Dear friends of UTC
2010 is our centenary year …. 100 years of God’s mission through theological education …. faithfulness of God in a community of faith …. your suggestions, ideas and visions that could challenge and direct us towards the next centenary.
Rev. Dr. John Samuel Raj
Principal
United Theological College
# 63, Miller’s Road, Benson Town
Bangalore 560046, India
Bishop S. Vasanthakumar
Chairperson of the Centenary
Celebration Committee
Ms. Jessie Shiri
Coordinator
Centenary Fundraising Committee
I really appreciate UTC new site since i have access to Centenary Programmes. Feel free to contact me.
wishing UTC God’s blessings
don`t know much about utc but wishing it all the best in all its endeavours
Best wishes to UTC as it celebrates its centenary.
best wishes for this upcoming event
i am going to do B.D next year. iam really excited and i am really very proud of that.
Wishing best wishes and God’s blessings for this event.
who is d new principal? n whn is he/her induction? plz update
GREETINGS!
Thanking UTC for doing everything in the glory of God since its inception. Dr Joseph George sincere efforts in conducting the centenary functions is laudable.
with lots of prayers,
Mayil
Dear Friends,
Thanks all of you for your wishes and prayers. The 100 years celebration in UTC began on the 8th of July 2009 with a day-long consultation on Theologial Education and Ministry in the Chruch today by prominent theologians, educators, and church leaders. This was followed by the thanksgiving service at 6.00 pm, led by Rt.Rev. Dr. G. Dyvasirvadam, the President of the UTC Society, and the sermon by Rt. Rev. S. Vasanthakumar, the Chairperson of the Centennial Celebrations Committee, during which about 1000 persons attended the service and the fellowship dinner.
We look forward to your continued prayers and support for the ministry of the United Theological College.
With kind regards
Dr. Joseph George
Officiating Principal
Having been done both BD and MTh in UTC, I am proud to be a graduate of UTC for its excellence in scholarly and ecumenical persepective to christian mission.
CONGRATULATIONS AND BEST WISHES FOR THE CENTENARY CLELBRATIONS
Proud to be part of the historical journey of UTC.
It was wonderful being part of this Great Institution.
The paths we walked together…
the life we shared together…
the challenge we encountered together…
the light that leads us on…
will never be lost…
The generations passed through UTC testifies to the vision with which it was founded back in 1910.
Let this Centenary Year be a landmark in the Theological History of India… May the Society be liberated and enriched by the service of UTC…
Let the WORD be the light in the path to move on…
Let the WORD be the sight in the ways to lead on…
Let the WORD be the breath in the life to live on…
May the God of History Continue to Enlighten, Enable and Empower UTC to Engrave on the Walls of History
Congratulations UTC
I have been proud of being a friend and well wisher of UTC since 1963. Several of the scholars who were on the faculty of UTC were/have been known to me personally and many turned out to be my guides and philiosophers. They included the late. Dr. Frederick Mulyil, Dr. Stanley Samartha, Rev. Arangaden, Rev. V.T.Kurien and others who have gone beyond the curtain. I have also been associated with it in its media management voluntarily. When it celebrated its 75th anniversary, I could organise a battery of media men and the celebrations received wide publicity. Dr. E.C.John came and thanked me personally for my efforts.When it celebrated 85th annivery, at that time too Bangalore Press corps was in full attendance. Dr. Konrard Raise was the chief guest and I interviewed on telefax before he landed in Bangalore and full page interview appeared in Deccan Herald. I have interviewed Dr. E.C.John and Dr. Gnana Robinson for Deccan Herald and Times of India respectively, the former was a half-front-page exposure. The latter a quarter page. The topic was the same at both times: “Whither Indian Church?” It was for the first these two gentlemen were ever interviewed for secular news papers. I have not seen any one doing it later. In the same way, Dr. K.C.Abraham was interviewed along with thelate Bishop Paulose Mar Paulose on “Marism and Christianity”, again another full-front page in Sunday Herald. I wrote an edit-page article on Arch Bishop Runsey when he visited UTC during the 1980s. I have preserved the newspapers in my files. My main aim for doing these interviews and write-ups was/is simple - introduce the liberal and thinking Christians to the secular world outside the 7-acre campus of UTC.
I have written a piece on UTC’s centenary. Please read it, if you have the time and inclination.
