From the beginning of April, the Evangelical Theological College of Wales becomes Wales Evangelical School of Theology. The new Principal, Jonathan Stephen, puts EN in the picture…
EN: Can you explain the reasoning behind the name change?
JS: I meet people who know there’s a good training institution somewhere in South Wales, but they don’t know exactly where it is — nor what it’s called! So, if we wanted to attract attention to our renewed vision, it made sense to change the name at the same time. WEST is an easily remembered acronym with interesting overtones. We’re on the western fringe of the greatest landmass on earth, and I like to think of us as a gateway into the rest of the UK, Europe and beyond. All four components of the original name are retained. We decided to lose the word ‘college’ because, in the United States and elsewhere, it rather misleadingly conveys the impression of ‘secondary’ level education.
