Guangzhou Union Theological Seminary was founded in 19 13, formerly known as Guangzhou Christian Union Shinto College. The background of establishing this school is the Mulder Conference in 19 13. John raleigh mott, an American, is one of the leaders of Protestant international organizations. He devoted his life to the cooperation between Christian churches and sects and won the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize. Mulder held the National Congress of Christianity in China in 19 13, and established the "China Continuation Committee", the central organization of Christianity in China. Mott visited Guangzhou in the spring of 2004. At that time, the Christian sects in Guangdong were basically divided, and the training of theologians was limited to temporary Bible schools and Shinto schools run by the church. This kind of school has no strict teaching norms, and it is only a training class at best. In view of this situation, Mulder called representatives of churches in South China (there were about 65,438+02 churches at that time) to Guangzhou for a meeting to discuss the establishment of a school to train senior theologians, so as to train senior clergy urgently needed by churches.
Because there was no precedent for cooperation between the missions in Guangzhou before, and Mulder's meeting set a goal, that is, once the joint theological seminary was established, the Bible schools run by the missions must be closed, and other issues such as funds, teachers, students and future after graduation must be reached. Therefore, after many consultations, the two committees decided to finalize it in the form of articles of association. There are three main provisions in the articles of association: first, the administrative power of the school belongs to the board of directors. The directors are composed of representatives from different churches. Second, school education must conform to the gospel truth. Because there are differences in the interpretation of Christian teachings and etiquette among different sects, it is stipulated that the education of this sect must avoid the differences between sects and "conform to the gospel truth of * * *", which is the premise of inter-church cooperation. Third, the issue of funds, which will be shared by the missionary society and the church.
According to the book "Guangzhou Union Theological Seminary" published by the school 1920, the conditions for joining the Union Theological Seminary are as follows: 1. Those who can donate 20,000 yuan as a basic fund; Second, it can provide a full-time teacher for the school; 3. Those who can donate 1200 yuan Perennial Fund for one year. It is also stipulated that those who meet the above conditions can send one director, and those who meet the two conditions can send two directors. In fact, Guangzhou United Theological Seminary was once managed by eight western churches. Later, although the three churches nominally owned by China people were run by themselves, they actually cooperated with eight churches. The above membership conditions should be the conditions stipulated at the beginning of the cooperation between the eight groups. In addition, the school stipulates that students are free of tuition fees, but the accommodation and meals are their own (at that time, the monthly accommodation and meals were about 10 yuan). Since the students in this school are basically sent by the church, except for a few, most of the students' expenses are provided by the church. In addition, the early Concord Theological Seminary stipulated that students' accommodation should be solved by the churches themselves, and it was also a way to alleviate the economic pressure for the churches to build their own or jointly build student dormitories near the college.
1965438+On March 27th, 2004, the board of directors of Concord Theological Seminary was established. The representatives of the Board of Directors are eight churches involved in cooperative education, namely, the Congregational Church, the Methodist Church, the Christian Association, the Anglican Church and the Church of London, the Presbyterian Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand and the Presbyterian Church of North America. The number of members of the board of directors of Concord Theological Seminary changes from time to time, ranging from l2 to 15. Almost all the early members were the most influential missionaries in the mission. With the rise and development of the church self-reliance movement, Chinese believers gradually entered the board of directors, and by the late 1940s, they were mainly Chinese. At the beginning, the board of directors disagreed on the location of the school. Some people advocate being located in Lingnan School (the predecessor of Lingnan University), while others advocate being located in Huadi. Finally, it was decided to temporarily borrow the London Club Dormitory located in Baosheng Sandy Street, Xiguan as a classroom, and the student dormitory rented nearby houses. At the same time, raise funds to buy land to build school buildings. On June19141kloc-0/day, Concord Theological Seminary officially opened, with Pastor Wu as the first dean.
The mission of Guangzhou Union Theological Seminary is "a specialized institution for training church leaders in China". Initially, the plan sets three levels. One is the Bible School, which trains general staff serving the church for three years, including one year's internship and unlimited academic qualifications. Second, it is a god school, which trains priests and preachers for three years, and requires that the academic qualifications must be high school graduates; Third, junior college, with a three-year academic system, is taught in English. Those who have studied in the university for more than two years are required to study, and those who pass the examination can be awarded a bachelor's degree in God after graduation.
