Celebrating Holistic Formation
A Letter from Esther Shin and Noah Park, mission co-workers serving in Cairo, Egypt
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“…to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, having to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12-13
Dear friends,
In this letter, we would like to tell you about the “Formation Group” at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC). The seminary has a tradition of small groups for those on campus at noon on Wednesdays. Each group (several students and a professor) would gather for sharing and prayers. Students called it “Care Group” and it created a breathing space amid academic courses. However, there were some concerns. Students attended voluntarily, and personal stories were accidentally leaked outside the group. Some students even asked professors, “Why don’t you ‘CARE’ about us?” There were apparent reasons to update its contents.
Four years ago, some professors with Esther’s initiative included “Care Group” as part of the ETSC curriculum. It was renamed “Formation Group” with both Christian spirituality and community building in mind. The professors created a four-year curriculum that comprised of four specific topics: “1) intellectual, 2) spiritual, 3) practical and 4) relational formation.” Each professor writes one or two lessons per semester based on their specialty and pastoral experience. In other words, MDiv students have a unique Bible study every week for four years. For your information, ETSC’s MDiv program has one more year of general training for academics.
The course description is as follows: “Formation Group aims to develop mature Christian leaders within a supportive Christian community characterized by trust and love. … By bridging the gap between formal education, such as academic courses, and informal education, such as worship and seminary life, it creates a safe environment for addressing difficult questions, sharing personal and communal issues, fostering respect for diverse opinions and feelings, and encouraging reflection on personal and communal learning experiences.”
The most interesting aspect of this meeting is community building through communal practice. Underscoring the balance between theology and ministry, intellectual formation encourages critical thinking with academic integrity. In the year of spiritual formation, the ETSC community keeps a fast, including walking and praying in the neighborhood. Practical formation helps students see life realities in society. They clean their dorm building and pick up trash around the seminary. For relational formation, students discuss the meaning of coexistence with Muslim brothers and sisters and go to a Coptic retreat center to learn about Coptic monasticism. These are just a few examples.
One activity is worth mentioning. All MDiv students visited a Muslim orphanage near the Abbasia metro station. Most of them had never visited orphanages, not to mention a Muslim one. They planned to visit for an hour or so to share their lunch boxes. Once the students got to know the kids, they stayed there for more than four hours playing sports and games. In our eyes, the orphanage kids had the best day with a bunch of young men who willingly spent time with them. There was no distinction between kids and adults, and Muslims and Christians. In Egyptian Arabic, the flatbread is called “aysh,” meaning “life.” Fasting and sharing their lunch with the kids, our students shared their lives as well. We were so proud of them that day!
As a PC(USA) mission co-worker, this group gathering is an opportunity to share the Matthew 25 movement, not in our denominational language but in theirs. Many questions of the weekly Bible study challenge them to see the church and community from different perspectives. This emphasis led the students to invite young workers called “aemil” to their prayer meetings and play soccer together. The Bible study topics often include social issues such as poverty, hierarchy, patriarchalism, environment, conflict and violence, and the Gaza news, etc. As ordained ministers from parish ministry, we often share our lived experiences from the two mother churches (the Korean Presbyterian Church and the PC(USA)). We also learn and become humbled by our students’ faith journeys in an Islamic society.
This summer has been very busy. Without completing the grading of the previous semester, we left for Southern California in mid-June. In late June, after a few church visits, I joined the 226th General Assembly in Salt Lake City as a Missionary Advisory Delegate. On July 5, we traveled to Pittsburgh to do the interpretation ministry with Elmarie Parker. As a team from the Middle East, we visited many congregations in Ohio and Pennsylvania, meeting hundreds of people who showed genuine interest in what we do as mission co-workers. We also attended the 119th New Wilmington Mission Conference at Westminster College. It was particularly impactful to meet missionaries and their children who had lived in Egypt mostly in the 1960s. When we returned to Southern California at the end of July, we realized that we had been on an Interpretation Ministry journey for over a month.
We plan to return home to Cairo in late August for the fall semester. While we were away from Cairo, there was news that 13 new MDiv students were admitted. In the ThM program, more than ten students were conditionally admitted. These numbers are greater than those last year. As many of you have heard, ETSC currently has more than 600 registered students through the online program. With only a handful of full-time professors, this unexpected blessing gives us some burden, too. We ask for your continued prayers for the seminary and our students.
Serving the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Egypt together with you all. Peace!
Esther Shin and Noah Park
Associates for Global Ecumenical Partnership in Egypt