Church of the Brethren Newsline
December 21, 2017
A grant of $15,000 has been given by the Church of the Brethren’s Global Mission and Service office to Gujarat United School of Theology (GUST) in India. The grant assists the school with much-needed repairs to classrooms and other facilities.
GUST is a seminary of the Church of North India (CNI), a long-standing ecumenical partner of the Church of the Brethren. Silvans Christian, bishop of the CNI Gujarat Diocese, serves as chair of the GUST board.
The school is known as a premier institution for the Christian community in State of Gujarat, having had a significant influence on the churches in Gujarat by producing the most number of theologically trained spiritual leaders. It is located in the city of Ahmedabad, recently declared a Heritage City by UNESCO. “The value of GUST buildings increases as they are part of the rich heritage the city boasts about,” said the project proposal for repair work.
The GUST building was dedicated for theological education in 1913. The last major renovation work was carried out in 2001, after the Gujarat earthquake.
The repair work is divided into three areas: first, repairing damaged cement plaster on walls and repainting student rooms, staff quarters, and the main college building; second, containing water seepage from roofs and into foundations, which is threatening the strength of the building; third, building attached bathrooms in student rooms, which currently share common bathrooms.
Global Mission and Service is seeking to raise more funds to assist GUST in its repairs, which will cost an estimated total of around $45,000. For more information contact Jay Wittmeyer, executive director of Global Mission and Service, at jwittmeyer@brethren.org .
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