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Re-Envisioning Tangintebu Theological College in the Context of Climate Change: an Emerging Model of Coconut Theological Education and Ministerial Formation

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Re-Envisioning Tangintebu Theological College in the Context of Climate Change: an Emerging Model of Coconut Theological Education and Ministerial Formation HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422 Page 1 of 8 Original Research Re-envisioning Tangintebu Theological College in the context of climate change: An emerging model of coconut theological education and ministerial formation Authors: This article engages through an interdisciplinary approach to re-envision Tangintebu 1 Tioti Timon Theological College’s (TTC) model of theological education in the context of climate change in Chammah J. Kaunda2 Roderick R. Hewitt1 Kiribati. It utilises the anthropological theory of symbolic interactionism within missiological, cultural and, theological studies of climate change. It argues for the coconut tree as an Affiliations: appropriate cultural conceptual metaphorical idiom for translating and understanding 1 School of Religion, Christian faith and shaping a theological pedagogy within the Kiribati context of climate Philosophy and Classics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, change. The coconut image is an indigenous, holistic way of knowing and learning informed Pietermaritzburg, by Kiribati cosmology embedded within people’s experiences and understanding of the South Africa coconut tree. Its life-centeredness has the potential to contextualise the theological curriculum and teaching methodology to assist in equipping theological students with climate change- 2 United Graduate School of sensitive approaches. The qualitative method was utilised to allow participants to reflect on Theology, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea their experiences of climate change in relation to the mission of the church. The data that informs this article was generated through unstructured interviews and focus group Corresponding author: discussions with members of the Kiribati Uniting Church (KUC). The data was analysed using Chammah Kaunda, symbolic interactionism. The results suggest that the Kiribati people symbolically interact [email protected] with God through their understanding of the coconut tree, which is conceived as the Dates: embodiment of God’s presence. It became clear that while this world view informs the faith of Received: 25 June 2018 members of the KUC, the TTC curriculum has sidelined it, resulting in miseducation of pastors Accepted: 02 Oct. 2018 because this omission means they are not equipped to engage with the challenge of climate Published: 25 Mar. 2019 change. The participants argued that there is an urgent need to understand theological How to cite this article: education and ministerial formation within the indigenous framework of Kiribati coconut Timon, T., Kaunda, C.J. & imagination that is embedded in the promotion of justice and equitable society not only for Hewitt, R.R., 2019, human beings but for all of God’s creation through symbolic interaction with the presence of ‘Re-envisioning Tangintebu Theological College in the God in the coconut. context of climate change: An emerging model of coconut theological education and ministerial Introduction formation’, HTS Teologiese The life-threatening phenomenon of climate change has triggered an urgent search for Pacific Studies/Theological Studies theological response among Pacific theologians (Havea 1987; Forman 2005; Palu 2012; Thaman 75(1), a5169. https://doi. org/10.4102/hts.v75i1.5169 1990; Tielu 2016; Timon 2013). The quest for an indigenous Pacific theological response started at the Consultation of Pacific Theologians in Papua New Guinea in 1986, where Sione Amanaki Copyright: Havea (1987) of Tonga called for directing the theological enterprise toward the realities of Pacific © 2019. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS. This work contextual challenges. As a result, several Pacific theologians began to think in terms of God and is licensed under the Christianity as a Pacific God and a Pacific Christianity, and to connect this idea to the traditional Creative Commons knowledge systems of islander beliefs and cultures. Attribution License. Building on this theological tradition, this study employs the symbolic interaction to demonstrate how the Kiribati people conceptualise the presence of God as embodied within the coconut tree. The article argues that Kiribati people tend to define, construct and make meaning of their experiences of God partly through their daily interactions with coconut trees. The coconut tree is conceived of as an embodiment of the divine source of all life and being in the Kiribati context. Read online: The people cannot continue to exist on the island without the coconut. Hence, it is entrenched Scan this QR within their world view as a source of life and foundation of existential knowledge. The coconut code with your smart phone or tree is a symbol of both life and God to the islanders of the Pacific as it embodies the culture and mobile device cycle of life that shapes the environment of the people (Palu 2012; Tenten 1994; Uriam 1999). This to read online. tree is of more value than any other plant in Kiribati because it produces all of the key elements of http://www.hts.org.za Open Access Page 2 of 8 Original Research life and thus the life of the people is constructed around the coconut imagination to demonstrate how the KUC, through coconut tree (Thaman 1990; Timon 2013; Havea 1987). Some its theological education and ministerial formation, could Pacific scholars have argued that this coconut tree not only respond adequately to climate change threatening the lives of sums up the culture of life but discloses the knowledge of the islanders. who God is and what God has done in and for the land and people of the Pacific (Havea 1987; Palu 2012; Uriam 1999). In Methodological approach agreement with these scholars, Forman stresses, ‘in many The study employed the qualitative method to understand ways the coconut could symbolize Christ, because it gives issues affecting the lives of the people. Data was gathered on life to human beings, and when it is broken new life springs the quality of theological education used to equip ministerial forth’ (Forman 2005:116). It makes sense for Pacific scholars students of the KUC and then analysed to determine the to interpret the gospel in their Pacific context rather than the ways in which the quality of education can be improved to original Western one brought by the missionaries and be better equip to them to respond to the challenges of therefore for Christ to be perceived as a Pacific islander. climate change in Kiribati. Open-ended questions were used during the interviews to give ‘freedom of expression and According to Bird (2016), human life finds its meaning and allow the respondents to qualify their responses’ (Walliman explores its true potential within the totality of life in the land 2011:98). Information-gathering procedures followed face- as the household of life. In Kiribati, God is seen as the living to-face interviews and focus group discussions with key and life-giving presence who sustains life in the land through informants that included theological students, lecturers, coconuts. The coconut image as model for theological local pastors, lay leaders and members of the KUC. The total education and ministerial formation, as understood in number of participants, who included youth, men and Kiribati, has the potential to epistemologically and women, was 54. Secondary data was also collected from pedagogically equip future church leaders to effectively church documents, minutes and other relevant information. respond to climate change and environmental issues. Tielu The supplemental searches also consulted books and journals (2016) argues that through coconut imagination it is from the Pacific Theological College library, University of the recognised that God speaks to Pacific peoples through the South Pacific library and University of KwaZulu-Natal world in which they live and delegates human beings to look library and online sources relevant to the study. The after the entire creation (Gn 2:14–15). Hence, Christians must qualitative nature of the study helped to demonstrate that focus more on understanding how God is present in creation the coconut as theological resource embedded within Kiribati within particular local contexts rather than focusing only on and the wider Pacific region is critical in re-envisioning theological themes such as sin and redemption (Conradie theological education and ministerial formation adequate to 2009:42–43). This means giving serious attention to respond to contemporary issues affecting the lives of the addressing wider environmental concerns by developing a people and their islands. vision of justice and equality concealed within local traditions. The foregoing raises the question of how the Kiribati Uniting The nation of Kiribati Church (KUC) could revise and transform the theological Kiribati constitutes one of the nations in the Pacific region. education at Tangintebu Theological College (TTC) to make The Kiribati people live on low-lying atolls, with the highest it more effective and relevant in the context of climate change point being 3 m above sea level – the most vulnerable nation in Kiribati. The contemporary model of theological education on Earth to cope with rising sea levels. Kiribati is a group of is shaped by the material legacy of Western missionaries’ 33 scattered low-lying atolls, ‘dispersed in the central Pacific theological imaginations. The Western classical theological covering an area of over 3.5 million sq.km (1.4 million square education and theology is not adequate to deal with the eco- miles)’ (Thomas 2002:164). Kiribati has a population
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