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Motto | Non inferiora secuti |
---|---|
Motto in English | "Not pursuing lesser ideals" |
Type | Theological college |
Established | 1856 |
Affiliation | Anglican Diocese of Sydney |
Principal | Mark D. Thompson |
President of Council | Kanishka Raffel |
Academic staff | 20 |
Students | 600 |
Location | Sydney , New South Wales , Australia 33°53′29.45″S151°11′16.04″E / 33.8915139°S 151.1877889°E |
Website | moore.edu.au |
Moore Theological College, otherwise known simply as Moore College, is the theological training seminary of the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. [1] The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney holds ex officio the presidency of the Moore Theological College Council.
The college has a strong tradition of conservative evangelical theology with an emphasis on the study of the Bible in its original languages, the use of primary sources in theology, the heritage of the Reformation and the integration of theology and ministry practice. It gives particular attention to full-time study in the context of a Christian learning community as an appropriate context for training for full-time Christian ministry, however it also offers part-time and online learning opportunities. The college trains both men and women at every level of its program. On 1 July 2021, Moore College was recognised by the Australian Government's Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency as an Australian University College. [2] [3]
The college is one of the largest Anglican seminaries in the world, [4] with normally around 300 full-time students in its BD and BTh programs. Over its history, it has had 13 principals and over 4000 graduates. While Anglican in foundation and governance, it has also trained Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists and others who are sympathetic to the evangelical ethos and theology of the college. The college has also prepared missionaries, church planters and independent church pastors. It attracts students from around the world into its undergraduate and postgraduate programs.
While the largest group studying in its four-year full-time undergraduate program is typically those preparing for Anglican ordained ministry, Moore has also trained other Christian workers. Moore graduates also serve as school chaplains, Christian studies teachers and scripture teachers, university chaplains and staff workers, cross-cultural missionaries, social workers, community workers, hospital and nursing home/retirement village chaplains and refugee advocacy workers.
Moore College has an international reputation as the home of evangelical biblical theology. In the 1950s through to the 1970s Donald Robinson pioneered a way of seeing how the whole Bible fits together as God's unfolding purposes. The underlying pattern of promise and fulfilment unfolds as God's gospel promise of salvation, first for the Jews and then for all the nations, is given to Abraham, partially fulfilled in Israel's history, and realised in the coming of the Christ. [5] In the 1980s and 1990s these ideas were developed by Robinson's pupil, Graeme Goldsworthy, in a series of books, Gospel and Kingdom, According to Plan, and Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture. [6] Biblical theology in this mode has been characteristic of the work done at Moore College since Robinson's time as vice principal.
Robinson was also influential in developing a doctrine of the church which in a distinctive way resisted the strongly ecumenical tone of the mid twentieth century. A study of the terminology and contextual associations of 'church' in the Bible led Robinson to insist 'church' is a gathering, either fundamentally around Christ in heaven and instantiated throughout the world in local congregations. [7] Each congregation is the church and associations of congregations (denominations), while valuable, cannot attribute to themselves the identity and privileges of 'church'. [8] Such structures exist to support the local congregation in its life as a community of faithful men and women committed to the global gospel mission. Broughton Knox gave these conclusions added theological depth in his own studies of 'fellowship' and the critical nature of 'relationship'. [9] While this perspective was sometimes decried as 'congregationalism', both men were active throughout their lives in the work of the Diocese of Sydney, and Robinson himself became a bishop and in time Archbishop of Sydney. They cannot be construed as congregationalists in any pure sense of the word. However, their teaching gave a priority to the local congregation over denominational and ecumenical concerns and located the unity of the church, something to be maintained rather than established, in the unity of the heavenly gathering around the throne of Christ.