THE UNITED THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, BANGALORE
Stray thoughts of a long-standing friend and well-wisher of UTC on its centenary
By P.N.BENJAMIN
A place of sacred learning – learning designed for the making of a unique product, the pastor – the United Theological College, has in the last one hundred years of existence decisively influenced the life and thought of Churches in the Sub-Continent and Sri Lanka and neigbouring countries. Guest students and teachers from East and West have imparted to this miniscule band of scholars an academic excellence and trans-denominational comradeship without which the pursuit and practice of truth would have remained largely parochial and less than holistic.
Its achievements thus, which are many, occasion for joyful celebration. Its failures, not a few, call for a new and recognizably firm commitment to Christ, Master and Lord.
It is an occasion of release. Within the Christian world it demands a shattering of the fetters of the past, a confrontation with corruption in the historic process as a community of people, an overcoming of hubris and decay. Not mere survival, but renewal in every part.
West-oriented
Not mere expansion, but inner growth is what we covet for UTC today. Its origins and traffic with the West brought in many of the riches of the West. But more and more import of ideas and institutions, many of them not untouched, untainted by the cataclysmic wars and beguilements of today’s doctrine of the balance of power, is not what we would envisage for the future. In theology, as in science and technology, Western insights are an invaluable commodity. In theology, however, it is not mere information at the cognitive levels that is needed, but its incarnation in human personalities for it to pass into the Indian psyche there to generate varying models of Christian discipleship.
We in this country are not behind others in the business of killing, killing even in the name of religion. Nor does our compassion surpass that of people in the West, Christian or Pagan. It has failed to match the needs of multitudes around us, the hungry, the naked, the maimed within.
The UTC must now come out of its cave lit by light from the modern West if not air-conditioned by it, redefine its self-hood in the annoyingly distressing Indian context and re-enter the world of Karnataka, Kashmir and the rest of the Sub-Continent. Be its endowment as small as a mustard seed, the future resides in it, for it is none other than the seed of reconciliation in a land of much tearing down and breaking up, of those fallen among thieves and myriads defeated in life.
Peace-makers and the Christ-like – it does not matter if they come from the ends of the earth – constituting a community and not merely herded in lecture-rooms could conceivably attempt what this country craves for: a recognizably indigenous Christian way to live, live for another, work for the common good, worship truly.
Worship
Worship is where westernization is most evident. Order and decorum characterize it, elements corporate worship cannot do without. In essence, however, it is regimentation, rigid or relaxed as suits particular tradition. It smacks of triumphalism, a feature which is made to dominate some people’s funerals. Easter Orthodoxy differs in certain respects. Sanskritization and feeble attempts at archaisation or assimilation to certain indigenous Hindu forms do not appear to be the answer. In almost all, form tends to dominate content. We shall evolve as many forms as content and occasion dictate, and new symbols will emerge. They grow out of our religious experience.
Where a cultic life degenerated – a tendency to superficiality is nherent in the nature of the cult – and sincerity of heart was supplanted by dazzling rituals, forgiveness became cheapened and automatic, resulting in a recurring falseness the prophets, champions of righteousness and truth in ancient Israel, never failed to attack.
The intellectual fare of the class-room apart, how deep and true is one’s personal devotional life? None has a right to peep in here. The way a public worship is conducted, however, is often a mirror of one’s grasp of the fundamentals of worship and pattern and content of one’s private devotional life, its depth and genuineness. Some have not hesitated to impose their faulty, gimmicky ways upon public worship on occasions. How well do they know their Master? He spoke of true worship sweeping aside the thousand-year-old tradition of Jerusalem’s holiness, and added: “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Sacredness resides not in a place, person or words, but in human corporateness. The words of Jesus, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”, have been proved true in tens of thousands of homes around the world.
Dichotomy
As in any place of learning the brainier ones outstrip the rest. It is often assumed that these, occasional occurrences, will jump the pastoral groove and gravitate to teaching or research after more prolonged studies here or overseas. Is there the germ of an unhealthy elitism here? Were not some of the best minds in the West nurtured in pastoral tradition?
A contra-elitism has been of those less endowed and who struck a pose of radicalism. They heard of rumours of the death of God, and without waiting to ask where and when and how, lightened their luggage including the Bible in some cases, later exhorting the faithful to go beyond it.
This pseudo-theological radicalism was soon to cloak itself in pseudo-Marxist radicalism and to champion the cause of the poor by seeking solutions to India’s poverty in expensive eating houses and jaunts overseas. Judas Iscariot, a disciple who plotted against the Master, appears in the Bible as a champion of the poor, Jesus himself is just poor!
Pastoral work is all-comprehending in which intellectual and true liberationist are all at home, and there is nothing greater than it..
Power
Here is the nub of the question. Power attracts, and ecclesiastical power attracts for the ease with which it can be seized and the immense profit for which it can be wielded.
