VST and Indonesian Seminary Agree to Work Together to Expand Global Learning
The Vancouver School of Theology has established a new partnership agreement with Jakarta Theological Seminary (Jakarta, Indonesia) effective January 1, 2021.
This agreement is for an initial five-year term and allows VST to work with Jakarta Theological Seminary (JTS) to provide a robust global and contextual theological education embracing scholarship and a living faith, and to nurture future leaders for churches and adjunct institutions who understand missional and transformative engagement with the culture.
This partnership between VST and JTS supports their common educational goals, including a focus on advanced theological degree research, a strong emphasis on transformative spirituality, and engagement with the larger society in religiously plural cultures. In this relationship both schools build on their common relationship with the United Church of Canada.
“We are so excited to work with the outstanding leadership, faculty and students of Jakarta Theological Seminary in research, teaching and writing. Mutual visits have already enriched our common life and expanded the repertoire of our thinking and practice around religious pluralism and faith and public life. We look forward to realizing the potential of this new agreement for our communities in their common task of preparing students for leadership in the church, the broader society and the global church.”
Richard Topping, VST Principal
These partnerships will be far ranging for each of the institutions, including faculty exchanges, conferences, sabbatical and research opportunities, and student exchanges. These opportunities may take place online. Professors at either institution may be a visitor in the class at the other institution. Online public lectures, workshops, conferences may be shared through Zoom, You Tube or other online technologies. Students may, upon arrangement with the Dean of either institution, take a class at the other where it meets a curricular need of the student. The emphasis of these opportunities is to provide exposure and understanding of the global church.
“Our new partnership with the Vancouver School of Theology, Canada, opens a tremendous possibility for our faculty and students to flourish together in our friendship and collegiality in theological education. It will be an exciting and fruitful journey of learning, researching, and sharing resources to shape theological education’s global landscape.”
Septemmy E. Lakawa, Th.D., President, JTS
About STT Jakarta
Founded in 1934, Jakarta Theological Seminary (STT Jakarta) is the oldest theological seminary in Indonesia. Located in the heart of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the university is embedded in a diverse culture of various religious identities (predominantly Muslim and Christian). STT Jakarta stresses a theology in context perspective to all of their university discourse. Jakarta’s mission is to serve not only congregations, but also the larger society by offering quality education in the field of theology in the classroom as well as at the grassroots level in communities all over Indonesia. STT Jakarta offers theology degrees at the Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral levels. STT has a strong learning tradition, transformative spirituality, and a creative community. With this task, STT Jakarta continues to strive to develop education, research, development of theology and other related sciences, and develop spirituality with an ecumenical awareness, so that it can continue to stand at the forefront of theological education in Indonesia. The vision of STT is to become a learning and development institution for Divine Philosophy (Theology) which prepares prospective leaders who serve, have spiritual maturity, broad theological insight, and professional abilities, and realize and understand their vocation in the midst of a religious community and Indonesian society and a pluralistic world.