A delightful update from our amazing Head Librarian, Zdenko! When my wife saw the title of this blog, she commented, “How typical for you” – and she was quite right. It is typical for me to develop intensive and intimate relationships with inanimate things and to give them names as a sign of this relationship. For example, my pipes have female names, my laptop and my pans also, and I greet the apartment every evening when I arrive home. Yes, first I gently and polite greet the apartment, and only then I greet and kiss my wife. Taking the above into account, it is not unusual at all (at least…
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Busy and exciting times
The first two full weeks in November usually mean Intensive session for IBTS – and it certainly has been a very intensive period so far! As you may have seen in an earlier blog entry, several of us have started our last week in Amsterdam, listening to Dr Cathy Ross talking on Global Christianity and Hospitality for our Nordenhaug lectures. Then the ‘IBTS crew’ travelled back, picking up one of our students, Kristina from Latvia, who continued with her classes in our Prague campus. This week traditionally is the Dissertation Writing Seminar Week. So yesterday we welcomed and today we listened to the dissertation proposals of six of our M-level…
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NEW RECTOR OF IBTS APPOINTED
Following its meeting in Prague on 1 November the Board of Trustees of the International Baptist Theological Seminary (IBTS) announced its unanimous decision that the Rector of the International Baptist Theological Study Centre (IBTS Centre) in Amsterdam is to be The Revd Dr Stuart Blythe, at present Interim Principal of the Scottish Baptist College, where he has been on the staff for the past eight years. He will take up his new post in the summer of 2014. Stuart Blythe is the first head of the institution to be an IBTS graduate alumnus, obtaining his BD degree magna cum laude at Rüschlikon in 1989. Before that he had graduated MA…
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Nordenhaug Lectures in Amsterdam
This year’s Nordenhaugh lectures, delivered by Dr Cathy Ross at the VU University, marked an exciting new beginning in the history of IBTS: the first IBTS event in Amsterdam. Here are some of my impressions. Firstly, what an amazing place Amsterdam is! The areas I moved around in were looked after, the impressive trains in good condition and the metro and trams so well run; and everyone seems to speak perfect English! Possibly because English is a mandatory part of the curriculum in Dutch schools. People were really helpful when I had to make some unplanned changes to my itinerary. Our Dutch colleagues are so genuinely enthusiastic about our arrival…
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A reminder…
…that our Nordenhaug Lectures are less than a month away! Those planning to take part please register!
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IBTS in Czech Rectors’ Conference
On Monday 30th September, the IBTS rector took part in the official opening of the new academic year 2013/14, organized by the Czech Rectors Conference. This year, the event took place in Pardubice and was joint with awarding the „doctor honoris causa“ – “the honorary doctor” – title of the Pardubice University. The welcome speech was given by prof. Ludwig, Rector of the host university. After him, prof. Hampl, Rector of the Charles University and President of the Czech Rectors Conference gave his address. (It is available in Czech here.) He stressed the importance of personal responsibility in the area of higher education, the need of honouring the ethics and principles of…
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EBF Council in Bratislava
For the past few days five of us from IBTS have been attending the annual EBF Council meeting, held this year in Bratislava, the capital city of our neighbours, Slovakia. We have been warmly welcomed by our Slovak sisters and brothers from the Baptist Union of Slovakia, and by our EBF president Oti Bunaciu, and our General Secretary Tony Peck. This is only the second time I’ve been to an EBF Council meeting. As the previous one was in Budapest I guess I must be working my way through capital cities beginning with B! Just over halfway through the meeting I already have lots of wonderful experiences to think about…
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Preparing for a New Home
This should have appeared on Friday, but our blog server had some hickups: I’m writing this from Amsterdam, after a few days of good meetings with colleagues at VU University and generally a good experience of how our ‘new academic home’ will work. Those of you who have had some experience of this culture know the friendliness which generally characterises it, but you can imagine the difference this can make in the task of discussing various aspects of integration of IBTS into the work and life of VU’s Theology Faculty, common projects, shared aspirations, etc. Of course, because this is a big organisation, things take time as far as the…