Moore College has played a role in the shape of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney by training the vast majority of the diocese's clergy including the last five Archbishops of Sydney, three of which were also full-time members of the college faculty.[ citation needed ] Members of the current faculty also serve in various capacities in the diocese, including its Synod, Standing Committee, the Social Issues Committee and the Sydney Diocesan Doctrine Commission.[ citation needed ]
Thomas Hobbes Scott, the first Archdeacon of New South Wales (1825–29), shared his vision for a tertiary training college in the colony in the 1830 Report of the Church and Schools Corporation. [10] With this vision in mind, one of the early settlers of the colony of New South Wales, Thomas Moore, [11] made provision in his will to leave a substantial portion of his considerable fortune [12] to found a college to train young men in 'the principles of the United Church of England and Ireland'. [13] Moore died in 1840, but the vision was realised when Bishop Frederic Barker opened Moore College on 1 March 1856 in Moore's former home in Liverpool, New South Wales. [14] In terms of the date of opening, at least, the college is, therefore, the third oldest tertiary institution in Australia after the University of Sydney (1850) and the University of Melbourne (1853). It began with three students and one full-time tutor, the principal. For almost the first one hundred years of its life (1856–1953), the principals of the college came from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Marcus Loane was the first Australian-born principal of the college (1953–58). The current principal, Mark D. Thompson, took up office in May 2013.
After a theological controversy which, alongside a downturn in student enrollments, led to the dismissal of the principal of the day (T. E. Hill), the teaching activity of the college was suspended in 1888. It reopened in 1891, at the present site in Newtown adjacent to the University of Sydney. [14] The college began to grow in student numbers and influence, particularly under the important principalships of Nathaniel Jones (1897–1911) and later T. C. Hammond (1935–1953). [15] However, the college's most notable leader in 20th century was Broughton Knox (1959-1985). [16] His vision, drive and shrewd management of the college saw it built into a theological college with an international reputation, a noted faculty and students spreading out from Sydney to many other parts of Australia and the globe.
The site on which the college reopened in 1891 has expanded considerably since then. Numerous adjacent buildings have been acquired or built. The Broughton Knox Teaching Centre was opened in 1994. In 2017 a major new building was opened which houses, amongst other things, the Donald Robinson Library and Marcus Loane Hall.
By 1985 the Donald Robinson Library held 90,000 books [17] and it has since grown to contain close to 300,000 works including numerous manuscripts and other items of significance to Anglican, Australian and Evangelical history. [18] In recent years it has developed a significant body of electronic resources and a growing collection of rare books, including the Latimer Library, which was once housed in Latimer House Oxford and was acquired by the library in 2020. In the 1970s the college established its own theological bookstore, I.M.P.A.C.T. Books, which was later renamed MooreBooks. With the advent of internet books sales, Moore Books became financial unsustainable and was closed in 2012.
Well-known Moore College theologians and writers have included Broughton Knox, Donald Robinson, Paul Barnett, Peter Jensen, Graeme Goldsworthy, Peter O'Brien, David Peterson, Barry Webb, John Woodhouse, Peter Bolt, Mark D. Thompson, Andrew G. Shead, Paul R. Williamson, and Edward Loane. Through the influence of Moore College, Sydney Anglicanism has maintained its distinctive Evangelical perspective within worldwide Anglicanism. [19]
In 2021 Moore College received approval to develop new student accommodation for 91 students to replace the existing John Chapman House on the corner of City Road and Carillon Avenue in Newtown, New South Wales. [20] [21]
In 1977 the college began to host an annual lecture series, the Annual Moore College Lectures, which have been a showcase of leading contemporary biblical and theological scholarship, and most of which have been subsequently published. International guests who have contributed to the lecture series have included J. I. Packer, F. F. Bruce, D. A. Carson, Kenneth Kantzer, Henri Blocher, Mike Ovey, Ashley Null, Gerald Bray, Michael Horton, Kevin Vanhoozer, Carl Trueman and James Hely Hutchinson. Past and present Moore College faculty have also contributed to this lecture series.
Also in the late 1970s, an annual school of theology began to be held which enabled faculty and graduates to explore subjects of interest and importance in the wider Christian community. Subjects treated have included the church, the Spirit, the ethics of life and death, biblical theology, justification, emotions in the Christian life, a celebration of the John Calvin Quincentenary (2009), the Quincentenary of the Reformation (2017), and various books of the Bible (incl. Galatians, Exodus, and the Psalms). The school still continues as a biennial School of Biblical Theology.
