Dr. Trevor Cooling flew into town last Saturday for our very first Christian Teacher's Seminar on EAST premises. He is the director of Transforming Lives (www.transforminglives.org.uk), an interdenominational project that promotes teaching as a Christian calling among the churches in the U.K.
Among the sixty participants, twenty-seven schools were represented. There was a NUS lecturer and three polytechnic lecturers in our midst too. Dr Cooling encouraged Christian teachers to be "transforming professionals" in modern education, using the Old Testament figure of Daniel as a model.
I found his idea "Tent of Meeting" very revolutionary. In the increasingly multi-cultural city of London, a tent of meeting was literally built. Believers from different faiths can go into this tent (which strangely reminds me of a San Francisco public restroom ... oops) to talk and share their views. It is a sacred space, a mutual space, but NOT a neutral space.
"Maybe the school is a Tent of Meeting?" suggested Dr. Cooling. Wow!
After the seminar, i went to Boat Quay with the four Mongolian guests who flew in for the seminar. I took the chance to shoot some pictures. Singapore is postcard-beautiful in its own way. Sigh ...
