Friday, September 7, 2007

Chin Christian Seeks to Redress 'Ecological Sin'

Seminary seeks to redress ‘ecological sin’

The Zomi Theological College (ZTC) in Chin State, Myanmar, has put together an ambitious 100-year community development plan. Agriculturally focused, the plan seeks to address the three ‘sins’ of shifting cultivation, undisciplined livestock rearing, and deforestation.

In a country dependent on agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, the aim is to arrest the slash and burn method that destroys forests and makes the soil barren after years of use. The ultimate goal is to enable the communities to attain full economic independence by the year 2100.
news-dosianthang-mar07
Do Sian Thang (left), principal of Zomi Theological
College in Myanmar, talks with BWAid Director
Paul Montacute at the BWA headquarters

Planned over four phases, the current phase is to ensure full education and awareness by 2020. Other phases are improved agricultural methods and production by 2060, and increased sales and export beginning in 2080. By 2100, the end of the final phase, there will be a centennial celebration which would mark the new “Land of abundance,” which, by then, it is hoped Myanmar would be.

Do Sian Thang, principal of the 120-student institution which was formed in 1953, said the students are convinced of the need for the program, as most “Are from an agricultural background.” The graduates, trained to become pastors, also become community leaders, Thang said. Currently, the college has an integrated farming project just five miles from the campus. Thang calls it, “Theological education in the classroom and theological education in practice,” stating that “The aim is to produce people for church ministry and Christian service.”

Thang, who is on an extended trip to the United States, visited the offices of the Baptist World Alliance and shared his vision with staff. A special guest of Judson College in Elgin, Illinois, the man who has been associated with ZTC since 1981 believes that the initiative will spread to the Chin people, and will revolutionize their approach to agriculture and livestock rearing, as well as enhance their understanding of ecology.

Ruled by a military dictatorship since the early 1960s, Myanmar, which had its name changed from Burma in 1989, has a population of more than 50 million and is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia. Largely Buddhist, only six percent of the population is Christian, but the Myanmar Baptist Convention (MBC) is one of the fastest growing in the world, moving from a membership of approximately 500,000 in 1995 to more than one million in 2005. With 132 ethnic groups in the country, Baptist concentration is mainly among the Chin, Kachin and the Karen peoples.

The Zomi Theological College, which is affiliated to the regional Zomi Baptist Convention (ZBC) and the national MBC, has a relationship with the Myanmar Institute of Theology, the leading Christian seminary in the country which serves several ethnic and other denominational groups. Baptists in Chin State, the location of the ZTC, are estimated at 100,000 baptized believers and a total community of 200,000. There are approximately 1,000 local churches in 25 associations that make up the ZBC.

With its goal of ‘Food always in the Home’ (FAITH), the college hopes to have both a spiritual and economic impact on the country.

(March 30, 2007)


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