On October 27, 2006 eight representatives from churches and universities in China visited our seminary and interacted with the faculty. Afterwards, a fellowship lunch was held. The Mainland representatives were here at Tunghai University for a conference entitled, "Cross-Straits Forum Regarding Church and Society."
We give thanks to God for the successful CLS 40th Anniversary celebration events, which took place on October 30 and 31. All of us rejoiced in seeing the unfolding work of God in and through CLS.
On that day, Director of Administration, Mr. Joseph Lu and colleagues of the Promotion and Planning Department led the guests to the construction site and witnessed the growth and history of CLS. The main celebration event was a symposium on "The Reformation and Church Renewal " . Almost 200 pastors and church workers participated.
The symposium included four lectures: "The Reformation and Hermeneutical Renewal" by Dr. Jeffery A. Oschwald "The Reformation and Doctrinal Renewal" by Rev. Michael Paul "The Reformation and Pastoral Renewal" by Dr. Thomas Yu "The Reformation and Missional Renewal" by Dr. Seppo Rissanen Other events were an anniversary fair, the 40th historical exhibition and the 40th Anniversary evening worship service.
Our "Dialogue on Sanctification" symposium was held on December 4, 2006. It went well, with approximately 160 participants who partook in fruitful presentations from various Christian traditions. Invited speakers were Wesleyan Rev. Jun-Hua Pang, Reformed teacher Dr. Su-Ying Shi, Roman Catholic teacher Mr. Zu-Hua Jiang, and the Lutheran speaker was our own Graduate School Dean, Dr. Armin Buchholz.
Dr. Jeffery Oschwald returned for ten weeks to teach two intensive masters degree courses: Romans and the Gospel of John. The students benefited a great deal from his teaching. Pastor Oschwald finished teaching on November 9 and returned to the States on November 11. Another professor, Dr. Armin Buchholz returned to teach two intensive courses from November 13 to December 19, including the second year Th. M. course: "Seminar in Luther's Theology IIa." and the M. Div. " Systematic Theology, I ". Dr. Buchholz returned to Germany on December 20, 2006.
A Fieldwork Supervisors Forum on November 17 at CLS was attended by 15 fieldwork supervisors, who had good discussions and interaction with the seminary's faculty. Valuable suggestions were given. They are very helpful for the betterment of instruction and facilitating students' growth.
Planning and Promotion activities for 2007 and 2008:
On December 8, 2006 a recruitment planning meeting was held in which staff and student representatives participated to discuss the future of the seminary, especially when the new building is completed, in regard to attracting more students. A habit is already in place to pray about this early every morning and to provide specific prayer requests about it to others.
An Israel trip is scheduled for 2008 and a trip following the footsteps of Paul is being planned for 2009.
A Reformation tour in the summer of 2007 is currently being promoted and a number of people have already registered. The quota is 46 people. Cost is NT$85,000 (about $2,500 US dollars). President Dr. Thomas Yu and Mrs. Armin Buchholz, and Instructor Frank Lin will guide the tour.
A Thanksgiving Celebration for the completion of the new building is being planned for the week of October 27-November 2, 2007. A dedication worship service will be held on Saturday, October 27. We look forward to inviting the overseas, the local guests and the previous presidents of CLS to attend. The whole seminary is being mobilized for this special event, with each department preparing its own unique activities.
Building Project. The construction company has completed the external structure. It is 75% done, and presently pushing on to complete the important finishing work. To this date, we have received about one half of the funds needed to complete the project (the equivalent of almost $3 million US dollars of the needed $6 million US dollars). Pray for the completion of the funding as the seminary is currently feeling much pressure.
![[Syndicate this site]](http://blog.roodo.com/_img/rss.gif "Syndicate RSS feed"){kind=small}
![[Syndicate this site]](http://blog.roodo.com/_img/atom.gif "Syndicate ATOM feed"){kind=small}