Well-intentioned but often misguided or ill-directed inductions of large sums of money from overseas has had the effect of re-colonising the Church and debilitating it for generations to come, priests its agents.
Power is a fact of ecclesiastical life, more so today than a couple of generations ago. The UTC should be a place where its nature, necessity, conditions of legitimacy and limits are understood to help its exercise in ways that are compatible with the spirit of Christ.
Isn’t powerlessness Christ’s way? Would UTC consider exploring this avenue?
Specialist?
All too quickly, perilously prematurely, a UTC man/woman is thrust into a world of men and women and children where he/she, a 25-year-old, now a specialist in spiritual matters, must solve problems, fulfill needs. This is an outcome of professionalizing a kind of service which is well nigh impossible to professionalize. There is in the Indian tradition elements, the assimilation of which into the making of a priest and pastor must no longer be ignored
Pain
Ultimately, it is the constant of human life, pain, which always confronts us. Least understood and most dreaded, pain often lurks behind a beaming face refusing to reveal itself. For anyone wishing to be of help this is an impenetrable barrier, perpetually baffling, defeating.
Christianity does not offer to abolish pain. It acknowledges its pervasive presence, infinite variety and our extreme vulnerabilities. “Pain”, said one who was no stranger to it, “is a central raw material for man’s entry into that dimension of love which lies beyond evolution”. Christianity offers a vision of its transformation through one like ourselves, Jesus, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…stricken, rejected”.
People
Somewhere along the line we would have sensed that hurts don’t go away except through forgiveness. “I learned what forgiveness is”, confesses a master of pastor’s craft many years ago, “ from a woman dying of poison administered by her husband”. People are our teachers, their forbearance the first input. They may annoy but they will help to learn. Where two persons in pain sit alongside each other, each is a priest to the other. And the priest and the saddest are discovered in unlikely places, the ones to whom vision of God has been vouchsafed and those who have become victors over pain.
People too must learn lest they remain rooted in their childhood beliefs and prejudices of later years. Their inherited doctrines my have worked well for previous generations but today there are exciting prospects of knowledge and enrichment. Beliefs need to be dialectically related to main quest for meaning at the heart of a human cell or in the tail of a comet. Our need is not for water to be turned into wine but for wine to be turned into water to slake the parched throats of our people.
A UTC in every home! Electronic means are at its disposal to reach people with the riches of the Christian faith, the wisdom of our ancient sages, the mirth of the medieval mystics, the zeal of the contemporary liberationist. Not for the few but for the many who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Holiness
A priest/pastor is one in quest of holiness, an unattainable goal. In its moment of clarity, the UTC will own to a certain loss of holiness over the years, a scorning of transcendence, grace being misconstrued for permissiveness. Is it too much to hope for a re-born sense of obedience to Jesus, however imperfect it might be in our understanding of Him and of the world for whose good fortune He lived and died? Wouldn’t the UTC men/women, when they come out of it, wish to be known as those “who had been with Jesus” and not non-glossy professionals?
END
It is such a honour and joy to be a part of the centenary celebrations of UTC. I consider it a real privilege to be a student of this great institution during this wonderful and significant occasion. Prayers, best wishes and blessings…
It is a matter of self esteem to a UTCian to join in this jubilation.
I’m greatful to the Divine Providence that made me share life @ UTC.
It is sincerly hopped that UTC would be in the safer hands of Dr.John Samuel Raj the principle designate in this centenary year and further years to come..
Wishing a meaningful and fruitful centenary celebration…
JAYHO UTC …..JAYHO…….
Hallo all,
As one who grew up as a little boy in UTC and then who went on to do M.Th. there, I really feel proud to be part of the rich heritage of this great institution. And now, when my alma mater celebrates her Centenary it is really a touching moment for me. May God bless this institution more and more in the coming years, and may more Indian theological scholars be formed through UTC.
I owe much of my theological nous to the foundation laid by the professors at UTC in the years 1954 -58 and I wish the College God’s continued blessings in the years ahead.
Reverend Ravanel N.Weinman BD STM
252 Hull Road
Mooroolbark 3138 Victoria
Australia
The great institution which molded thousands of Christian leaders for our nation in the past 100 years also have a touch in my life as a Ministerial and Master’s student. I am grateful and honored to be in the portals of UTC for 6 years and with a humble hearts we cherish the moments which we have spend in the greenery of the Word and campus. We wish and pray our Alma Mater very fruitful years ahead. Let the beacons of the knowledge of the Word may continue to flow from the heights of UTC and fill our land.
why has my piece on centenary not elicited any response? Are there no scholars worth the name to respond to its contents? Or have they all gone on seminars/consultations/foreign jaunts to find solutions to the basic probles of the poor - hunger, hopelessness, rooflessness etc outside the UTC campus, in far away countries?
