Please note several announcements and updates from TMTC.
1. TMTC Closing Ceremony: Celebrating the Legacy of the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre
In light of the closing of TMTC, there will a final event held virtually over Zoom on Tuesday October 24, starting at 4:00 p.m. EDT. This celebratory event is especially designed for those who have been connected with TMTC as a student, a faculty or staff person, a board or advisory council member, a donor, a constituency member. It will feature reflections from some of those who cared for and benefited from TMTC over the years. There will also be an opportunity for brief sharing during an open mic time. This event is open to the public but you must register in advance.
2. In response to our call for a researcher to write a history of TMTC, I am pleased to report that Waterloo-based writer Susan Fish been contracted for this project. She will doing both archival work and interviews.
3. I am also pleased to announce that the Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS) at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) has agreed to assume responsibility for several of TMTC’s collaborative programs and projects.
IMS will now administer the annual Mennonite Scholars and Friends forum and reception at the meetings of the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature (AAR/SBL). Over the past 15 years, these events were organized by TMTC on behalf of now 15 supporting institutions which contribute annually towards the cost. In the 1990s and early 2000s, IMS and TMTC worked together to administer these events, overseeing a rotation of institutional hosts. IMS plans to reach out to the supporting institutions in the near future. IMS will also host and maintain the Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network website listing of calls-for-papers, conferences, special lectures, publications and journals, and research centres. Finally, IMS will convene the Anabaptists & Philosophy Roundtable, an occasional webinar series organized together with the Doopsgezind Seminarium in Amsterdam, the Division of Bible and Religious Studies at Fresno Pacific University, and Pandora Press. I am very grateful to IMS and AMBS for their willingness to steward these initiatives on behalf of a wider scholarly community.
4. Conrad Grebel University College will remain an affiliated member of the Toronto School of Theology (TST). TST students who wish to connect to full-time Grebel faculty members who are cross-appointed to TST can do so from this list of contacts.
Jeremy Bergen
Director, Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre
