What Are the Different Types of Seminary Jobs?

Canton Union Theological college is the only college in Guangdong specializing in the training of senior Christian clergy from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. It is also a well-known theological college among more than 10 similar theological colleges across the country.

Guangdong Union Theological Seminary

Guangdong Union Theological Seminary, formerly known as Canton Union Theological College, was founded in 1913 by the American Presbyterian Church, Canadian Presbyterian Church, New Zealand Presbyterian Church, London Council of England, American Congregational Council, American Fellowship, United Kingdom Eight Episcopal Churches and the British Methodist Church, as well as the three major guilds of the Chinese Christian Church Guangdong Association, the Chinese Episcopal Church South China Diocese and the Chinese Christian Methodist South China Diocese, have joined, and jointly established, so "Union" Meaning. Later, the Guangdong-Guangzhou Baptist Union, Guangdong-Jiangsu Lutheran Church General Association, Chongzhen Association and Lixian Association joined in, and once became a college of Lingnan University, called "Lingnan University Concord Theological Seminary". It was suspended in 1962 and resumed in 1986. In order to express the historical heritage of the seminary and serve the mission of the Guangdong Christian Church, it is named: Guangdong Union Theological Seminary and the English name is Guangdong Union Theological Seminary.

The specialist course is divided into two parts. The first is a Christian professional course, including Bible background, introduction to the New Testament and the Old Testament, study of the Bible's books, biblical theology (new and old testament theology), biblical geography, systematic theology, practical theology, spiritual theology, Historical Theology, Christian Ethics, Chinese Christian Theological Thought Construction, Western Church History, Chinese Church History, Christian Thought History, Pastoral Psychology, Worship, Hermeneutics, Preaching, Church Management, Basic Music Theory, Sacred Music Appreciation, etc. Courses; second, cultural courses, including university Chinese, English, philosophy, history, psychology, logic, law, politics, religious regulations, pedagogy, patriotism education, socialist theory, physical education, vocal music, etc.

College , currently mainly recruiting high school graduates in Guangdong Province, recommended by the local church, test questions from the seminary, need to pass the written test, interview, psychological test and physical examination of the four aspects of assessment, select the best admissions, the general number of recruits is candidates Half of the children are boys and girls. After three years of study at the college, students return to work in the local church after graduation.

Undergraduate students are mainly graduates of the college who have worked in the church for more than three years and who have passed the entrance examination. Generally after graduating after two years of study, an undergraduate graduation certificate will be issued. If you pass the defense of the thesis and the test of English level four, those who pass the test can be awarded a bachelor degree in theology.

1. Rev. Liang Fuhuan (1986-1990)

2. Rev. Huang Guangyao (1991-2004)

3. Rev. Chen Yilu / Doctor (2004 2014)

4. Rev. Xu Jieping, current Dean / Doctor (2014-)

The predecessor of the Guangdong Xiehe Theological Seminary dates back to the library of the Guangzhou Xiehe Theological Seminary, founded in 1914. At that time, it had a maximum of 200,000 volumes. It was burned down during the Cultural Revolution. Overnight, the smoke disappeared and it disappeared.

In 1986, Guangdong Union Theological Seminary received government support and reopened. The library also started from scratch, through enthusiastic donations from domestic and foreign siblings, church organizations, and publishing houses. Accumulate gradually. When in Shamian, due to site constraints and no one responsible for management, the number of books was only about 7,000.

On April 10, 2001, the new school building was officially completed, the library has a new "home", and the use environment and collection space have been greatly improved (see photo). As of April 2003, the existing collection of 11,000 books is still A tiny number.

The new library is a circular building with a beautiful appearance. It is divided into two floors and each floor can hold more than 30,000 books. The bookshelf is made of modern and advanced painted steel, which is solid and rust-proof. The second layer is used for reading. When the number increases, the second floor can be increased by 10,000-20,000 copies. The library's maximum capacity can hold up to 50,000 books.

