European Methodists Establish E-Academy

Left to right: Wilfred Nausner, Joerg Barthel, Sergei Nikolaev, Bishop Patrick Streiff, Mark Nelson, David Field, Mary Ann Moman, Roar Fotland, Joergen Thaarup, Mark Abbott, and Maxine Beach.

By Sergei Nikolaev*
With David Field*

Feb. 08, 2008 | Moscow, Russia (GBHEM) - A new institution that aims to provide theological education via the Internet was named the Methodist E-Academy during a meeting of the United Methodist Theological Schools in Europe (UMTSE) held in Moscow, Russia.

The development of the academy, an ongoing project since 2006, has been shepherded by an advisory board chaired by Bishop Patrick Streiff. At a gathering just prior to the Feb. 8-9, 2008, meeting of UMTSE in Russia, instructors who will conduct the online courses were trained. The courses will address the growing need to provide theological education for prospective pastors for UMC churches, especially in Eastern Europe. The UMC is growing in Eastern Europe, but the number of churches has not yet reached a level to warrant the establishment and continued support of local UMC seminaries.

The idea for the program was conceived during the UMTSE meeting in February 2006, where the group proposed that prospective elders should receive their theological education at non-United Methodist institutions in their own countries, supplemented by online courses in United Methodist Studies. The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry has provided $60,000 in funding to pay the salary and travel costs for an instructional technologist, computer software, and technical support, and to hire tutors who will train faculty on e-learning and course design.

Although this plan started with UMC churches in Europe, it now works in cooperation with the British United Methodist Church and autonomous United Methodist churches in Portugal and Italy.

The Methodist E-Academy will offer its first courses in United Methodist Studies in the fall of 2008. Plans are being made to expand this offering to include courses for the training of local pastors and lay preachers in the near future. Faculty members have been drawn from the existing UMC seminaries in Europe and retired professors, as well as from British United Methodist institutions.

In other action at the meeting:

• Seminary reports were received from the UM seminaries and training programs in Warsaw, Poland; Tallinn, Estonia; Gothenburg, Sweden; Graz, Austria; Oslo, Norway; Reutlingen, Germany; Banska Bystritsa, Slovakia; Moscow, Russia; and Madrid, Spain; and from the French Study Program.
• Holger Eschmann, a professor at Reutlingen Seminary in Germany, together with Lewis Parks, director of the doctor of ministry program at Wesley Seminary in the United States, will coordinate the 2009 class for the doctor of ministry program “Leadership for a Global Church in the Wesleyan Spirit.”
• The European Historical Society will hold a conference “The Last Phase of Twentieth-Century European Methodism” in Budapest in August of 2010 under the leadership of Ulrike Schuler, professor of church history at the United Methodist Seminary in Reutlingen, Germany.
• Joerg Barthel, director of Reutlingen Seminary, was elected president of UMTSE, and Sergei Nikolaev, president of the Russia United Methodist Seminary in Moscow, was elected secretary until 2012.
• Mary Ann Moman, associate general secretary of GBHEM’s Division of Ordained Ministry, updated participants on division and GBHEM developments and informed participants of several issues forthcoming at the General Conference 2008.
• Maxine Beach, vice president and dean of the Theological School at Drew University in Madison, N.J., reported on some trends in the UM seminaries in the U.S.

The next meeting of UMTSE deans is scheduled for February 2010 in Oslo, Norway.

*Nikolaev is the president of the Russia United Methodist Seminary in Moscow, and Field is the coordinator of the European E-Learning Program.