07655
October 15, 2007

Lack of funding forces Malawi theological college to close

by Frank Jomo
Ecumenical News International

BLANTYRE, Malawi — Malawi’s biggest theological college, and the only one training Presbyterian pastors in the central African country, has closed because churches have not paid their dues, the chairperson of the college board, the Rev. Maurice Munthali, has confirmed.

“The school has closed even though we were supposed to graduate some students on 5 October,” Munthali was quoted as saying on Oct. 11 by the The Daily Times, about the Zomba Theological College, which is owned by the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian.

The CCAP synods of Blantyre, Livingstonia, Nkhoma in Malawi, Lusaka in Zambia and Harare in Zimbabwe are members of the college, which takes about 10 students from each synod a year.

However, said Munthali, “The college is owned by all member churches but the churches did not pay all their dues.”

The college opened in 1977 and also trains ministers for the Churches of Christ, as well as Anglican and Methodist churches. It receives some funding from overseas.

Munthali said it was not known when the college would reopen. Only the Blantyre synod had paid its dues to the college, he added.

“We are sorry that this has happened but then it is also not a guarantee that because we were a Christian school then things will be run smoothly,” he said.

The former general secretary of the Blantyre synod, the Rev. Daniel Gunya, had warned in June that the college would close unless churches started paying what they owed.

The Livingstonia synod had already stopped sending students to the college because it owed large amounts of money for fees. Its general secretary, Howard Matiya Nkhoma, told journalists recently his synod was seeking to reduce expenditures.