Exciting changes for the Theological School

For over 40 years, the Theological School had been one of three partners in the United Faculty of Theology (UFT), which was a part of the Melbourne College of Divinity (MCD). During those years, we shared students, lecturers and library and administrative resources in an ecumenical enterprise with the Uniting Church and the Jesuits.

It became apparent, however, that the old arrangements required change and renewal with the new status of the MCD as Australia’s first Specialist University. The only way forward was for Trinity to become a College of the University of Divinity in its own right. At the beginning of 2014, we began working on our application to the University, with the support of the Board and Council of the College.

The process involved forming a new faculty, with increased resources and a new curriculum. The faculty was made up of a small group of national and international scholars. The curriculum was shaped by a desire to offer full degrees in theology in both online and face-to-face modes. Trinity first began the online program at the MCD (as it then was) more than a decade ago, and we wanted to continue our leadership in this area.

We also wanted to give an explicit Anglican focus to our units, while drawing the best of scholarship from across the ecumenical spectrum.

There was continuity in our new status as well as discontinuity. We needed to continue our vital relationship to the Dalton McCaughey Library, which is the largest theological library in the southern hemisphere, and a very distinguished library for research in theology. It supplements what we already have at Trinity in the Leeper and Mollison libraries.

Over the past year, therefore, the informal arrangements that had served us well over four decades in the UFT came to an end. In its place we created something new and exciting that could build on the foundations of the past.

We have gained an exhilarating sense of our own distinctive identity as part of Trinity College and as Anglicans. We have formed a direct relationship to a second university to enhance Trinity’s academic standing. We are exploring new ways of working together within the wider College to build a strong and robust Theological School. And we have gathered an exciting new faculty with outstanding achievements in research, teaching and ministry.

Together we are building a Theological School that shares with our wider College community a love of learning, a desire to work collaboratively, a commitment to issues of justice and equity, and an enthusiasm to strengthen Trinity’s reputation as a place of excellence, community and diversity.