Yes, it’s been fifty years of faithfulness to God’s Word and the Reformed Faith in training pastors, missionaries, and lay-workers to serve Him and to help fulfill the Great Commission in the French-speaking world.
Click here to view a delightful brief video about the Faculté Jean Calvin’s jouney and mission.
As the Faculté Jean Calvin approaches its 50th anniversary in September, 2024, Professor of Apologetics Yannick Imbert shares with Ruth Ann Leduc, Huguenot Fellowship Trustee and missionary, some of the strategic changes to the course offerings at the seminary. The professors have worked over several years to discern how to even better prepare FJC graduates for the needs of pastoral work and the practical realities of this ministry, in addition to the theological rigor of the program. Listen to this 17-minute interview here.
Faculté Jean Calvin now offers courses to students in French-speaking Africa through a new partnership.
Responsive to the development of theological education in French-speaking Africa, FJC has long noted the many difficulties encountered by Africans wishing to to come to France to pursue training: obtaining a visa, the lack of financial resources, the impossibility of coming with the family for married students, and the need for certain courses to be adapted to the African context.
Professor Egbert Brink* was convinced that exporting FJC’s online program to French-speaking Africa could solve these problems. Former students of the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of Bangui have joined him in this approach. Now FJC has joined the project by signing a partnership with L’Institut Théologique Evangélique du Sénégal (ITES).
Contextualized Teaching
Going forward, FJC will make most of its undergraduate courses available to ITES. The ITES professors will contextualize them. The teaching of church history, pastoral and ethical questions, and knowledge of religions will focus on Africa. The teaching of dogmatics and biblical subjects will become more relevant as it focuses directly on the African context.
A Promising Start
The geographical position of Senegal, located between North Africa and the Sub-Saharan countries, is of significant importance. About fifteen students from French-speaking countries (Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Congo, Senegal, Togo, Niger and Mali) are currently following FJC’s courses. In addition, thirty-three students from North Africa and Mauritania are following the à la carte modules.
This start is already promising! It’s hoped that not only will these courses be attended by pastors and students in training, but also by moderate Muslims from the closed areas of Central and North Africa.
May God allow this work to be a blessing for French-speaking Africa and the growth of its Christians.
*Egbert Brink is Associate Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Kampen/Utrecht, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Faculté John Calvin, and pastor.
Kim Tran
Click Here for a wonderful Christmas carol performed a few years ago by Kim Tram, Director of Faculté Jean Calvin. Click here to follow the lyrics in French or to view the English translation.
Pierre and Renée Filhol
One of the great ladies of French Evangelical Protestantism left this world Tuesday, December 13, 2022. Without the extraordinary dedication of Pierre and Renée Filhol it is doubtful that the Faculté Jean Calvin would exist, let alone be thriving. The same could be said of the flourishing local church, l’Église Réformée Évangélique on the Rue de la Masse in Aix. The Filhols, to use the expression, were pillars of the community. We may never know the ways they supported the needy and the destitute.
Renée was a beloved mother and grandmother. We first met the Filhols when we visited Aix in 1974. Together with Paul Wells and various French leaders, they had decided to reopen the seminary in Aix and put it on an independent confessional basis. Pierre was president of the trustees. Renée handled all the accounts. This team was uniquely dedicated to the well-functioning of our beloved Faculté Jean Calvin.
Renée excelled in the gift of hospitality, undergirded with a profound love of people. Perhaps unlike some of her compatriots she loved Americans and recognized our love for France and for things French. She also humbly knew that without the partnership of the Dutch, the Swiss and the Americans, the seminary could not operate. At the same time she resisted any attempt to “infantiliser” this properly indigenous work. She had, not pride, but dignity.
The Filhols more or less adopted us. We lived in the same apartment complex. We had meals with them frequently and talked with them honestly about the problems and opportunity of “La Fac”. We benefitted greatly from their wisdom and experience. We also dearly love their two children, Hélène and Daniel. Though she retired a number of years ago, her absence will be sorely felt. Let us resolve to accompany Pierre in his grief, until that day when they will be together with Jesus Christ in eternity.
William Edgar
Professor Emeritus of Apologetics
Westminster Theological Seminary
Philadelphia, USA
Pierre Berthoud, President and Professor Emeritus of Faculté Jean Calvin, has been a pillar of the seminary since its reopening in 1974. Huguenot Fellowship Trustee Ruth Ann Leduc talks with him about God's leading in the reopening and the changes in French society since that time, as well as the subsequent opportunities and challenges that this presents for the seminary.
Pour yourself a cup of coffee or glass of wine, sit back, and enjoy this panoramic view of God's faithful leading over 50 years. Please note the specific items for prayer that Pierre suggests near the end of the interview.
Dear friends of the Huguenot Fellowship!
We have just opened the first page of our new calendar and welcomed the New Year!
As we enter the new year of grace 2022 may we experience the Lord’s blessings and the sure and enduring hope he has given us!
May the fullness we received during the Christmas season, as we contemplated with amazement once again the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, dwell in us during the coming months and may it help us to redeem the times.
May the Word of truth and life be our companion during these troubled and disconcerting times.
May it be the fountain of our comfort and hope, of our patience and endurance.
May Wisdom give us the boldness and the strength to be perceptive, faithful and kind witnesses of the Gospel in the midst of a bewildered and often hostile generation…a generation confusedly in search of meaning and the fullness of life that our Lord alone is able to disclose and engrave lastingly in the hearts of his people.
With our warm greetings as we remain united in Christ and in prayer,
Pierre BERTHOUD
President - Emeritus professor
Kim TRAN
Director
Dr. Yannick Imbert, William Edgar Chair of Apologetics Professor and Dean of Faculté Jean Calvin, talks with Huguenot Fellowship trustee Ruth Ann Leduc about the use of distance-learning at the seminary. Faculté Jean Calvin was the pioneer of distance-learning among theological institutions.