When the College opened in 1856, the principal developed a curriculum which enabled the college to offer its own 'college certificate'. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the college was preparing students for the Oxford and Cambridge Preliminary Examination for Holy Orders. In 1907, students began to sit examinations leading to the University of Durham's Licentiate of Theology. A long association with the Australian College of Theology began soon after, with students preparing for the ACT's Licentiate in Theology examinations, and from the 1970s until 2001, its Bachelor of Theology degree. At the same time, from 1958 to 1986, around 200 students were prepared for the external Bachelor of Divinity degree of London University, tutored by the Moore College faculty. Students received the 'Moore College Diploma', an unaccredited award, for work done during the fourth year of study.
In 1992, the four-year program of study at Moore College was redesigned as an integrated package and became the College's own Bachelor of Divinity degree. This degree and the college's three-year Bachelor of Theology degree were originally accredited by the New South Wales Government's Department of Education and Training, doing away with the need for the accreditation through the Australian College of Theology. In 2011, the college became a self-accrediting Australian Higher Education Provider, able to design and accredit its own programs of study.
The college currently offers a suite of diplomas and degrees:
In the 1940s, under Hammond, the college began to train lay preachers within the Diocese of Sydney. This initially involved attending evening lectures by the principal, other members of the faculty and some graduates of the college. The notes from these courses formed the basis of the later correspondence course, the Sydney Preliminary Theological Certificate, which was widely used within Sydney and, in time, internationally. In the 1960s Knox invited B. Ward Powers to develop a three year correspondence course that would parallel the full-time course of the college for ministry candidates. Evening lectures continued alongside this correspondence course and eventually became the Diploma of Biblical Studies.
In late 2013 a significant review of the college's correspondence and evening course was undertaken. The opportunity was taken to move into the online learning space. A chief concern of the review was to keep these courses as flexible as possible to allow them to be used in less resourced places throughout the world. The 'Department of External Studies' was renamed Moore Distance and a variety of initiatives were undertaken to explore the possibilities. In 2020 these were brought together under the heading of the P.T.C. The P.T.C. is the college's unaccredited online course of preliminary theological education.
This course is used in places around the world, in some cases becoming the basic training for church planters and pastors. These include Nigeria [31] [32] and India. [33] Translation is under way into Chinese, Tamil, Hindi and Hausa languages. [34] The college has also provided some of this information for use by other organisations such as MOCLAM and African Enterprise.
In 2017 the college began to offer an accredited entrance level diploma entirely online, the Diploma of Biblical Theology. A number of the units of this course provide for advanced standing in the college's full-time degree program.
Moore College has developed four academic and ministry centres alongside its mainstream academic program:
In addition to these centres, the John Chapman Preaching Initiative is a network of activities designed to promote excellence in biblical expository preaching.
Moore College is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Theological Society (ANZATS) and its principal sits on the Council of Deans in Theology (CDT). Moore College is also a member of the GAFCON Theological Education Network. [59]
The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition.
Peter Frederick Jensen is a retired Australian Anglican bishop, theologian and academic. From 1985 to 2001, he was principal of Moore Theological College. From 2001 to 2013, he was the Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales in the Anglican Church of Australia. He retired on his 70th birthday, 11 July 2013. In late 2007, Jensen was one of the founding members of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which he served as General Secretary. He stepped down in early 2019 and was succeeded by Benjamin Kwashi, former archbishop of Jos in Nigeria.
Phillip David Jensen is an Australian cleric of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney and the former Dean of St Andrew's Cathedral. He is the brother of Peter Jensen, the former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney.
Peter Frederick Carnley is a retired Australian Anglican bishop and author. He was the Archbishop of Perth from 1981 to 2005 and Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia from 2000 until May 2005. He ordained the first women priests in Australia. In the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours list, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. He is married to Ann Carnley. He also founded the school Peter Carnley Anglican Community School.
