We hear from the Overseas Committee that the Scottish Episcopal Church is supporting training in West Africa, including paying University Fees and student bursaries.
So, we are paying for university education for African Dicoeses which are growing and apparently full of life. We are not paying for such training or university degrees for people from Scotland.
And then we wonder why there is decline in parts of the Scottish church and why it is hard to attract clergy for the future.
It’s not a straight choice between paying for theological education in Africa and in Scotland. The Overseas committee’s funds very largely come from legacies specfically given for overseas work so couldn’t be spent on training Scottish clergy. If we wanted seriously to spend more on that (an excellent idea in my book), then we would have to raise quota or find some other source of income.
And, I think, theological education in Africa is particularly important in light of the remarkable growth of the African churches. If there is not good theological education for the leaders of the churches in Africa we will have poorly trained African church leaders which is bad for the church in Africa and can only make attempts at communion wide understanding more difficult.
Thanks John – I had forgotten about the legacies. You are right, there are two separate funding issues here.
I agree that we need good theological education for the whole Communion.