A Federação Batista Européia (EBF) transferirá o Seminário Teológico Internacional Batista (IBTS) de Praga, República Tcheca, para Amsterdã, Holanda.
A decisão foi tomada em uma reunião do Conselho da EBF realizada em Elstal, Alemanha, de 25 a 29 de setembro.
The seminary is to be transformed into an International Baptist Study and Research Center that will become an “embedded institution” within the Department of Theology of the VU University Amsterdam. The new site is in a Baptist church building in Amsterdam that will also house the Baptist Seminary of the Netherlands, the offices of the Baptist Union of the Netherlands, and the offices of the EBF.
Quando transferida, a nova entidade dará foco especial, mas não exclusivo, aos estudos de nível de doutorado em estudos batistas e anabaptistas e de Missão e Teologia Prática. O IBTS tem atualmente aproximadamente 120 estudantes que buscam cursos superiores em Estudos Batistas e Anabaptistas e Teologia Aplicada.
The move was considered after the global financial downturn of the past few years adversely affected the seminary’s income. The increasing financial burden of the upkeep of a large suite of buildings in Prague led to a severe financial crisis for IBTS from 2008 onwards. �A resolution was passed at the council to sell the current property.
IBTS relocated to Prague in 1997 after almost 50 years in R�schlikon, Switzerland, where it was begun in 1948. IBTS was re-focused in 1998 to concentrate on higher degrees for seminary teachers and union leaders, validated by the University of Wales and the Czech Ministry of Education.� In 2000 it began a PhD program that to date has produced 18 doctoral graduates.
Baptist World Alliance�
� October 8, 2012