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By Lloyd Mackey
OKANAGAN Bible College (OBC), closed in 1995 after
several years in decline, has been recently reinstated by one of its
founders.
Plans call for offering masters and doctoral degrees in
ministry, under a division of OBC to be known as Canadian Graduate School
of Ministry.
Lawrence Wilkes, who co-founded the school in 1974
along with Wesley Affleck and John Dyck, instigated the reinstatement of
the school’s charter – which was first granted by the
provincial legislature in 1983, under the Okanagan Bible College Act.
After leaving OBC in 1986, Wilkes served on the
pastoral staff of Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.
When he retired from that post, he became graduate
studies dean of California Graduate School of Theology (Cal Grad), a
nondenominational school with informal links to the cathedral – the
church made famous by its founding pastor, Robert Schuller, and his Hour of Power televised
church service.
Wilkes says the proposed doctoral and masters programs
will be carried out with teaching mainly by Cal Grad faculty.
Students will require only two weeks of residency in
the Okanagan per year in the two year program, he says.
Details of the residency locations and dates, known as
‘intensives,’ and other information about the programs, are at
www.cangrad.ca.
Wilkes says he believes these “new, practical
approaches to education . . . will bring renewal [to] Canadian
churches.”
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Cal Grad, as the parent school is colloquially known,
has enrolled some 3,500 students in the past decade. It recently completed
preliminary paperwork for associate membership in the Association of
Theological Schools (ATS).
Most established Canadian theological graduate schools,
such as Associated Canadian Theological Schools (ACTS) at Trinity Western
University and Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, have had full membership in ATS
for some time.
At its peak enrolment, in the 80s, OBC had just under
200 students.
It operated for some years in facilities previously
used by Dr. John Knox High School.
November 2008
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