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<\/p>\nIt was Christine Jones who first encouraged me to visit UTU and begin my journey of learning with them so it is with delight that I share her guest blog post this week. Don’t forget to send your memories, inspirations and stories to the office to be shared in future posts. Many thanks. Christine Dutton<\/p>\n\n
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My first encounter with UTU was when I was invited to teach Methodism to the current cohort of Methodist ministerial students. That was a great experience, challenging, fun and a privilege to work with this group. This was a short time before John retired and it was suggested that I apply for the vacant posts of Director and then Director of Studies. I spent the next 14 years working at UTU. I was already interested in feminist and liberation theology and UTU helped to consolidate those ideas and increase the passion for \u2018God\u2019s preferential option for the poor.\u2019<\/p>\n
It is impossible to explain the impact of being at UTU in such a few words. Apart from teaching Methodism and then ministerial skills, I also taught the Biblical modules and hermeneutics. I found it very true that as teacher I learned more than those I taught. I had mountains of reading to wade through to bring those topics more up to date, but I not only learned from the preparation but also from those in the classes. I learned so much from the discussions and debates that we had and one important lesson was about the challenges to my own presuppositions.<\/p>\n
I was also challenged by the discussions and conversations with other staff and appreciated their clarity of thought and ability to consider the big picture without ignoring the minutiae. Here I owe a great deal to John and Ian.<\/p>\n
The final challenge was I became aware I was not a trained teacher and so decided to read for a PhD in adult education. That helped change some of the teaching methods I had used, challenged my leading of worship and opened up the opportunity for my next job when I needed to move on from UTU.<\/p>\n
Revd Dr Christine Jones (Former Director of Studies and then Director at UTU)<\/p>\n\n