Monday night, 14 October, saw two of us as representatives of IBTS present at Luther King House in Rusholme, Manchester, for a “Service to mark the new ministries of Clare McBeath, Glen Marshall and Tim Mountain at the Northern Baptist Learning Community.”
It was a lovely service, with a thoughtful act of worship led by different members of NBLC, including two newly-appointed Regional Ministers, Mary Taylor (Yorkshire) and Tim Presswood (North West), both of whom are NBLC alumni.
Clare and Glen become Co-Principals of NBLC, following in the pattern of co-principalship established by good friends of IBTS, Richard Kidd and Anne Phillips. Tim joins the tutorial team.
Within the European Baptist community and networked through the Consortium of European Baptist Theological Schools these relationships and connections are very important. In this challenging Christian and academic environment there is no place for our Baptist seminaries to stand alone – we need each other!
So, the links between IBTS and NBLC are many – sharing in conferences; having an NBLC Co-Principal as an External Examiner; now sharing in the community of theological colleges who have degrees validated by the University of Manchester (including Spurgeon’s College); the triangular relationship involving the Non-Residential Bible School in Lithuania, IBTS and NBLC. These all add to our common life together and we rejoice in this inter-connectedness.
Permit us one additional link. Clare is an IBTS alumna! After undergraduate work in Aberdeen and on the way to postgraduate work in Manchester, Clare spent a year at IBTS, so we claim our small part in her formation and look forward with enthusiasm to future working together in the important task of forming women and men for service within the baptistic communities of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East!
– Lina and Keith