P.N.BENJAMIN
UTC has been my source of inspiration since 1986. This college has given me exposure to latest theological trends and I am indebted to this college in a speacial way. I had the privilage of doing M.th in 2004-06 and also being the President of UTCSA. I love to come back to UTC for further studies. My congratulations to the new Principal and also to the dedicated faculty for journeying into the centenary year.Iam now at ACTC teaching in the Dept. of N.T,and wish to receive UTC college hand book and Sambanda regularly. My sincere regards to the UTC family.
Rev.M.John Sunder.
Today only I have a chance to have a look at all these !!! from a far away land- Mizoram… I am really happy to learn once again that the College is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and that our new Principal is the one who always encouraged me during my stay here at UTC (2004-08). A big Congratulation to Dr. and Mrs. John Samuel Raj! and Aunty Jessie, too!!
My family wishes all the best for UTC and its centenary celebration programmes.
Many congratulations to all those who, in these hundred years, made UTC what it is now! Best wishes for its future journey of contributing to the heritage of theological innovation and to its role as a prophetic voice!
Rohan
(BD 1998- 2002)
its joy for me to be part of the centenary celebration. I hope that the centeneray celebration will bring all of us to feel the joy and happiness where we enjoyed. it is my prayer and wish that utc will continue to work for His/her mission and ministry. Rev.J.Samson
Dear P.N.,
You wonder why no one has responded to your stray thoughts?Well, for one thing they are stray! What aspect of UTC shall we respond to and how and why?
Too many issues here and spread over 100 years.
This is a public site..should we be true and unpleasant or false and say fine-sounding things? Can all of us be true and unpleasant entirely?Or can we all be false and say grandiose things? Each one of us is so different and we need to celebrate these differences when we talk of UTC.
Anyway…I have been with UTC for 26 years and have seen the slow changes.
When I joined, it seemed to be a veritable heaven on earth for any scholar:the freedom to be, to think, to read, to write was exhilarating.Models were many and we could just walk in their footsteps.Professors were learned yet humble.Caste was never mentioned…for it did not mean anything.
But our very liberating theologies seem to have played havoc at times.
Some passed on, some left or retired, some were unkindly forced to leave…money became more important than human values and, following Society, we too have put up impressive buildings in the name of development and embracing change.
I left, I retired actually, three years ago when ugliness ruled! Sad! I hear things have improved now.
Let us only hope that at this crucial juncture, as we celebrate the centenary year , that we all work hard to redress much that needs to be redressed.Whether in UTC or outside it we need to pray for her.
Going abroad today is no big deal and maybe we have alternatives to offer those there and not always seek solutions for our poverty there among those who suffer surfeit.
I am proud witness to my own young students preach there on concepts unknown to many there.They learned it all at UTC!
Let us maintain a balanced view, P.N. I know you love UTC!!
Congratulations UTC!!!
It was wonderful being part of the historical journey of UTC.
The memories that we got from there and the associated memories, still we cherish.
Let me Salute the great personalities of 100years who promote the ethos which UTC promotes.
Let the History continues to be the History of the people!!!
dear friends,
Can you please send me your mail ID’s or else I request you all kindly to pray for our college and your valuable contgributions to your Alma Mata addressed to The united theological college, bangalore and covering letter to me Jessie Shiri Thanks if u give your mail ID’s i will update all the programmes my id jessieshiri@yahoo.com Love from Jessie
UTC is an unique institution and I am proud to be a product of UTC. I did both B.D. and M.Th. For me it was a place where the world met. I made many friends from four corners of the world and those connections still continue even though I live in Chicago now. We were blessed to have so many beloved teachers like Drs. Russell Chandran, E. C. John, Dayanand Pitamber, Somen Das, Franklin Collison, A. P. Nirmal and Rev. Melancthon. I wish UTC all the best and may God continue to bless our great institution.
Heartfelt gratitude to all UTCians for electing me as the President of UTCSA 2010-11. Thank you every one. You have truly made a new history in the centenary year of UTC. I am indebted to you for your love and support. Thank you so much. God bless you.
thrilled to know that my college celebrate its centenary. Good luck
UTC is a source of inspiration to me. God bless the faculty and management
Greetings to UTC as it enters the 100th year.May GOD bless the college abundantly
Hey UTC, I simply fell in Love with you… You Have seen generation after Generations and produced renowned Scholars. Salute….Dear…