Message from ACTEA Director
Download January – June 2021 eNews here
The year 2019 ended with a lot of optimism and hope. We anticipated that the year 2020 would begin and end the same way. However, with the onset of COVID in 2020 the year became extremely dark and uncertain. The darkness and uncertainty persist in 2021. The emails and messages of distress from Africa’s theological institutions, friends, and partners are still greatly disturbing. Some institutions were in the verge of collapse. We prayed. We hoped. And we reached out. Friends came alongside our colleges in many ways. Some provided financial support; others provided online platforms and training; many prayed. Our members too became innovative and thrived beyond what we could imagine. We saw a rich institutional generosity and compassion never experienced before. Surprisingly, a few institutions that had not paid their annual fees for a few years managed to clear their arrears. What a blessing! We take this opportunity to you all including our member institutions for donating to our annual fee relief campaign. We managed to raise USD 32,149,
which is 45.6% of the target ($70,000). Because of this, we have been able to give a relief of 54.4% to our institutions. If you want to support this project, please feel free to be in touch with us. Every single donation makes a very big difference. Click here to donate. We also thank you for supporting our office acquisition project. We are now finalizing the fit-out work and should be ready to move into the office in a few weeks. You’ll soon be receiving a special newsletter announcing our move to AEA Plaza. The words of Eugene H. Peterson in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, (pg. 230), are comforting: “The Christian life begins as a community that is gathered at the place of impossibility, the tomb.” Our faith began at an impossible place. We will all rise through impossible realities. May you find life again in impossible places and impossible realities. Enjoy this newsletter.
1. ACTEA RE-BRANDS: NEW LOGO, NEW COLORS
ACTEA is Getting a New Look!
ACTEA marked 45 years in March 2021. Although we did not have a major celebration because of COVID restrictions, we celebrated this milestone through prayer and thanksgiving. We hope we will have a major event in 2022 to celebrate and thank God for the far He has brought this organization.
In the meantime, we decided that it was time to refresh the ACTEA brand. Thus, we embarked on a process of rebranding. We are happy to announce that we now have a new logo and new colors. A new website is almost ready. We want to share with you the rationale behind the updates, and what they represent for ACTEA brand and our community.
Our new logo inspired by the continent of Africa, church sanctuaries and more specifically, stained glass windows. The church is the community in which the faith is exercised, and the sanctuary is a place where the saints gather weekly to encourage each other and be fed spiritually. By paying homage to and being reminiscent of a form of expression that is singularly associated with Christianity, this identity immediately communicates that ACTEA’s work is for the church and is gospel centered. The multiple rays radiating around Africa from ACTEA placed inside Africa speaks of ACTEA’s vision of serving as a beacon of Christ-centred evangelical theological education for the holistic transformation of the church in Africa and beyond. As you have seen in our new logo, we chose three colors. Each color represents something we strongly believe in:
- BLUE is the color of royalty and speaks to the fact that ACTEA is raising a royal priesthood of God’s servants throughout Africa. It is also a color that engenders trust psychologically and speaks to ACTEA’s credibility and ability to meet its mandate effectively.
- RED is the color of blood and it symbolizes the redemptive act of Christ on the cross. It speaks of ACTEA’s passionate engagement in the transforming story of redemption in Christ through theological education. As a vibrant color, it also speaks of the passion that ACTEA’s work is undertaken with.
- GOLD is the color of one of the most precious elements on earth. The Bible is also replete with gold symbolism. In our identity, it entrenches the idea of royalty and speaks to both the preciousness of God’s Word and the work that God’s servants do. It speaks of ACTEA’s mission of prophetic proclamation of glorious hope in Christ to African peoples first and to the world through theological education. However, behind the new look we are still the same Association and team (more technically talented), dedicated to providing you the best possible services.
Website
In the next few months, we will be unveiling a brand-new website that will include new features, user-friendly navigation, Resource Hub, and updated with the latest information about our services. We are working to ensure that our member institutions will send their accreditation reports via the website and applications for membership will also be possible through the website. The launch date of the brand-new website will be announced in a separate announcement.
Strategic Plan
Our Strategic Plan (2017-2021) has enabled us achieve great things but it’s time for a new strategy. With support from Scholarleaders International (SLI), we are working on a new strategy that will enable ACTEA to be more effective in achieving its mission to strengthen theological education in Africa and do so in a way that sustains that mission into the future. The process started with a stakeholder analysis. The purpose of the Stakeholders Analysis is to listen to theological institutions, supporters, and ministry partners with a vested interest in the work of ACTEA. In doing so, ACTEA seeks to learn how stakeholders currently understand the work of ACTEA, its effectiveness, the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities each see for the future of ACTEA. We appreciate those who have provided helpful feedback. Your comments, suggestions, and critiques will enable us cast a better strategy for the organization. The Strategic Planning team are: Prof. Emiola Nihinlola, Dr. Ray Motsi (Chair), Dr. David Tarus (Secretary), Dr. Sheila Foster Fabiano, Prof. Hellen Ishola-Esan, Dr. Bruk A. Asale, Dr. Eloi Dogue, and Prof. Bosela Eale.