Keyword: Biblical and Theological Studies
Retreat hosts students exploring a future in ministry
In the midst of CMU's winter semester, 15 students and several faculty and staff members gathered at Camp Assiniboia near Headingley, MB for the ministry inquiry retreat. Amidst times of worship, prayer, and individual silent reflection, students had the chance to hear from each other and from experienced pastors and leaders in ministry. They ate together, spent time outside at the camp, and closed the weekend by sharing communion.
Faculty: In Their Own Words - Dr. Sunder John Boopalan
Dr. Sunder John Boopalan, Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, has taught at CMU since 2020.
Where or how do students give you hope?
I got into this business precisely because of that. Every day, students give me hope. Sometimes stuff happens in the classroom—I call it a change in plot. You walk in and you think, I know how the story is going to play out...and what I think we sometimes take for granted is that actually a person's place in the story can change the plot of the story. I think that's the place where students give me the most hope, because each of those persons sitting there with me in the classroom can change the outcome of the conversation. That open-ended plot of any interpersonal encounter gives me the greatest hope, and students do that all the time.
High school teacher partners with CMU faculty on project
High school teacher Ramon Rempel has assigned his Bible class at Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute a unique assignment—to critically evaluate and engage the 119-year-old Mennonite Brethren (MB) Confession of faith.
The confession, first adopted by North American Mennonite settlers from Russia in 1902, has been revised and rewritten numerous times (as recently as 1999) and consists of 18 articles in total, all of which range topically from the nature of God and evil to marriage, baptism, and nonresistance. Lately, another revision has been proposed within the Canadian MB Conference to revise article eight ("Christian Baptism"). Delegates from MB churches will decide on the proposal this June 2021.
Practicing theology from the bottom-up
Assuming a new position teaching theology at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), Rev. Dr. Sunder John Boopalan and his family arrived in Winnipeg in October 2020 after a move, during the pandemic, from their home in Boston, MA. Growing up in the religious context of Pondicherry, a former French colony in southeast India, Boopalan was raised by his mother, a nurse and Hindu convert to Christianity, and his father, a lab technician and preacher, who together attended the "Bakht Singh Assemblies," a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic indigenous (that is, without foreign missionary history) church movement. Describing the religious atmosphere of his upbringing, Boopalan states that "there was an interesting mix of theological influences that combined pietist, holiness, and charismatic movements. Services were four hours and included plenty of music played with indigenous Indian instruments and would always end in a love feast cooked by church members and shared sitting around mats on the floor."
CMU welcomes political theology specialist Rev. Dr. John Boopalan to the BTS faculty
Toting a powerful academic record, global life-experience and perspective, along with a rich and multifaceted theological background, CMU looks forward to the teaching and mentorship Rev. Dr. John Boopalan will bring to our learning community.
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