Editor’s Note: Rev. Dr. Bill Richards is professor emeritus and former principal of the College of Emmanuel & St. Chad in Saskatoon.
SASKATOON — In October 2024, I returned to Nanjing, China, for a second fall term of volunteer teaching at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary.
NJUTS is the Chinese Christian Council’s national educational centre, drawing students from across China’s 23 provinces and five autonomous regions, enrolled in both basic and advanced degree programmes. Nanjing’s population is nine million, located on the Yangtze River, about 90 minutes by high-speed train from metropolitan Shanghai on the coast.
The seminary is located in the city’s southeastern advanced education suburb, served by a Metro line that allows easy access to other parts of the city
During my three months at the seminary, I taught three term courses, one for basic degree students (“Paul’s Letter to the Romans”), attended by103 students, and two for advanced degree students (“Introduction to Early Christian Literature, I and II”): about 35 students in each section.
They were a delight to work with, as we worked through the material. In each course I had a co-instructor who was also my interpreter.
Though I provided them with a script of each class presentation ahead of time, they handled my frequent asides with grace and ease, or there were always keen students comfortable enough in English to help them sort out my sometimes long and tortured compound-complex sentences!
Living in residence on campus (almost all of the 450 students lived on campus), sharing daily meals in the cafeteria, attending morning prayer three days a week and the Sunday service on campus (which drew many Christians from the neighbourhood), and joining the calligraphy club on Friday nights to practise Chinese characters, allowed for many more informal opportunities to learn about the lives of these kind, dedicated, and generous young people who welcomed me into their world.
After sharing in the Christmas celebrations on campus, I returned to Canada in mid-January 2025, just as term was ending and before the nation’s major annual holiday, Lunar New Year.
For me, it was an amazing two years of volunteer teaching in an environment full of passion for learning. (“Please, Father Bill, can you suggest more reading we should be doing”!). I have been able to keep in touch with many of these dear students and colleagues by WeChat.
Some of them graduated just this past June, but I know they all will be a gift to their church.