A Chinese-speaking Bible College has been set up in Edinburgh under the leadership of Dr Maureen Yeung Marshall
Christian International Training Centre (CITC) is Edinburgh’s first Chinese-speaking bible college. Established in July 2019, it provides systematic bible and theology programs to prepare Christians to reach and serve the growing Chinese-speaking community, first in Edinburgh and Scotland and then the UK and Europe.
The centre is led by Maureen Yeung Marshall who is the widow of the late I. Howard Marshall, a well-respected Scottish theologian. After Howard’s death in 2015, Maureen returned to her native Hong Kong but while there she felt God giving her a burden and a vision to help serve the Chinese Christians in Scotland and Europe more generally. So she returned to Scotland to pursue the call.
By estimation, there are over 400,000 people from the Chinese ethnic group in the UK and more than 3 million in Europe. Also, the Hong Kong Christian community in and around Edinburgh has grown quickly to several thousand people since 2019. Many of these new immigrants are Christians.
Dr Marshall sees the need of training for these Chinese Christians. She says; “There is a pressing need to develop lay leaders to help build evangelistic churches which can shoulder the responsibility of reaching out to the Chinese in Europe.”
There are many Chinese congregations across the UK and Europe, but in view of the increasing number of new arrivals, churches need more leaders and trained Christians to support growth, to share the gospel, and to nurture Christ-like disciples. Among the new arrivals there are all sorts of people -– some are Christian believers and others are unbelievers; some are more wealthywealthier while some others are struggling with the high cost of living; some can speak English while some cannot. The Church needs different kinds of people to be trained to touch their lives, to witness, to sow and to reap.
With various levels of programs, the training center equipsprograms and short courses with both in-person and online teaching. Applications isare now open for the fall autumn semester of 2023 (September to December). For further information, please visit @www.ed-citc.org.uk.