During the continuous development of Xiehe Theological Seminary, the library of the academy has also been listed as a key development project, and specialized personnel and professional management are gradually implemented. In March 2003, Rev. Xue Haian took full charge of the collection work; in 2005, he began to formalize and rationalize cataloging and implement computerized management. At present, the library adopts two kinds of book cataloging, belonging to theology major (religious books) using "Library of Congress Classification"; books belonging to non-theological majors published in China using "China Book Classification" (hereinafter referred to as " Middle picture method ").

In mainland China, most libraries use the Chinese map method, but it does not apply to seminaries. This is related to the lack of detailed classification of Christianity in the Chinese diagram. The only rough classification is far from meeting the needs of professional books in theology. Therefore, two classification methods are adopted for easy management. At present, the East China Theological Library also adopts this model. In addition to the above two models, the Jinling Theological Library also has its own set of cataloging models. The Theological Seminary Library's collection of books is more professional, and the lack of funds and professional talents in the Theological Seminary School has also brought some difficulties to the management and development of some Theological College Library.

With the widespread use of computers, the Concord Theological Seminary Library has also established a computerized automatic management and cataloging system. Currently, the "Anglo-American Cataloging Rules" and "Chinese Document Cataloging Rules" are used. The library management system can also support "USMARC" With "CNMARC", the library is gradually moving towards standards and regularization, laying an important foundation for the future development of libraries. At present, as of October 2010, the library has nearly 30,000 books. Religious books accounted for 70% of the collection, and 30% were books of philosophy and other subjects. Many other tasks in the library are to train some students to do volunteer work. Volunteers are mainly responsible for: borrowing and returning registration, sorting shelves, sorting newspapers and magazines, printing bookmarks, and posting classified bookmarks. Some can also help with tedious tasks such as cataloging.

The Concord Theological Seminary now implements standardized cataloging, which makes it clearer about the collection situation and the purchase of books. It is clear at a glance which types of books are lacking, which topics are not enough, and which books will be duplicated. When buying books, generally based on the list of books provided by the teacher, according to the needs of teaching, students are more popular with books on certain topics, pay attention to new books published by various publishers, and so on. Most books are purchased in Hong Kong.

The library adopts an open management method. Generally, it is borrowed in the library without registration, and it is only necessary to register outside the library. Students often write dissertations in the library and are open longer from 8:30 am to 10 pm. Most students enjoy reading newspapers, periodicals, and books related to study subjects. There are also many English books in the museum, but the usage rate is not high.

Library appearance

The Theological Seminary Library is very important, especially today when the Chinese church advocates theological construction, the library needs a rich collection of books and related books. In particular, pastors who work in grass-roots churches often have difficulty accessing enough books and information, and it is difficult to produce substantive or academic content. In the future, we hope to increase the scope of service, not only to teachers and students of seminaries, but also to pastor co-workers of churches in various places. Now we have carefully collected books about the customs, customs and folk beliefs of Chinese native culture. For the church to integrate into Chinese society, it is necessary to have a full understanding of Chinese culture, which is of great help to promote the establishment of the theological thinking of the Chinese church. Due to the limitations of the library, the library's collections also have a certain focus. Especially in recent years, on the subject of theological thought construction, some albums, articles, etc. have been carefully collected and bound for collection. At present, the library focuses on collecting materials from churches in Guangdong, including bits and pieces of information in various churches in Guangdong, as well as a special issue of the new church. These all reflect the development of the churches in Guangdong after the reform and opening up, as well as the development of the Chinese churches during this particular historical period. Due to the small scale of the Theological Seminary Library, each library should have its own characteristics. The Guangdong Union Theological Seminary Library should have its own unique characteristics in the future.

Once the chairman of the Tsung Tsin Society of Hong Kong and a graduate student from Germany went to the Concord Theological Seminary Library to search for theological thought construction materials. All the materials they wanted to write were found satisfactorily. Compared to other university collections, the Concord Theological Seminary Library has far fewer books. However, the seminary can be a professional library.

The goal of the future development of the Concord Theological Seminary Library is to realize the network and provide resources for pastoral workers and lay people serving the church in the form of membership. Computers can be used for long-distance lending, or for borrowing by express delivery. This will satisfy the growing desire of believers for spiritual knowledge and enable libraries to play a greater role.

Books on the first floor of the seminary library