Former name | Irish Baptist Training Institute |
---|---|
Motto | Domine Sequor (Latin) |
Motto in English | Lord I Follow |
Type | Bible college |
Established | 4 October 1892 |
Founder | Hugh D. Brown |
Religious affiliation | Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland |
Academic affiliation | Queen's University Belfast University of Wales, Lampeter University of Chester |
Principal | Edwin Ewart |
Director | Davy Ellison |
Academic staff | 10 |
Administrative staff | 5 |
Location | Baptist Theological Centre, The Baptist Centre, Moira, Craigavon, BT67 0HG, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom 54°28′46″N6°11′35″W / 54.479364°N 6.192942°W |
Campus | Rural Campus university |
Website | irishbaptistcollege.co.uk |
The Irish Baptist College (IBC) is a Baptist theological college in Moira, Craigavon, Northern Ireland. It is affiliated with the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland. [1] It is part of the Baptist Theological Centre which is located in the Baptist Centre and is shared with ABC. IBC is accredited and reached Premier College Status by the Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC). [2] The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education of England and Wales, review the IBC for quality and standards. [3]
IBC was founded as the Irish Baptist Training Institute, on 4 October 1892 in No. 16 Harcourt St., Dublin, now Republic of Ireland, by Hugh D. Brown, pastor of the neighbouring Harcourt St. Baptist Church, and Ambrose U.G. Bury, MA, was appointed the first principal of the IBC. [4] Since the college was established with funding from the philanthropist J.D. Rockefeller, [5] the building was named Rockefeller House. The college was controlled half by the Harcourt St. Church and half by the Baptist Union of Ireland. In 1916 Thomas Harold Spurgeon, MA, BD, (son of Rev. Thomas Spurgeon and grandson of Rev. Charles Spurgeon) was appointed principal. In 1940 the college moved to 42 Terenure Road in Dublin, the Harcourt St. Baptist Church had moved to Grosvenor Road, Rathmines. In 1964 the college moved to a new campus in Belfast in Northern Ireland, and control of the college was transferred to the Baptist Association. Following Spurgeon's retirement 1963, David P. Kingdon was appointed principal serving until 1974, [6] when he was succeeded by Dr. Ivor Oakley who served until 1988, Norman Shields served as acting principal following Dr. Oakley's departure. In 1990 Dr. Hamilton Moore became principal serving until 2009 when Edwin Ewart was elected principal. In college accept its first female students in 1964.
On 10 May 2003 [7] the college moved into the purpose-built Baptist Theological Centre in the Baptist Centre located outside Lisburn in Moira in County Antrim. [7] A new library (John B. Craig Library) and study area were added in 2010, it is named after Pastor John B. Craig who trained in the IBC in Dublin, before serving in Belfast before emigrating to Canada.
A Women's Ministry Course is run at the Baptist Centre in association with the Irish Baptist College. [8] The Irish Baptist Historical Society is an extension of the Irish Baptist College. [9]
The IBC became a constituent college of the Institute of Theology at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) in 1977, offering MTh and PhD degrees. In 2003 the IBC began offering undergraduate degrees and an MA validated by the University of Wales, Lampeter (UoW), which ceased its international partnerships programmes in 2010. In 2010 the IBC commenced its partnership with the University of Chester validating Undergraduate and Postgraduate degrees. [10] It was announced in 2019 that QUB was closing the Institute of Theology, with all existing students to have completed their programmes by 2023. [10] In 2023, Jonathan McClaughlin replaced Edwin Ewart as Principle of the college.
IBC is part of the Baptist Theological Centre which is located in the Baptist Centre and is shared with ABC. The campus is in a rural area near to the M1 motorway and within the boundaries of the City of Lisburn. IBC is a campus university. [7]
The Principal of the college is Edwin Ewart, since 2010. [11] The IBC is administered by a management committee which reports to the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland.
IBC offers degrees accredited by the University of Chester, University of Wales, Lampeter, and IBC awards.
