Alumni
Welcome to the Cliff College Alumni Page. Here you will find information, some of which is duplicated elsewhere on this website, that has been specially collated for your convenience and relevance.
Our hope is that the information on this page will keep you informed about the latest news in your College. It also will better equip you to talk about Cliff College and its ministry to potential students and supporters.
You may have a contribution that you would like to offer this newsletter – perhaps a reflection of how your degree has affected your ministry or how Cliff students are making a difference in their communities.
Postgraduate Alumni Newsletter Autumn 2011
The Improvements Continue
Work has begun on the redevelopment of the second floor of the main college accommodation block, to bring it up to modern standards, following on from the work completed early in 2011 on the top floor. The top corridor of the main College building has been completely redesigned and all of the rooms in that area now provide a very comfortable en-suite study space for residential BA and MA students and an attractive place to stay for visiting groups. We look forward to announcing the opening of the second floor soon!
Cliff College Summer School 2012: Monday 18th–Friday 22nd June 2012
In June 2011 we had our first very successful Bible Summer School and the 30 participants aged 17–70+ years had a wonderful week of teaching, fellowship and sunshine here in the Derbyshire countryside.
Co-ordinated by Ian White, alongside other Cliff College tutorial staff and guest lecturers, we are now planning an expanded Summer School programme for 2012 which will include three strands of teaching to choose from:
‘Encounters with The World'; Mission Summer School - this will offer an overview of issues relating to mission and evangelism, and will offer a practical field trip experience in the locality within the programme. Ideal for anyone wanting to explore mission and with a heart for reaching out to others with the gospel.
‘Greek in a Week'; Biblical Language Summer School - this will offer a framework to begin exploring the language of the New Testament. Ideal for those wanting a starter course in this key area, for fellowship group leaders and preachers too.
‘Explorations in The Word'; Bible Summer School - this will offer a deeper look into two books of the Bible. Ideal for those wanting to go deeper into the text, for fellowship group leaders and preachers too.
All Summer School participants will share together in social times, meals, devotions, evening worship, and an event we are planning for the Wednesday evening which will be open to the local community. Don't worry, there's even time to go off site to Chatsworth or the local coffee shop! The three strands will be delivered through approximately 10-12 separate seminars, discussion groups, interactive workshops and lectures. The Mission strand also has a field trip component within the timetable. These are ideal course for local preachers, people who want further biblical and missional knowledge or even for a refreshing study retreat.
Is this for you in 2012? You might be contemplating a course here at Cliff - maybe this is a way to get to know the college, and gear up for study? You might be on a Cliff course already, but want further biblical and missional knowledge?
Cliff Festival Expands
The College is developing its annual Festival to include two extra events each year. The Festival weekend (1-4 June 2012) will be preceded by a 2 performances/events per year. The first of these was a very popular time of lively music and worship by Rend Collective Experiment on Friday October 21st, and for the first event it was very well attended. There will be another concert held in March - details still to be announced. Rend Collective are one of the UK's top Christian bands, having recently played Greenbelt and other events to great acclaim. From Northern Ireland, their music is passionate, God-infused, joyful and enjoyed by all ages.
Festival Director, Piers Lane, said, ‘We hope that lots of people will come along to the gigs, and have a great time. Of course, promoting Cliff College is one of the keys purposes, but as well as this, we hope that these events will be of use as a tool for mission to churches in the area'.
New Postgrad Intern
Lorna Koskela is Cliff College’s postgraduate intern. She is simultaneously conducting PhD level research in the area of spiritual direction.
In 2010 she graduated MA in Mission (Leadership Renewal and Mission and Emerging Church) from Cliff College, and earlier completed theological studies at the Tallinn Methodist seminary in Estonia. She is also – many moons ago - a graduate of Stirling University.
Lorna is passionate about discipleship and the power of prayer. She has been involved in equipping young leaders for ministry and working with youth and young adults in Finland since the mid 1990s. More recently she has been involved in an ecumenical setting using ‘Godly Play’ as a tool in making the Gospel more real to kids. Here at the College she has also taken responsibility for Inspire for students, a means of developing the lives of mission-shaped disciples.
The New Mentoring Stream
This February the new Mentoring MA stream launches! We already have 6 people signed up and an excellent line up of lecturers booked. If you would like to either audit the stream yourself or recommend it to another person in your ministry please contact Helen our postgraduate administrator at postgrad@cliffcollege.ac.uk
The Start of Cliff College’s PhD in Missiology
After a couple of years in planning, Cliff was able to hold its first PhD in Missiology research week from 26-30 September. Five students gathered for the 5 day block. In the first year the students have to produce a 12,000 word Literature Review related to their anticipated research area. Most of the week was spent looking at theological reflection and just what a doctoral level literature review actually is.
A couple of sessions were shared with MA in Mission (Emerging Church) students and it was great to have Dr Steve Taylor from New Zealand giving a days input. A further advantage was that we actually have one student in 3rd year despite this being the first year of the programme. One transferred in from the now closed University of Manchester Doctorate of Practical Theology and was able to share how he dealt with the Literature Review and also the second year outcome of a peer reviewed journal article.
The students now work ahead on their Literature Review and will meet up again for a week in March when other PhD students are here. The programme has started well and with very encouraging signs for recruitment for September 2012.
We are still talking with the Nazarene Theological College about how we might partner with each other on this programme. It seems straight forward, but when you look at the detail it all gets a lot more complicated. But there are advantages in sharing our resources and research supervision capacity so we continue to work on this. All in all a very encouraging start to what we plan will shortly be recognised as the UK’s premier qualification in missiology.
