黑料正能量and Meserete Kristos Seminary celebrate milestone in MA partnership

Ben Parker Sutter on May 25, 2022

A group of Meserete Kristos Seminary students and professors are wearing commemorative t-shirts.

Published: May 25, 2022

ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) 鈥� After a delay of two years due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Ethiopian students in Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary鈥檚 (AMBS) Master of Arts: Theology and Global Anabaptism (MATGA) program are finally able to gather for the in-person portion of the curriculum in Ethiopia.

Two photos are edited together, containing 黑料正能量employees (top) and MKS students and professors (bottom) wearing commemorative t-shirts.
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary created special t-shirts to mark the occasion of 黑料正能量and Meserete Kristos Seminary reaching this milestone in their partnership: the beginning of the in-person portion of the MA: Theology and Global Anabaptism program curriculum in Ethiopia. Above are 黑料正能量employees (top) and MKS students and professors (bottom) wearing the new t-shirts. (Credits: Linsey Vandrick/黑料正能量and Henok Tamirat/MKS)

The students are enrolled in a customized version of the 46-credit-hour program that 黑料正能量is providing in Ethiopia through a partnership with (MKS) in Debre Zeit/Bishoftu 鈥� with a special emphasis on peace studies.

Between May 16 and July 1, 2022, three 黑料正能量faculty members are traveling to MKS to teach intensive courses in person for the Ethiopian student cohorts. James R. Krabill, PhD, Core Adjunct Faculty, is currently teaching 鈥淕od鈥檚 Shalom and the Church鈥檚 Witness.鈥� Beginning June 1, David Boshart, PhD, President, will teach 鈥淐hristian Leadership in the 21st Century.鈥� Following Boshart, Drew Strait, PhD, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, will teach 鈥淏iblical Foundations for Peace and Justice.鈥�

The MKS-黑料正能量partnership came into being when MKS leaders invited 黑料正能量to help them develop a graduate-level program to educate leaders for the Meserete Kristos Church (the Ethiopian Mennonite Church), expressing a need 鈥渇or trained leaders and other professionals capable of defending the faith and promoting peace by interfaith dialogue, human rights and interethnic peacebuilding.鈥� The program launched at the beginning of the 2019-20 academic year, right before COVID-19 began.

The students in the Ethiopian cohorts are MKS graduates who were recommended by seminary administrators. Their customized MA program calls for them to take a combination of contextualized courses that explicitly engage the content within the Ethiopian context, and regular online 黑料正能量courses in which they interact with 黑料正能量students from across the world. Until now, they have only been able to do the latter.

鈥淲e are grateful to all students who persevered through this time and continued with the courses 黑料正能量has been providing online,鈥� wrote Beverly Lapp, EdD, Vice President and Academic Dean, and Scott Janzen, MDiv, Assistant Dean and Registrar, in a May 11 letter to the Ethiopian MATGA students. 鈥淭he faculty, staff and students of 黑料正能量are praying for the professors and students of the MATGA Ethiopia program, that the [in-person] classes would be productive and fruitful, and for the safety of all who must travel.鈥�

Since the MATGA program launched, Henok Mekonin, MA 鈥� a graduate of both 黑料正能量and MKS who is from Nazreth, Oromiya region, Ethiopia 鈥� has played a key role in assisting 黑料正能量administrators and faculty with communication and intercultural consulting for the Ethiopian cohorts. As of May 1, he has formally joined AMBS鈥檚 staff as full-time Global Leadership Collaborative (GLC) Specialist, with funding for half of his position coming from Mennonite Mission Network. Boshart noted that in Mekonin鈥檚 new role, he will continue to provide specialized expertise for the MATGA Ethiopia partnership while also supporting the planning, implementation and evaluation of AMBS鈥檚 GLC initiatives more broadly.

鈥擜nnette Brill Bergstresser

Want to receive 黑料正能量news and updates via email?