Reformed Baptists, Particular Baptists and Calvinistic Baptists, are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. Depending on the denomination, Calvinistic Baptists adhere to varying degrees of Reformed theology, ranging from simply embracing the Five Points of Calvinism, to accepting a modified form of federalism; all Calvinistic Baptists reject the classical Reformed teaching on infant baptism. While the Reformed Baptist confessions affirm views of the nature of baptism similar to those of the classical Reformed, they reject infants as the proper subjects of baptism. The first Calvinistic Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith is a significant summary of the beliefs of Reformed Baptists. The name "Reformed Baptist" dates from the latter part of the 20th century to denote Baptists who retained Baptist ecclesiology, and reaffirmed Reformed biblical theology, such as Covenant theology.
The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast, is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of the Queen's University of Ireland and opened four years later, together with University of Galway and University College Cork.
University of Wales, Lampeter was a university in Lampeter, Wales. Founded in 1822, and incorporated by royal charter in 1828, it was the oldest degree awarding institution in Wales, with limited degree awarding powers since 1852. It was a self-governing college of the University of Wales from 1972 until its merger with Trinity University College in 2010 to form the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Baptists Together, formally the Baptist Union of Great Britain, is a Baptist Christian denomination in England and Wales. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and Churches Together in England. The headquarters is in Didcot.
Union Theological College is the theological college for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and is situated in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Council for Training in Ministry. It has been responsible for training people for ministry in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and also runs courses open to the wider public, including distance learning courses offered through BibleMesh.
John Owen was professor of Welsh at St David's College and Dean of St Asaph. He became the Bishop of St David's in 1897.
Moira is a village and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is in the northwest of the county, near the border with counties Antrim and Armagh. The M1 motorway and Belfast–Dublin railway line are nearby. The population was 4,591 at the 2011 Census.
Spurgeon's College is an evangelical Baptist theological college in South Norwood, London, England, United Kingdom. It is affiliated with the Baptist Union of Great Britain.
Lisburn Road is a main arterial route linking Belfast and Lisburn, Northern Ireland.
Queen's Quarter is the southernmost quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland and named after Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland's largest university. The Quarter is centred on the Lanyon Building, the University's most prominent building, designed by architect Sir Charles Lanyon, while Botanic Avenue, Stranmillis Road, University Road and Malone Road are the main thoroughfares through the area. The Quarter encompasses a region bounded by the Ormeau Road, the Holylands and Stranmillis Embankment to the east and the Lisburn Road to the west.
The Irish Bible Institute (IBI) is an evangelical Bible institute located in Dublin, Ireland. Although it is unaccredited by the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland, it's Honors Bachelors and Masters level courses in Applied Theology and Transformational Leadership are validated by York St John University, and so confirms to the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education of England and Wales regulations. The IBI is a registered charity in the Republic of Ireland, with donations contributing to the institute's income.
The Baptist Centre is a building which houses the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland (ABC), its departments and the Baptist Theological Centre which includes the Irish Baptist College (IBC), the Irish Baptist College Library and the Irish Baptist Historical Society Archives.
Hamilton Moore is a Baptist theologian and lecturer.
Edgehill Theological College is the training institution for ministry in the Methodist Church in Ireland. It was founded in 1926 out of the Theology Department of Methodist College Belfast.
The Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland is an association of Baptist Christian churches based in Ireland. The headquarters is in Moira, Craigavon.
Baptist Missions (BM) is a Baptist mission organisation and a department of the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland (ABC). It is located in the Baptist Centre and is shared with ABC. The scope of their activities is international in scale covering several countries including France, Latvia, Peru, the Republic of Ireland, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
Hugh Dunlop Brown MA BL, was an author, pastor-teacher of Harcourt Street Baptist Church, was sympathetic to the Irish Unionist Alliance, President of the Irish Baptist Association in 1887 and theologian associated with Charles Spurgeon, Charles's grandson T.H. Spurgeon was appointed Principal of the IBC in 1916.
The University of Wales Trinity Saint David is a multi-campus university with three main campuses in South West Wales, in Carmarthen, Lampeter and Swansea, a fourth campus in London, England, and learning centres in Cardiff, Wales, and Birmingham, England.
David P. Kingdon (1934–2021) was a British pastor. He served as principal of the Irish Baptist College from 1964 to 1974.