Welcome to this summer edition of Binbilla ... - Global Interaction

Rev Chris Pittendrigh15 Woodlea StreetDONCASTER EAST VIC 3109Please enclose a deposit of $100.00 and mail to:Email address (if available):Telephone: homemobileworkPostal Address:Name:REGISTRATION FORMBINBILLANATIONALCONFERENCE10 - 14 SEPTEMBER 200708binbillais produced byPO Box 273HawthornVictoria 3122AustraliaROSALIND GOODEN’S STORYCONTINUES(CONTINUED FROM PAGE TWO)All three have had links with Global Interaction overthe years. So it was a great occasion – 7 BTh, 14 MAin Christian studies and 3 MDiv – with plenty of pomp,ceremony and colour. The MAs had blue hoods and theMDivs red.The current enrolment of the College is 1,800 studentsand they meet in about 20 centres around the country,and often tutored by one of the 75 BTh graduates alreadyproduced by the programme. Australian Baptists can bevery encouraged by the contribution we have made toleadership development in Bangladesh through people likeSimon Sircar and Gregory Marak. I trust that your interestwill continue to follow the new principal, Dr Pratap Gine,and his wife, Dipti. Pratap and Dipti have been teachingat Eastern Theological College in Johart, Assam. Both didpostgraduate studies at Whitley College, Melbourne, and,for a time, Dipti did volunteer work at Moore Potter Housecomputerizing the library collection.As part of the Graduation celebrations the College holdsinspirational meetings for its graduates. Travel was noteasy, as you can imagine; but the boycott was lifted on theTuesday, equipment was able to be brought in Wednesday,the meetings were held on Thursday and Friday and theGraduation ceremony on the Saturday. It was moving toshare in the prayer; not just for the College events, but alsothe future of the country. A church in Korea sponsoredthese inspirational meetings and the pastor was the guestspeaker.Dr Manfred Kohl, from Overseas Council International,was the chief guest for the graduation and he gave avery interesting assessment of the directions theologicaleducation is taking in the two-thirds world. It was a greattime.My time in Bangladesh was made even more pointedbecause I used it to prepare a paper on women in missionsfor the Baptist Research Forum in Sydney in January. Ithas challenged me to look very seriously at the reason whyEllen Arnold has become such an icon for the BangladeshBaptist Fellowship. If any of you have any clues, I’d bepleased to hear them.I have come away from CCTB wanting to ask, in this age ofglobalisation, what makes a leadership training programmeBangladeshi or, at least, suited to the context. I wonderwhat Ellen and her colleagues would think of the presentsituation.