News

October 2009 Council.  The EEAA Council met in at the end of the General Assembly/ICETE Consultation in Sopron.  The following items are extracted from our minutes.

1.     Accreditation Director. Dr Bernhard Ott is now a (part-time) member of the EEAA staff.  His role will be that of Accreditation Director, which means that from now on, he will be responsible for all accreditation issues.   His office will be in Korntal (DE) and he can be contacted at accreditation@eeaa.eu. The EEAA Coordinator, Marvin Oxenham, will assist Bernhard in the logistics of his work, so all correspondence should also be copied to him.

2.     Council member representing Eastern Europe. We are very glad to announce that Dr Peter Penner has made himself available to serve as EEAA Council member representing Eastern Europe.  Dr. Penner will also serve as an important liaison between the EEAA and the E-AAA.

3.     Consultation Visit fee.  EEAA Council members are increasingly being invited by schools for consultation purposes. While this is a welcome opportunity of service, the Council has felt it necessary to introduce a fee for these visitations. It was decided that we charge 200€ a day per person regardless of travel time but travel costs in addition. The fee will be effective from 1st January 2010. This to be distinguished from courtesy, orientation, candidacy, accreditation and review visits.  A complete listing of EEAA visits and fees can be found at http://www.eeaa.eu/fees.htm.

4.     Our UK schools are aware of the conversation over the possibility of the EEAA becoming an approved accreditation body by the UK Border Agency for the purposes of Tier4 licensing.  Misgivings about the wisdom of becoming such an accrediting agency were not solved during the meeting so, given that most schools are now accredited for the next 5 years, and consequently there may not be a significant demand for some time, it was decided that we would pursue, without commitment, further information from Ofsted and UKBA over the next six months prior to the next council meeting.

5.     Board of Reference. Our chairman, Dr Paul Sanders, will begin  making contacts with key personalities and representatives of European evangelicals in order to establish an EEAA Board of Reference.

6.     There has been enthusiasm for the idea of establishing a Post Graduate Certificate in Theological Education.  Our Network Director, Dr. Graham Cheesman, will put together a detailed proposals and executive plans.  For more information you can contact him at network@eeaa.eu.

7.      In view of some queries on legal nomenclature issues in Germany,  it was agreed that at present, the EEAA will give schools the option of receiving a letter of certification rather than certificates. The EEAA will be 1) seeking formal advice from the German Ministry, 2) contacting the ABHE (Association of Biblical Higher Education in the USA) to enquire on the possibilities of acceptable comparability and 3) investigating the possibility of verification of the level of certificates on request by an individual student.

9.     General Assembly 2011.  It was agreed that we pursue the option of holding our biannual meeting in London. Tentative dates 27-29 October 2011 (the audio files of the sessions of our General Assembly/ICETE Consultation 2009 in Sopron are now available at http://www.eeaa.eu/webcast.htm).

Membership and accreditation news (April 2009)

Membership  The following schools have been accepted as EEAA Members:

                   - Belfast Bible College (Belfast)

                   - Seminário Teológico Baptista (Lisbon)

                   - The Bible Institute of the Christian Baptist Church in

                               Bosnia-Herzegovina (Sarajevo)

                  - Fellowship of European Evangelical Theologians (FEET)

                              (Associate member)

Download updated ICETE News (January 2009) an in-house circular for the ICETE community.

EEAA General Assembly and ICETE Consultation.

As the world turns under the individualism of modernity, many Christians around the world are thinking in new ways about the importance of community. The same holds true for “evangelical theological educators”, men and women from all over the world who have been gifted and called by God to equip the people of God. What they teach and model in the seminary, is then reproduced by their students in the churches and replicated as the church reaches out to the world.  Read the full report