109 students are enrolled this fall at the Faculté Jean Calvin seminary in Aix-en-Provence, France:
59 undergrad students (12 on-campus, 47 distance-learning),
10 master’s students,
5 doctoral students, and
35 à la carte/continuing-ed students.
Please pray with us for each of these 109 students, for their future vocations, and for the Church, that it remain faithful to Jesus Christ.
Did you know that Faculté Jean Calvin students are serving in 20 countries? I learned this from the FJC seminary’s new website. Click to explore. The website is in French only, but the following is translated from the webpage that presents FJC’s distinctives.
To share your faith
A unique program in France to learn to share and explain your faith. The Faculté is the only one to offer a complete teaching of apologetics to help present and defend the Christian faith. This is done in word and deed through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Faculté's apologetics program provides tools for witnessing and spreading the gospel in contemporary culture and society.
A Calvinist institution
A living theology that reveals the sovereign grace of God. The theology of the Faculté emphasizes the grace given by God, the salvation manifested in Jesus Christ, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the Calvinist teaching of the Faculté is to study Scripture with seriousness and respect, to encourage Christians to proclaim the grace of God, and to support the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ.
Studying from a distance
30 Years of Experience
Experience in the application of distance learning. Same content as the diplomas pursued on the Aix-en-Provence campus. A teacher is specially assigned to follow up with distant learning students.
Constant Adaptation
To train while pursuing one’s ministry or professional commitment. The Faculty Jean Calvin takes into account the situations of each and adapts to facilitate the studies.
In Training, both Matriculated and À La Carte
Choice of free courses, audited courses, credit for courses by examination. Building a custom program is possible.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial gifts as the Huguenot Fellowship continues to support the Faculté Jean Calvin in Aix-en-Provence, France. The start of the new 2019-2020 Academic Year was inaugurated by a special service held today, Sunday, September 15.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand…” (from Jeremiah 18)
This passage from Jeremiah inspired Henri Lindegaard, a French Prostestant pastor, poet and painter, to meditate deeply on its meaning. In this ink drawing, Lindegaard conveys the patient and purposeful work of God as a potter, muscularly making something useful — and even beautiful — from the simplest of materials. Lindegaard was born in Spain in 1925, the son of a Danish father and a Spanish mother. In 1942, Lindegaard and his family made the unlikely trip north to German-occuplied France to seek refuge in the Huguenot town of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a haven for Jews fleeing from the Nazis, located in the mountains of south-central France. Influenced by Cubist painters, Lindegaard developed a distinctive style of woodcut-like black-and-white ink drawings, a compilation of which were published after his death in 1996, with a selection of his Biblical interpretations in poetry, as La Bible des Contrastes (2003). His drawings incorporate elements which, despite their simplicity, suggest a profound theological meaning. Indeed, He is the potter, and we are His clay.
Friday June 7th David Powlison, director of CCEF, beloved husband, father and grandfather, departed this world to be with Our Savior. He succumbed to pancreatic cancer. He was a great friend to many, a trusted counselor, and a prolific author and speaker. He was a complete human being, wise, funny, and absurdly well read. Our hearts go out to Nan, his extraordinary wife and to his talented children. A memorial service will be held Tuesday, June 18, 3:00 PM at Calvary Church in Souderton, PA. Praise God for his unique servant.
William Edgar
May, 2019
Dear Friends,
How many deep emotions have come to the fore because of the devastating fire on the Notre-Dame roof? It is among the most celebrated buildings in the world. Victor Hugo wrote a long novel in which the cathedral is the subject, the hero, the story, and the harbor of such strange figures as Pierre Gringoire, Quasimodo, Clopin Trouillefou and Esmeralda. At one level, the edifice is a testimony to the creative capabilities of mankind. As Hugo puts it: “The man, the artist, the individual, is effaced in these great masses, which lack the name of their author; human intelligence is there summed up and totalized.” The anonymity is refreshing. But is that all?
The walls have never been silent. The cathedral was the birthplace of the Organum style of music, a direct ancestor of polyphony. Centuries later, the incomparable organist Louis Vierne died at the consul of the grand Cavaillé-Coll instrument, before a congregation of 300. There has also been celebration in the visual arts. Matisse painted the haunting “Notre-Dame, Une Fin d’Après-Midi.”
Is there a link to eternity in these stones? Abbot Suger, the pioneer of the Gothic style, wanted the rose windows and the geometric proportions of the floors to connect worshipers with the presence of God. Protestants might balk at this statement of Roman Catholic mysticism, and its overt Marian theology, but it is well to remember the cathedral was completed in 1260 after some 200 years of collective labors. This is well before the Reformation.
At the opposite end, many historians see in the fire a metaphor for the decline of the Christian faith in France. In the absence of the cohesion once brought by the Christian religion, the question being asked in Paris these days is whether the burning of one of the world’s great monuments can help bring unity to a deeply divided country. While many modern French people are content to be secular, or laic, as this unique term has it, it does not take much of a threat to call forth the deep-seated Roman Catholicism of their heritage. Deep but likely ineffective. Real Unity? True cohesion? Not likely.
Whether believers or not, many French people consider the cathedral should be rebuilt. So far, so good. It is a place where kings have been crowned and heads of state gathered to remember events and persons significant in French history. Already billions of Euros have been raised to that effect. In a rare moment of church – state cooperation president Emmanuel Macron and archbishop Michel Aupetit have agreed to restore this architectural wonder of the world. Predictably, some have objected that such a groundswell should be directed to alleviate poverty, not restore monuments.
So many themes are woven together here: French pride; tourism; Christian faith; traditionalism; church-state relations (since 1905 Notre Dame belongs to the government); and deep questions of French identity. We are hoping this devastating incident will raise questions not so much about French identity but about human identity. Buildings, particularly magnificent buildings such as Notre-Dame, have their place. But the most profound edifice in the universe is the household of God, “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:20-21).
This is the heart of our Seminary’s message. This is the only basis for a permanent unity in France or anywhere. Please pray that Aix-en-Provence could become the center for a great revival, and that through it the people of France could enter “a building from God, a house not made with human hands, eternal in the heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
Very Truly Yours
William Edgar
President
