Free Chaplaincy and Ministry Training with Ambassador International Network in London: September 14

 

 

|| Monday: August 19: 2019 || ά. Chaplaincy and Ministry Training with Ambassadors International Network is for anyone is interested in training in Theology, ministry accreditations or becoming a licenced Pastor, Reverend or chaplain. This is free opportunity for the interested. The event is taking place on Saturday, September 14, 14:20-18:00.

These possibilities could open up a new pathway to School, Prison Faith based or NHS chaplaincy as a new career path or provide the opportunity for personal study, ordination into ministry or both. The Seminar will be led by known  scholar and theologian, Professor Isacc Dansho of  Ambassadors International Network.

Where: Glows Maker Space, Greenleaf Close, London SW2 2HB.

To register contact Lorna Ashley, at lorna at treeshephered.org.uk or call on AIN Network on 07728 829 599.:::ω.

|| Readmore  || 190819 || Up ||

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something to Read: Something to Decipher: Something to Translate: University of St Andrews Found a Divinity Undergraduate to Unlock the Mysteries of Andrew Fuller’s Coded Writing for the First Time

|| January 29: 2019 || ά. Coded religious documents, which left generations of academics baffled for centuries, have been cracked by a student at the University of St Andrews. Mr Jonny Woods, a third-year Divinity undergraduate, has become the first person in the world to read some of the hundreds of pages of shorthand notes, left by famous Baptist leader Andrew Fuller, 1754-1815. Fuller was the son of a poor tenant farmer in Cambridgeshire, who became a leader of the British Baptist denomination and, despite minimal schooling, published a hugely influential text, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, which changed the history of the Baptists.

Such was his international standing, Fuller was, later, offered honorary doctorates by both Yale and the College of New Jersey, now, Princeton, which, he, modestly, declined.

Mr Woods said, “It is such an honour to be the first person to read Andrew Fuller’s sermons and to allow people to get an insight into this incredible man and the amazing stories he has to share. I’m excited to continue working on the vast collection of work, that he has left to us, in the hope that we can understand more about his thinking and how this developed throughout his ministry.”

Dr Steve Holmes, the Head of the School of Divinity at the University, said, “When Jonny told me he could read these documents it was an astonishing moment. Andrew Fuller stands as the figurehead, the ‘patron saint’, almost, of the church tradition of which I am a part. To be reading words of his, that no-one had read since he preached them in 1782, it’s one of those moments you live for as an academic.”

It is hoped that being able to finally read these crucial documents will offer insight into Fuller’s meteoric rise within the Baptist denomination, by revealing the early development of his thought. Hundreds of pages of his sermons are held in the archive of Bristol Baptist College. On examining them, Dr Holmes found one headed in longhand ‘Confessions of Faith, Oct. 7 1783’.

Knowing this was the date of Fuller’s induction into the pastorate of a church in Kettering and that he would have been required to give a confession of faith as part of that service, Dr Holmes wondered, if, a copy of the confession printed in a biography, might, help him crack the code.

After discovering that the two texts were the same, Dr Holmes recruited Mr Jonny Woods through the University’s Undergraduate Research Assistant scheme to help. After just a few weeks Mr Woods was able to translate the shorthand, using the longhand version as a kind of Rosetta stone, allowing him to read two of the most historically significant sermons from the collection.

The translations of these two sermons are now with the Baptist Quarterly, the leading academic journal for Baptist studies, under consideration for publication, while Dr Holmes is continuing to edit Fuller’s wider collection of sermons for a major new critical edition of his works.

Caption: 01: Image of the said Andrew Fuller's text and 02: Johnny Woods, Divinity Undergraduate student at the University, who, has, successfully,  decoded the script: Images: University of St Andrews::ω.

|| Readmore || 300119 || Up ||