Background
The Triennial Conference of the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India (later renamed the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India - UELCI), which met at Guntur in 1926, felt the need for a theological college for the Lutheran Churches in India. On July 6, 1927 when such a college started, only students from TELC enrolled for the first divinity class. A summer palace bought in 1859 by the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission from an Indian Raja, became the Centre firstly. Bishop Johannes Sandegren, the first Principal of the college, named it Gurukul, meaning a Guru (teacher) living together with his Sishyas (disciples).
Though it was planned at an all-India level it was only in July 1931 that the United Lutheran Theological College (Gurukul) was established with students and staff from South Andhra Lutheran Church (SALC), Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC), Church of Sweden Mission (CSwM), Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission (LELM), Danish Missionary Society (DMS) and the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC). Dr. Frolich of LELM was made the principal of this United Lutheran Theological College.
In 1953, Gurukul received a new life with a wider participation of the Lutheran Churches and so was named as Gurukul Lutheran Theological College and Research Institute. The college was then affiliated to the Senate of Serampore College for graduate and postgraduate Studies. Dr. Sigfrid Estborn became its Principal. Then Gurukul merged with the United Theological College, Bangalore and Serampore College, West Bengal in 1971. From then on, Gurukul became a centre for continuing and extension education for the churches in India under the stewardship of Dr. K. Rajaratnam.
Read more about this topic: Gurukul Lutheran Theological College
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)