But the actual situation is far from the original idea, especially in the initial stage. Because students are appointed by the church, some of them study with the salary of the church, and their ages are uneven. Some of them are in their forties and fifties, and their basic knowledge level is quite low. However, because the school was supported by the funds of the churches, and it was not easy for the churches at that time to send believers equivalent to the level of high school graduation to study, 48 people who were barely admitted were to be trained as junior theologians, and they were divided into four classes: eight freshmen with supplementary subjects. As J.S.Kunlde said, "New schools have been opened, but only in the name of advanced theology." These students graduated in June. 19 16.
Because the school is located in the downtown area, it was considered unsuitable for long-term development shortly after the school started. Later, Baihedong was chosen as the new school site, and 14 mu of land was purchased as the basis for gradual expansion. 19 15 In July, the board of directors decided to develop a new school building in Baihedong, and decided to divide it into two construction forms, one is the building of public schools, and the other is the self-built and shared form of churches, that is, the churches build their own student dormitories. 19 16 American missionary A.A.Fultan donated $9,000 to the public classrooms and offices of the school. 19 18, fulitan was completed, and the school officially moved to Baihe cave. 19 19 In April, St. Andrew's Church, aided by the Anglican Church of China, was completed and its students moved into the new dormitory. 1920, 1920, Liangfatang built by North American congregational church, fellow townsmen's association and Presbyterian church was completed, 1922, Methodist church, Canadian Presbyterian church and New Zealand Presbyterian church were completed. Since then, dormitories for principals and teachers have been built one after another. The school covers an area of 14 mu from the beginning to nearly 90 mu in 1930s. So far, the foundation of Concord Theological Seminary is relatively good.
Concord Theological Seminary has gone through a long process of continuous improvement, from a veritable school to train senior theologians. After the first batch of students graduated, due to the restriction of enrollment conditions, most of the early theological seminaries trained ordinary clergy by various churches. 19 16 after the first batch of students graduated, the education of freshmen is divided into two parts: one part is the Bible school, which trains junior clergy, actually training staff on behalf of various churches; The second is Shinto school, which offers advanced Shinto courses and begins to implement the curriculum education of God in universities to train priests and preachers. Since moving to Baihedong, the school conditions have improved a lot, but the school education has not improved, and the board of directors has many opinions on this. 19 19 The Advisory Department was established in July, consisting of celebrities in the Christian circles in Guangdong, mostly Chinese, such as Zhong Rongguang, deputy inspector of Lingnan School, and Li Jinlun, former principal of Peizheng Middle School. The purpose of setting up the consulting department is to listen to these people's suggestions on the present situation and development of the seminary. In the following years, Concord Theological Seminary basically maintained two modes of running a school: one is to gradually adopt standardized theological curriculum education to train senior talents, and the other is a training form, namely Bible school. Because this is a cooperative school managed by different churches, we must take care of the needs of the churches. Therefore, for students sent by various churches, those who meet the requirements for further study should first enter Shinto advanced classes, and those who do not meet the requirements should receive training in Bible schools. For students in Shinto advanced classes, besides those sent by the church, they also enroll students from the society. This practice of training two different levels of students and a group of teachers in the same school has been maintained in this school for a long time, and the number of students in Bible schools has greatly exceeded that in Shinto classes.
1922 American union theological seminary Federation was established, and Guangzhou union theological seminary established cooperative relations with it. Later, he also cooperated with three other Concord Seminary in China (namely, Jinling University Seminary, cheeloo university Seminary and West China Concord University Seminary). In addition, after entering the 1920s, after more than ten years of new educational methods, the accumulation of intellectual talents and the development of Christian education, the quality of Christians has been greatly improved, and it is easier to select talents suitable for further study in colleges and universities. Therefore, in June 1923, the faculty and staff of the school will write to the board of directors, requesting to re-plan the work of the unified school in order to achieve the goal set at the time of its establishment, that is, to build a truly advanced theological seminary. The board of directors then held a two-day special meeting of church leaders. Finally, after a joint meeting of the board of directors and alumni, it was decided to close the Bible school. However, due to the large number of people attending Bible classes in the school and the pressure from all sides, Bible students were still recruited when the school system was updated the following year, and the Bible school was officially closed until 193 1. From 65438 to 0924, the school was restructured and divided into four levels: theological university, theological preparation, biblical preparation and biblical preparation. You can get a bachelor of arts degree after graduation in four years and a diploma after graduation in two years. Excellent can enter the theological university. 1925 adopts Dalton system, which reduces the class time and increases the self-study time. In the same year, girls were enrolled (only one girl was enrolled in that year, so she had to board in Zhenguang Middle School because it was inconvenient to stay in the school dormitory). 1928 The length of study in the theological university was changed to five years, and the Bible class was officially cancelled in 193 1 year. Training courses were held for those students sent by the church who failed to enter formal subjects. As for the length of study, it is decided by the school and the church through consultation. At this point, the hospital is officially divided into two levels: theology and training.
