Chaplaincy Course at the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute

A chaplaincy course has been in the preparatory stages for the past two years. It was first taught as a pilot class in the spring of 2006 to approximately twenty regional superintendents who oversee army chaplaincy groups in large Bulgarian towns. It was then recalibrated for the Bulgarian context and presented to the board of the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute and the Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance for accreditation. We were able to teach the chaplaincy course for a first time in the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute during the month of October, 2006. With my wife Kathryn as a co-instructor, we taught the course to active chaplains and Christian consultants. As a result, the course has been approved by the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute and the Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance and accepted in the program of the Institute to become the basis for the masters in chaplaincy ministry program which the Institute is initiating in 2007.

Some recent chaplaincy developments in chaplaincy ministry in Bulgaria:

November, 2006 – A master program in chaplaincy ministry has been developed for the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute in Sofia

October, 2006 – A contextualized course for chaplaincy ministry is offered at the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute in Sofia

August, 2006 – The Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association was officially registered

July, 2006 – Cup & Cross Ministries submitted a research paper to NATO\’s Manfred Wörner Foundation dealing with the case of underground chaplaincy within the Bulgarian Armed Forces

March, 2006 – A contextualized course for chaplaincy ministry was offered in Veliko Turnovo

February, 2006 – www.kapelanstvo.com was released to serve as the official website of the chaplaincy movement in Bulgaria

October, 2005 – A national training seminar in Veliko Turnovo was held

October, 2005 – The Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association was presented before the Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance

September, 2005 – Regional meeting in Nova Zagora which addressed the current issues

August, 2005 – A regional chaplaincy meeting in Sliven

July, 2005 – Publication of camouflage New Testaments and Bibles, some of which we distributed to Bulgarian army personal including the divisions currently serving in Iraq