An age adjustment was made for students applying to the East China Theological College recently to under 40 after an admissions meeting to provide more opportunities for students in theological seminaries.
Many seminaries in China lack students and this is closely related to whether churches value nourishing theological students and how to use them, according to Dean Xie Bingguo in a statement.
The East China Theological College was founded by the China Christian Council (CCC) and Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) of four provinces (Shandong Province, Zhejiang Province, Jiangxi Province, and Fujian Province) and one Municipality (Shanghai) in 1985. The permanent departments, theology and holy music, are both four-year undergraduate programs. Moreover, the college opened non-scheduled Bible classes and part-time theological courses to nourish talents for churches in Shanghai. There are more than 60 teachers in the college, 17 of whom are full time, and 1,157 students have graduated as of December 2015.
Translated by: Grace Hubl
