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On Tuesday, July 5, 2011, the overall theme was “What Constitutes Quality in Theological Education.”  In the afternoon session, the participants divided into groups and collectively identified important issues from the day’s presentations.

Group 1

  1. Respect for gender.  Gender sensitivity when reading Scripture.
  2. Issues of capacity and scarcity.  What do you do when you can’t find qualified faculty and do not have sufficient resources?
  3. Remembering the future.  Hope against hope.  Hope despite negative evidence.
  4. Quality criteria for quality assurance in theological education.
  5. Doing theology to meet the needs of society.  Education for transformation.

##  Group 2

  1. The complexity of quality in theological education.  Multidimensional.
  2. Ministry without passport = theologians and religious leaders who know no borders.
  3. The need to come up with guidelines to which we can subscribe, based on the desired outcomes.
  4. The gap between theory and practice in theological education.
  5. Quality theological education should include both laity and candidates for ordination.

Group 3

  1. Quality of theological education
    1. Methodology.
    2. Institutional profile.
    3. Transformative aspect.
    4. Communicative aspect.
    5. Content perspective.
  2. Theological education – relevance in societies
    1. The Kingdom of God touches on issues that concern real life.
    2. Theology has to embrace other social disciplines to make the church have meaning in community.
    3. The mission statement of theological institutions has to be expanded and clarified to meet the challenge.
  3. Common guidelines on theological education
    1. A common path in which common guidelines may be outlined for further discussion in the associations.
    2. We proposed that there be a common charter on guidelines on theological education.

Group 4

  1. Theological education should serve to transform society for the better.  Social transformation is an important factor when evaluating the quality of theological education.
  2. Theology has a public role to play in society.  There is need to communicate critical methodological skills in theological education that will enable students to address and articulate meaningfully the issues they confront in their societies/contexts.
  3. Theological education should be sensitive to issues that are faced by the disadvantaged in society.  Here we quote Prof. G. West who says, “The issue is not sensitivity to the disadvantaged but commitment to the disadvantaged.”  In other words sensitivity to the situation of the disadvantaged should be complemented by commitment to the same.

⤓ 2011 WOCATI Consultation - Group Discussion Reports PDF, English

2011 key pages