St Andrews is a great University, one of the 'best' not simply in Scotland but in the UK.
It has a very low drop out rate: http://www.studentbeans.com/student101/a/Universities/universities-with-the-lowest-drop-out-rates2610.html
It is in the top ten Universities in Scotland according to the Times best University guide 2012 - the only one from Scotland: http://lywong.hubpages.com/hub/Sunday-Times-University-Ranking-Top-10-UK-Universities
Apparently as proudly reported in the recent local paper the Courier it is also in the top ten UK Universities for producing grduates who go on to be millionaires: http://www.thesaint-online.com/2012/03/st-andrews-among-top-ten-universities-to-produce-millionaires-in-uk/
In comparisson to the above the University of the West of Scotlad where the Scottish Baptist College is locateed fares very poorly with for example a drop out rate of 23.4% in comparisson to St Andrews 1.4%.
Yet there is another statistic that is interesting. This statistic is that the ancient universities in Scotland including St Andrews are very poor at taking students from the poorest economic backgrounds in Scotland: http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/education/st-andrews-university-takes-only-13-students-from-poor-backgrounds-1-2337132
In contrast to this the University of the West of Scotland takes some 25.4% of its students from the lowest 20% of economic backgrounds (Herald).
The ancient Universities often among the best in the light of the above but poor in taking poorer students are the places where theology has traditionally been taught. They are great places to study theology - I get that having done post-graduate theology studies at Edinburgh and feel part of an ancient institution.
On the other hand I am really proud of the UWS record in taking poorer students something which explains at least in part some of its lower rankings in other tables.
In turn I would hope that this location for the Scottish Baptist College could inform our theologising and shape our understanding and practice of mission.
It seems that Jesus thought that authentic discipleship would always be among and concerned for the poor.
Baptist wish - that we be known as those who place themselves among marginalised groups of all sorts - this will probabaly not get us in any Times top ten list - but hey this was not the sort of recognition that the crucified one sought.
Is the fear factor associated with feet-washing rooted in the dirt we'd rather leave undisturbed or the fear of being cleaned by the hands of someone else and being open to someone else being aware of what we have successfully hidden? Or is it just feet you don't like?
Posted by: Rob | 06/20/2012 at 02:53 PM