With the development of the natural movement of the church, especially the influence of the secular movement and the great revolutionary trend of thought, Guangzhou Concord Theological Seminary gradually changed from the control of the western missionary society to nature. 1925 After the "Xia Ji Massacre", the school was entrusted to the pastor of the United States and China. 1928 In April, the board of directors decided to hand over Concord Theological Seminary to China Episcopal Church, Chinese Methodist Church and Guangdong Chinese Christian Church Federation. Similar to the situation that many churches nominally broke away from the Western Spreading, Concord Theological Seminary, although naturalized in form, is still cooperating with the original Eight Spreading School because it is inextricably linked with the Western Spreading, especially because it is difficult to stand on its own feet and support itself financially. Board members are no longer all foreign missionaries, but some are from China, but the chairman and treasurer in charge of finance have always been missionaries. John Gong, a Presbyterian missionary in North America, has been the principal for more than twenty years. Whenever Gong John goes back to the United States for vacation or leaves school for other reasons, other missionaries serve as principals. It was not until the late 1940s that China native Tan Woxin became the principal.
As mentioned above, at the beginning of running a school, all cooperative churches are required to send teachers to participate in teaching work. Therefore, the teachers of the early Union Theological Seminary, especially those who taught theology and related subjects, were almost all missionaries of various churches, and most of them had been preaching in Guangdong for many years. As a missionary of London Church in England, Lixin Qi preached in Guangdong for many years and was an influential and prolific church leader. He was a professor of theology and the New Testament in Concord until he died in China due to illness. Only the subjects related to China traditional culture are held by China teachers. According to Return of China, there are 1 1 teachers in this school around 1920, including 7 foreign teachers and 4 teachers from China. Because there are few students in Concord, the number of teachers in the school has remained within 15 for a long time, and many professors China after 1930s are early graduates of the school.
Because it is a school for training senior Christian clergy, the courses offered by Concord are mainly religious, and the long-term subjects mainly include theology, the Old Testament, the New Testament, religious history, church history, religious education, religious philosophy, evangelization, animal husbandry (hosting various public meetings, managing religious people, developing believers' methodology and other disciplines), psychology, hymns, English and so on. , and early also requires learning Greek. Subjects related to China's traditional culture mainly include: China philosophy, China literature, China history and China religion. The curriculum will change because of the change of professors, but generally there will be only minor changes. Of course, this course of China traditional culture is only to assist in teaching and demonstrating Christian theological theory.
According to 1922' s "The Return of China to the Master", the amount of money spent on theological education in China at that time was about silver and 700 yuan per student every year, which was a considerable figure. In the list of "theological seminaries" listed in this book, Guangzhou United Theological Seminary has only l3 students as "senior theological talents", and the number of Bible schools is 34, with an annual budget of 265,438+0,000 yuan. Yes 1 1 teacher. It can be seen that the Western Mission is willing to spend money and manpower to train priests and preachers.
Guangzhou Union Theological Seminary enrolls few freshmen every year. From the establishment of the school to 1929, the total number of students is only 228, with an average of 15 students per year. 1923, with 22 students enrolled, is said to be the only one since the beginning of school. In the 1930s, the number of people increased greatly, reaching between 40 and 60, but most of them were sent by the church, so they failed to enter the formal sector and could only enter the training sector. In addition to the church, they also enroll students from the society, but the conditions are quite strict. First of all, they must be "faithful Christians", recommended by the church, and have graduated from high school before they can apply for the exam. In addition to passing strict exams, there must be financial guarantee. Therefore, those who can enter the school are basically people appointed by the church. Only those who are appointed by the church, pass the exam and think they have potential can enter the theology department that has been trained as an "elite". Of the above 228 people, only 55 entered the department of theology, and only 38 eventually graduated. This shows that the school is strict in talent training, which is also the reason why Concord Theological Seminary has reached the real university level after more than ten years.
