Motto | Equipping Christians to Serve |
---|---|
Type | Seminary |
Established | 1968 |
Affiliation | Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, Association for Biblical Higher Education |
Academic affiliation | Acadia University |
President | Anna M. Robbins |
Academic staff | 14 faculty + 12 staff |
Students | 200 |
Location | , , Canada |
Campus | 250 acres (100 ha) |
Colours | Blue, red, white |
Nickname | Axemen & Axewomen |
Website | www |
The Acadia Divinity College (ADC) is Baptist theological institute located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is affiliated with the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada. It is governed by a board of trustees with members appointed by the Convention and the Board of Governors of Acadia University. [1] The college is also the Faculty of Theology of Acadia University. [2]
ADC shares facilities with Acadia University; the college's library is part of the university's 800,000 volume Vaughan Memorial Library collection. Also hosted at Acadia University are the Esther Clark Wright Archives, which includes an extensive collection of material relating to the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada (CBAC).
As early as 1830, Baptists in Nova Scotia, Canada established a "department of pious scholars" at Horton Academy in Wolfville (founded 1828) for ministerial training. A decade later, Baptist Leaders resolved to establish a Baptist College, an institution of higher learning where all people would be free to work and study, regardless of religious persuasion. The decision to establish Queen's College, which would become Acadia University, was formally approved by the Nova Scotia Baptist Education Society on November 15, 1838. [3] Preparation for ministry was carried on under various formats until the School of Theology was put on a more formal footing in 1923.
After Acadia University was reorganized in 1966, the Baptists of Atlantic Canada began to operate the School of Theology under the name Acadia Divinity College, and on June 1, 1968, the Acadia Divinity College was established by an act of the Nova Scotia Legislature. [4]
Established by Acadia Divinity College in cooperation with the Vaughan Memorial Library of Acadia University in April 1991, encourages and facilitates studies in the fields of Baptist and Anabaptist history and thought, especially in the Atlantic region of Canada. [5]
The Taylor Centre trains and prepares men and women for pastoral ministry in specialized forms, including hospital chaplaincy, military chaplaincy, prison chaplaincy, and a variety of other caring professions, for which care for the Spirit is of primary importance. [6]
Provides a forum for helping students and the wider church engage with people and issues, and as a research hub. [6]
Students can complete any bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree or program part-time or full-time at ADC's main teaching site located on the campus of Acadia University in Wolfville. All courses required for all degrees are offered on a rotating basis over a two- or three-year period in a variety of teaching formats including once weekly, intensive weeks, and on weekends. [7] All courses are taught in a hybrid formatting allowing students to attend classes from anywhere in the world.
Mr. Gerald K. Simpson of Fairhaven, Deer Island, New Brunswick, established an endowment in 1979 to finance an annual series of lectures on the practice of ministry prepared primarily for students, pastors, and spouses. The lecturers are outstanding persons in ministry who focus on the role of the minister as both preacher and pastor. This lectureship has welcomed many distinguished preachers including John N. Gladstone, Haddon W. Robinson, Alan Sell, and Gardner Taylor. [8]
Established and endowed in 1964 by Mrs. C. C. Hayward of Wolfville, the Hayward Lectures provide academic dialogue in Church History, Christian Theology, and Biblical Studies.
The College is affiliated with the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada. [9] [10]
The Acadia University awards all of the Acadia Divinity College degrees, upon recommendation from the ADC Senate and the Senate of Acadia University. The graduate degrees are accredited by the Association for Biblical Higher Education and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. [11]
Endowed academic (teaching) chairs are established to ensure that permanent funding is available to the college to meet the costs of a professor's salary in a given discipline. Eleven chairs have been established at ADC covering a variety of disciplines.
Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia University Act and the Amended Acadia University Act 2000.
Baptists form a major branch of evangelical Protestantism distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul competency, sola fide, sola scriptura and congregationalist church government. Baptists generally recognize two ordinances: baptism and communion.
Wolfville is a Canadian town in the Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. The town is home to Acadia University and Landmark East School.
Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM) or Ministères Baptistes Canadiens is a federation of four regional Baptist Christian association of churches in Canada. The federation is a member of the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarter is in Mississauga, Ontario.
Atlantic School of Theology (AST) is a Canadian public ecumenical university that provides graduate level theological education and undertakes research to assist students to prepare for Christian ministries and other forms of public leadership. It is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and its enrolment is approximately 160 degree and non-degree students. Persons of all religious traditions, or none, are welcome to study at AST.
McMaster Divinity College, also known as MDC, is a Baptist Christian seminary in Hamilton, Ontario affiliated with McMaster University and the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec. The institution's mission is to develop effective evangelical Christian leaders for the church, academy, and society through university-level education, professional training, and ongoing support.
Henry Alline was a minister, evangelist, and writer who became known as "the Apostle of Nova Scotia."
Evan McDonald Whidden was a Canadian Christian minister and academic whose career included being President of Brandon College, Dean of Theology at Acadia University, and chairman of the founding conference of the Atlantic Ecumenical Council. An annual scholarship is awarded at Acadia University in his honor.
Baptists missionary work in Canada began in the 1760s. United Empire Loyalists and more recent arrivals from England and the U.S. formed the core and foundation of the Baptist denomination in Canada.
Theodore Harding Rand was a Canadian educator and poet.
Higher education in Nova Scotia refers to education provided by higher education institutions. In Canada, education is the responsibility of the provinces and there is no Canadian federal ministry governing education. Nova Scotia has a population of less than one million people, but is home to ten public universities and the Nova Scotia Community College, which offers programs at 13 locations.
Charles Henry Corey (1834-1899), was a Canadian Baptist clergyman.
Muriel Spurgeon Carder was a Canadian Baptist who was the first woman ordained as a Baptist minister in Ontario and Quebec; she was also a missionary in India.
William Henry Brackney (1948–2022) was the Millard R. Cherry Distinguished Professor of Christian Thought and Ethics Emeritus at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and an ordained Baptist minister, accredited by the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches and the American Baptist Churches, USA. He was previously the Dean of Theology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and published numerous books and articles dealing with post-Reformation Protestant thought, particularly the Baptist and Radical Reformation traditions. Brackney did significant work in the areas of global ethics and human rights, and was the director of the Acadia Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies (2008–2018). He was also a regular columnist for websites focused on ethics.
The Heritage College & Seminary is a Baptist theological institute in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. It is affiliated with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada.
William Pearly Oliver worked at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church for twenty-five years (1937–1962) and was instrumental in developing the four leading organizations to support Black Nova Scotians in the 20th century: Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1945), the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission (1967), the Black United Front (1969) and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia (1983). He was instrumental in supporting the case of Viola Desmond. Oliver was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984.
Jerome Richard "Jerry" Johnston is an American evangelical Christian pastor, author, and docu-filmmaker. Johnston is currently vice president for Innovation and Strategic marketing at Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas, and director of Christian Thinkers Society. Johnston and his wife Cristie Jo Huf Johnston are professors of theology and co-producers of a documentary in production about the "Nones" phenomenon.
Gordon Payzant Barss (1885–1969) was a Canadian Baptist missionary who served in India from 1910 to 1945 through the Canadian Baptist Ministries.
Raymond E. Ivany is a Canadian executive. He was the President and CEO of Nova Scotia Community College, Executive Vice President at Cape Breton University, and President and Vice-Chancellor of Acadia University.
Donald D. Skeir was a Canadian pastor, community leader, and educator in the African Nova Scotian community.