Summer Days at Nanjing
Don Lindsay
Don and Kate Lindsay made theology students talk in English at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary in July. What they found was an interesting glimpse of daily life at the seminary.
It's a long way from lawyering and nursing in Texas to teaching English to seminary faculty members in Nanjing, but Kate and I were happy to make the jump. After concluding our teaching duties for the term at the Fuyang Teachers College in Anhui Province, we spent July as Amity volunteer teachers at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary working with the faculty and staff to improve their oral English skills. The school, founded in 1951, is designated a "union" seminary because it represents the merger of twelve theological seminaries in Eastern China. A thirteenth seminary joined the union in 1962. The Seminary offers courses of study for a four year Bachelor of Theology (BTh) degree and a three year Master of Theology (MTh) degree. The Seminary can presently accommodate about 200 students, but a new campus is under construction that will increase their capacity to 500 students. The new campus should open in time for the 2007-2008 school year.
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Kate and Don Lindsay visit Bishop Ting |
While the Seminary faculty members whom we got to know are young, in their thirties and forties, the Seminary's history, tradition, and forward-looking purpose are personified by two ninety-year-old men. Bishop K. H. Ting was appointed Principal of the Seminary at its origin in 1951, and still holds that title. We were especially pleased to have the opportunity to visit with Bishop Ting in his home during our stay in Nanjing. The day-to-day administration and leadership of the Seminary was handled by his long time friend and colleague Dr. Chen Zemin. Dr. Chen is a small, wiry man, and remarkably lively and vigorous. We saw him nearly every day on campus, always cheerful and inquisitive and often in Bermuda shorts. Dr. Chen is now officially the Vice-Principal Emeritus, and his duties have been assumed by Vice-Principal Dr. Gao Ying, a bright, capable, and personable young woman. At Seminary functions or when special visitors were on hand, both would preside - Dr. Gao as the leader of the Seminary, and Dr. Chen as its heart, soul, and sense of humor.
Bishop Ting and Dr. Chen both speak excellent English, as does Dr. Gao, and the Seminary's July English classes were prompted by their concern over the limited English skills of many of the faculty and staff. The summer English program was directed by Zhang Jing, also called Cathy, a Seminary staff member who earned her graduate degree at the Eden Seminary in St. Louis. She was assisted by Andrew, a former Amity Foundation employee who now teaches at the Seminary. Kate and I were there to provide assistance with speaking and listening skills. There were nineteen students in all, seventeen of whom were faculty and staff members, plus a high school student and a college student whose parents work at the Seminary. Some spoke English rather well, others hardly at all. Cathy and Andrew had organized the summer students into two groups, according to their English language skills. All were appreciative of the opportunity to improve their English and seemed determined to make the most of it. Some were especially motivated by a desire to improve their English sufficiently to pursue graduate studies abroad. After morning and afternoon class sessions, most stayed over an extra hour for an optional English language movie session. Two movies were used: "Garfield" (yes, the cartoon cat, Cathy's selection) and "Saint Ralph" (ours).
On Sundays, St. Paul's Church has an English language worship service, in addition to the regular service in Chinese. Held in a small second-floor chapel, about 150 people were usually in attendance for these services. Most were Chinese, but we also met people there from the U.S., the U.K., Samoa, and from Africa and South America. As in other Chinese churches, there was a half-hour of congregational hymn singing practice before the service began. Our colleague Cathy was the worship leader during July, and we heard one of our students from the Seminary faculty deliver a sermon.
On our last night with the Seminary folks, there was a dinner party to celebrate the conclusion of the summer English course. It was a wonderful month for Kate and me, and I believe the connections we established with friends in Nanjing are the kind of ties that bind.
