Dear Sir,
Jeremy Marshall’s article ‘Why a Northern lucidly highlights Seminary?’ (March en) the great need for gospel work in the North of England, which has often been neglected by theological education, church planting, and investment. He rightly observes that evangelicalism has a Southern and London bias at the expense of northern English cities, let alone Scotland and Wales.
Everything Jeremy calls for in his article was part of our motivation in transforming what was WEST into Union (ust.ac.uk). Union School of Theology has a campus in South Wales which is home to our residential programmes, but it is only half the story. We have ploughed resources into setting up church-based regional Learning Communities in 25 locations around the world, so that students can receive seminary-level theological education part-time with maximal accessibility and minimal cost in the context of the local church and with local mentors. All the while these students continue pastoring, church planting, or in other work where they already live. Six of our hubs are in the North of England. Students here have access to our faculty and significant academic resources while they’re enrolled, but beyond that, we provide ongoing support in their ministry, along with access to significant potential funding for church planting through Union Mission. We have worked in collaboration with local churches to build this unique model of raising, deploying and resourcing new leaders, and we are encouraged that it’s already bearing fruit in places like Liverpool, Hull, and Newcastle.