Because the goal is to train priests and evangelists, Concord Theological Seminary attaches great importance to the teaching of students and the combination of students and practice. In addition to attending 18 to 22 hours of classes every week, you must also have 10 hours of internship, such as preaching to the people and hosting Sunday school classes in the church. After four years of study, you can get your diploma after one year of internship. The students in this school are very active because of the requirements of training objectives. The Student Union was established in 19 15. Although the number of students is small, they are divided into the Prime Minister of the Cabinet and the Evaluation Department. It is said that it is a "decentralization system", and as a result, it often quarrels over trivial matters. 1923 changed to YMCA with 9 ministries. Students organize various small groups and publish their own wall newspapers, such as the prejudice of the prejudice society, Dangdang, Yin Wei and Wanyan. The YMCA published Crossroads, which was distributed in nearby villages. 1920, the students of our school edited and published the Monthly Report of Guangzhou Lily East Concord Theological Students, 9 issues a year. This is a small diary for students to learn to write. 1924 was changed into a formal journal, published once a semester, but its weight was greatly increased, making it a journal dominated by professors and alumni of our university.
In Guangzhou, there are Lingnan University and Concord Theological Seminary, which are run by churches to train high-level talents. Lingnan University is run by the American Church alone, and the American Church of Concord Theological Seminary also holds great power. Therefore, Concord has a close relationship with Lingnan University from the beginning. Lingnan University sent teachers to teach in Concord, and J.M.Henry, the inspector of Lingnan University, also taught in Concord. 19 18 the two universities signed a cooperation agreement. Lingnan and Sheikh mutually recognize the course content and achievement standards, and Sheikh students can choose Lingnan courses. Later, it was agreed that the library, courses and lectures of Lingnan University were open to Concord students free of charge. In particular, the opening of the library is of great help to the teaching of Concord. Before 1930s, Lingnan University Library had the richest collection of books among many libraries in Guangzhou, while Concord Library managed by Mrs Gong had only a few collections. The articles of association of Concord also stipulate that students from Lingnan University are welcome to take elective courses in Concord. In the late 1920s, the board of directors of Concord and many people in the Christian circles believed that Concord should be merged into Lingnan University and run the same school. However, the board of directors of Lingnan University disagreed. Since then, rumors about the merger of the two schools have continued, and it was not until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War that the two schools merged.
Guangzhou fell in June 1938+00, Concord Theological Seminary moved to Sha Tin, Hong Kong fell in late June 194 1, then moved to Dali, Yunnan, and moved to northern Guangdong in June 1942, and continued to cooperate with Lingnan University, which provided classrooms, student dormitories and teacher dormitories. 1944, northern Guangdong was in an emergency, Lingda moved to Xingmei area, and Sheikh moved to Lian county. 1946 classes resumed, and Concord Theological Seminary moved directly to Le Kang Park, becoming one of the five colleges of Lingnan University. Lingnan University used four foreign houses of the former Silk Improvement Bureau as temporary school buildings, and allocated 60 mu of land in the southeast area of the campus to build a new school building for Sheikh. The merged Union Theological Seminary basically no longer offers training courses, and the number of students is very small. The academic system has also changed, divided into four-year system and five-year system. Only by passing the theological seminary examination, completing credits, passing the general examination and practicing for another year can the four-year program graduate and receive the L.TH certificate. Five-year students must pass the unified entrance examination of Lingnan University, study in other departments in the first and second years, and then study in theological seminary in the third year. After completing the credits and passing the general examination, Lingda awarded the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) certificate, and the Theological Seminary awarded the Bachelor of Taoism (B.TH) certificate.
Since Lingnan University is run by the American Church and Concord Theological Seminary is a multinational church, Concord and Lingnan remain relatively independent after the merger. This relationship is reflected in the following aspects: Concord still retains its special relationship with the church and preaches to the seminary, and is responsible for its own administration and finance; The president of Lingnan University is a member of the board of directors of the seminary and has the right to vote. The board of directors of the seminary nominated a member of the board of directors of Lingnan University as a representative of the seminary.