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Japan Seminary Optimistic About Its Future
By Don Meyer
TOKYO, JAPAN (November 22, 2001) - Despite a declining birth rate that is shrinking the potential student pool, the president of the Covenant Seminary in Japan remains optimistic about the school's future.
The seminary has trained and graduated 460 students during its nearly 50-year history, noted Yoshimi Ito, its president. The school will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. (Accompanying photo shows Ito with Don Meyer, executive minister of the Department of Communication of the Evangelical Covenant Church.)
The seminary is drawing an increasing number of second-career students and is doing more training through extension programs as a means of accommodating these students, who work during the day and complete their coursework at night. They are required to complete the same requirements (120 credits) as full-time dormitory-housed students, though it usually takes longer than the normal two years for full-time students - usually three to four years for part-timers, Ito notes.
The school also trains lay leaders, many who end up working for Christian organizations (such as World Vision), in television and other broadcast media and at retirement centers. Ito is the only full-time professor - others on the 14-member staff are adjunct professors. Current enrollment is 35, though the school has had as many as 120 enrolled at one time.
There are a number of female students, who make up roughly 25 percent of the current enrollment. One female graduate is now ordained and pastor of a church of approximately 70 members, which is considered fairly large compared to the average. "There is no resistance to women in senior pastor roles," Ito said, noting with a smile, "we went ahead of the American Covenant in ordination of women."
Finances are always a concern. Ito describes the situation as stable at present, though he quickly notes that the future financial health of the organization remains directly tied to a sustained level of enrollment.
"Somehow He (God) has met our need," Ito observed. "No more, no less - just what we need."
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