Asian Theological Academy

In June 2017, the St Augustine’s Foundation generously donated £10,000 towards the Asian Theological Academy (ATA) to enable the training of clergy and laity. Thanks to the support of the Foundation, the ATA were able to successfully run the Refresher Course in 2017, which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The Refresher Course was initially to run for three weeks from 21st August to 8th September 2017 in Columbo, Sri Lanka. However, to ensure that as many participants as possible were still able to attend the course, it was condensed into 15 days and held from the 21st August to the 5th of September when participants departed. The ATA were delighted to welcome 16 participants onto the Refresher Course from across Asia.  

To engage the participants, the programme was divided into bible studies, seminars and group discussions under the main theme of ‘Creating Communities of Resistance and Hope’. Part of the course involved exposure visits to marginalised communities so that participants could see first-hand the issues that affect their lives, and how the church can empower them and bring about positive change. This year participants were taken to visit ‘families of the disappeared’ in Killinochchi; widows and disabled soldiers in South Hambantota; and urban evictions in Colombo Port City. Please see the full timetable for the Refresher Course attached.

The feedback on the course content was positive with participants summing it up as ‘inspiring’, ‘enlightening’, ‘challenging’, ‘empowering’, ‘enriching’ and ‘stimulating’. A couple of our participants, Lubna and Father Andrew, shared their experience of the course with us and the impact that it had made.   

A more detailed report can be downloaded here.