Protestant Theological Institute
Kolozsvár / Cluj

The Protestant Theological Institute is the pastoral-training seminary of three Transylvanian Hungarian churches: the Reformed, the Unitarian and the Evangelical-Lutheran ones.

It is a private university accreditated by the state, which doesn't sponsor the Institute, only the donations of these churches support us.

The Institute trains about 40 ministers/pastors a year for the Transylvanian churches with 1 million (820,000 Reformed, 100,000 Unitarian and 30,000 Evangelical) members, which means that we generally have 180-200 students in the 5 classes.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

The theology is the only Protestant seminary that trains pastors, in 2 languages and at 2 residences (in Hungarian in Kolozsvár/Cluj, and in German in Hermannstadt/Sibiu), with 3 faculties that embrace 3 denominations (see structure):

* Reformed-Evangelical Faculty (Kolozsvár/Cluj)

* Unitarian Faculty (Kolozsvár/Cluj)

* Saxon Evangelical Faculty (Hermannstadt/Sibiu)

These belong to 4 churches:

* The Reformed Church

* The Unitarian Church

* The Hungarian Evangelical-Lutheran Chucrh

* The Saxon Evangelical-Lutheran Church

The Institute is under the supervision of 5 episcopates, as the Reformed Chucrh in Transylvania has two districts: the 'Királyhágómelléki' with its seat in Nagyvárad/Oradea, and the 'Erdélyi' (Transylvanian) one with its seat in Kolozsvár/Cluj.

History

* The legal predecessor of the Reformed Faculty was the so-called Reformed Theological Faculty, and that of the Unitarian Facuty the Theological Academy in Kolozsvár/Cluj. The Saxons and the Hungarian Lutherans had no seminaries in Transylvania.

* The 4 churhces founded the present Protestant Theological Institute with University Grade in 1948. The 1992 statute offers the denominations and faculties a larger independence.

Purposes

* to train ministers for the 4 Transylvanian Protestant chucrhes

* to study and promote the theological disciplines, maintaining professional relations with Theologies in Hungary and around the world

* to be open to the church and the society, especially to the students

Activities

A good university (in terms of the universitas) has 3 foundations: professors, students and the library. The university is accomodated in one building in which the academic programmes take place, where the students and professors live and which includes the library and the canteen, too.

* The teaching staff from Kolozsvár/Cluj consists of 16 professors and 8 non-theologian teachers

* The number of the students in 2005 is 188. The self-representation of the students is led by the Student Presbyterium and includes a diaconical group, a football team, two magazines, a radio-broadcasting centre, a literary circle, a forum for discussions, a group for hospital-nursing and a YMCA-group with its own magazine. All the students lead divine services in different congragations on the three great religious holidays of the year and during their summer holidays they have to do congregational practice for two weeks.

* The library has about 100,000 volumes. The most used and the newest books are figured in electronical catalogues on the library's computer. The study of the students is helped by the local computer-network connected to Internet since 1996.

The school-year

* The school-year lasts the whole year, the exams are in January, June and September. Holidays are in summer and during the church holidays.

* During the academic year, on every Sunday morning we gather at divine services: the Reformed in the ceremonial hall, the Uniatrians in the Unitarian church in the inner town, and the Lutherans in the Lutheran church.

* There is morning-worship every day.

Programs

* We have special ceremonies at the opening and the end of the school-year, at Christmas, at Easter and at the day of Reformation

* The so-called dies academicus is the open day of the institute, where those interested can closely look at the life of the institute.

* Beginning with 1998 we restarted the academical evenings, where our professors keep public lectures of public interest

General information

* The applicants have to pass an entrence-examination.

* The five years curriculum follows the classical theological branches of study.

* At the end of each semester the courses of lectures are followed by oral examinations.

* At the end of the fourth semester the students have to sit for a primary examination and at the end of the tenth they have their graduation-exam.

* Our Academy is in charge of further academic education too. The candidates for doctorate have to pass through a well-defined programme of studies before they hand in their thesis. In-service-training courses are organized for ministers as well.