With leadership from Driestar Christian University for Teacher Education (NL) and Kάroli Gάspάr University (HU), the International Network for Christian Higher Education (INCHE) with its European leaders hosted a March 18, 2021 webinar on topic, “Christian Higher Education in a Pandemic: Possibilities for Fractured European Societies.” More than 140 faculty, staff, and administrators from seventeen European and Eurasia countries, as well as sixteen nations beyond greater Europe, registered for the webinar. Their engagement prompted a lively two-hour session of presentations and discussion.
After greetings from INCHE Executive Director Shirley Roels, Péter Balla, Professor of New Testament and Rector Emeritus of Kάroli Gάspάr University, provided devotions. He read the story about Jesus’ healing of the deaf man who could hardly talk (Mark 7: 31-37). Prof. Balla reminded participants that Jesus remains near to us in times of human suffering. Yet Jesus comes to this world with the power of God to bring healing; and people who see such miraculous healing recognize the goodness of it. So too we should recognize the healing that God through Christ can provide for our fractured, suffering lives and the power to make them whole again.
Bram de Muynck, the webinar’s moderator, Professor of Education at Driestar Christian University, then introduced reflections by Dr. Gerald Pillay, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of Liverpool Hope University (UK). Dr. Pillay noted that universities nourish through the arts and sciences for colleges as communities of students and faculty members. Then he described the past year’s difficulties in providing such nourishment for higher education communities. But he challenged participants to redeem this time by learning from it. Colleges and universities have gained substantial skill in online teaching while also recognizing its limitations for student learning. Now Christian higher education communities also have an opportunity to recalibrate their goals beyond a competition for national reputation. Instead Christian higher education can nurture special communities as world resources that are called to ameliorate global inequality.
Following these reflections, Dr. Jeroen de Ridder, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Vrije Universiteit, led participants to consider the goals and practices of academic work. He advocated teaching and scholarship that educate Christians to build shalom, namely, right human relationships with God, other humans, and the natural world. Using Mentimeter as a tool for interactive responses, Dr. de Ridder asked participants about practices that shape the “liturgies” of academic life. He encouraged participants to consider exemplars, language, imagery, behaviors, and expectations within educational communities that form our behaviors. The goal should be a closer alignment between such features and Christian behaviors. These values, and their related practices, include:
· Care for students and colleagues;
· Appreciation of diverse talents;
· Thoughtful attention to matters of import;
· Support for a healthy balance of work and life.
The speaker encouraged participants to reflect carefully on what they value in their Christian higher education communities, to value things that matter most, and to build practices that cultivate such values.
At the end of the webinar, Gyula Sümeghy, Director of International Relations for Kάroli Gάspάr University, announced tentative dates for the next INCHE Europe conference on April 6-8, 2022 in Budapest. The conference will pursue greater depth under the topic, “Building Community in Fractured Societies: Challenges for Christians in Higher Education.” Further details about that occasion are available here. Inquirers can also confer with Lydia Bor, INCHE Europe coordinator, and a staff leader at Driestar University. Lydia closed the webinar with prayer and invites ongoing connections through inche-europe@inche.one.