Environmental impact, reclaiming nature, reduced pollution, stewardship, personal and public health.

Digital issues

How has the necessity of (only) digital communication impacted religious experience and thought?
Topics could include: Digital ecclesiology, online churches, digital liturgy, digital community, government use of technology, and disability.

We welcome 300-word abstracts. These can be sent to Tom de Bruin.