Educators from the edges
The rise of women teaching theology in Pakistan
Photo: In four decades in Pakistan, our mission partner has helped countless women take their place as leaders in the church
For someone like K, at one point the odds of becoming a leader in theological education would have seemed slim. As a Christian and a woman in Pakistan, you might say she is doubly marginalised.
Only 2 per cent of the population in Pakistan are Christian. And it’s traditionally been considered a male-dominated, patriarchal society.
Yet, in recent decades more and more women have taken up leadership roles in theological training, thanks in part to the work of CMS mission partner F, who has retired after 38 years of service.
F provided vital theological education for the minority Christian community in Pakistan, helping them stand strong in their faith.
Limited opportunities
For the first 14 years of that time F taught at the United Bible Training Centre (UBTC) for women in the city of Gujranwala.
This interdenominational training centre, founded in 1939, was for many years the only residential training centre in Pakistan where women could receive theological education, apart from the Salvation Army Training College. Otherwise, there was only the option of Theological Education by Extension (TEE) offered by the Open Theological Seminary (OTS).
Although UBTC was originally founded to train young women as Bible teachers and hospital evangelists, by the time F joined it in 1986, it mainly offered short Bible courses and retreats to various groups of Christian women: adult literate village women, secondary school students, school-leavers, college students, nurses, teachers, Sunday School teachers and hospital evangelists. Additionally, there was a three-year part-time pastors’ wives training course for wives of the students at the nearby Gujranwala Theological Seminary (GTS).
A generation gap
As the previous generation of workers came up to retirement age or died, the Christian hospitals in particular saw the need to train the next generation of evangelists and Bible teachers, so UBTC started a new three-month intensive course for college graduates, called the Foundations for Bible Ministry Course (FBMC). A few years later, it started a new programme, the one-year Discipleship Course for young women with only matriculation (school leaving certificate).
Many graduates of these two programmes are now working as hospital evangelists, Sunday School teachers and in various roles with Christian NGOs and para-church organisations. Several went on to do further formal theological education after the mainline seminaries opened their doors to female students.
One of these is K. Having completed her BA degree from Sargodha University, she enrolled in the FBMC in September 2006. After graduation she joined UBTC as junior staff, receiving on-the-job training in teaching and preaching.
In 2009 she completed her training and was awarded the Diploma in Christian Education, and became senior teaching staff.
After a few years, as well as teaching various Bible subjects, Christian doctrine and discipleship, she became programme coordinator for UBTC.
In 2016, K gained her bachelor of theology degree from OTS followed by a Master of Divinity degree from GTS in 2018, at which point she moved to Lahore to work with the OTS in the youth department, and soon became department coordinator.
From student to colleague
By that time CMS mission partner F had been working for the OTS for several years, while still giving some time each year to teaching at UBTC, so she had known K as a student and then as a colleague there, and again as a student at GTS, where F taught Pakistan Church History.
During her time at OTS, F had been advising on the development of a new Christian education curriculum for teenagers. Nine courses had been prepared and the final course was in preparation, called Me and My Faith. The task of writing this course was given to K and another colleague, which was completed by December 2020.
K continued teaching and preaching alongside writing and administration, and in 2023 she had the opportunity to travel to the US to study at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, from where she graduated with a Master of Theology degree in 2024.
Returning to Pakistan, she was invited to join the staff of her alma mater, GTS as a teacher, and started her ministry there in August 2024.
Founded in 1877, by the United Presbyterian Mission, GTS has been a union institution since 1954, with CMS mission partners serving there from time to time.
The first female student, the wife of one of the male students, graduated from there with a BTh degree in 1992, and the first single women students were admitted in 1996.
In 2016, the GTS demonstrated its appreciation for women’s contribution in theological education by appointing a female principal. At that time 50 per cent of the full-time faculty was female. Now K has joined in this key role of training the next generation of Christian workers.