The Australian College of Theology (ACT) is an Australian higher education provider based in Sydney, New South Wales. The college delivers awards in ministry and theology. It is now one of two major consortia of theological colleges in Australia, alongside the University of Divinity. Over 23,000 people have graduated since the foundation of the college. On 7 October 2022 it was granted university college status by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.
George Whitefield College is a Christian theological college in Muizenberg, Cape Town, South Africa.
The Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa (REACH-SA), known until 2013 as the Church of England in South Africa (CESA), is a Christian denomination in South Africa. It was constituted in 1938 as a federation of churches. It appointed its first bishop in 1955. It is an Anglican church and it relates closely to the Sydney Diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, to which it is similar in that it sees itself as a bastion of the Reformation and particularly of reformed doctrine.
Sir Marcus Lawrence Loane was an Australian Anglican bishop. He was the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney from 1966 to 1982 and Primate of Australia from 1977 to 1982. He was the first Australian-born Archbishop of Sydney and also the first Australian-born archbishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He was a prolific author and his works include several biographies.
Daniel Willis is an Australian clergyman, having spent most of his adult life in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. In 2012 Willis formed Leading Global Impact, an organisation dedicated to leadership development amongst top leaders who are thinking nationally or internationally. He was appointed CEO of Bible Society NSW and lead the organisation through significant change until July 2010. He was also appointed to the position of International Deputy Director for the South Pacific Region (Oceania) of the Lausanne Movement in 2004. Since moving to Sydney Sydney in 1972 he has had an extensive career both in business and ministry.
Donald William Bradley Robinson was an Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He was Archbishop of Sydney from 1982 to 1992.
Glenn Naunton Davies is an Australian Anglican bishop. Since August 2022 he has served as bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross, an Anglican diocese set up outside of the Anglican Church of Australia. He previously served as the Archbishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of the Province of New South Wales in the Anglican Church of Australia from 23 August 2013 to 26 March 2021.
John Robert Reid was an Australian Anglican bishop who served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney: he was the Bishop of South Sydney from 1972 to 1993.
The Reformed Theological Review is Australia's longest-running Protestant theological journal. It was founded in 1942, with Arthur Allen, a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia, as its first editor. It stands in the Reformed tradition, and exists to give a scholarly exposition, defence and propagation of the Reformed faith. RTR is a peer-reviewed journal, and is included in the ERA journal list 2015 of the Federal Government's Australian Research Council.
Arthur Lukyn Williams (1853–1943) was a Hebrew New Testament scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge. He was also a Christian apologist active in Christian mission to Jews.
David Broughton Knox was principal of Moore Theological College from 1959 until 1985; and considered by some as the "Father of Contemporary Sydney Anglicanism".
Margaret Rodgers AM was a prominent deaconess and lay-person in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney. Rodgers was Principal of Deaconess House, (1976–85), Research Officer for the Anglican General Synod (1985–93), chief executive officer of the Anglican Media Council (1994–2003), President of the New South Wales Council of Churches and Lay Canon of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.
Kanishka de Silva Raffel is a British-born Australian Anglican bishop of Sri Lankan descent, who has served as the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney since 28 May 2021. He previously served as the 12th Dean of St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney from 4 February 2016 until his installation as archbishop.
Joanne Caladine Bailey Wells is a British Anglican bishop, theologian, and academic. Since January 2023, she has served at the Anglican Communion Office in London as "Bishop for Episcopal Ministry". Previously, she was a lecturer in the Old Testament and biblical theology at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and then associate professor of Bible and Ministry at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, North Carolina; From 2013 until 2016, she had served as Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury; she was then Bishop of Dorking, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Guildford, 2016–2023.
Malcolm George Richards is an Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He has served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, as the Bishop for International Relations, since July 2019.
Dudley Foord was an Australian Anglican minister who served as the third presiding bishop of the Church of England in South Africa from 1984 to 1987.
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