On 7 October 2016, during the celebration of 40 years of pentecostal theological education in Romania, a memorandum of understanding establishing a framework for cooperation between the Theological Pentecostal Institute from Bucharest, Romania and the Pentecostal Theological Seminary from Cleveland, TN, USA was signed. Sharing a similar institutional vision, the two schools are committing in the document to reciprocally support each other in the delivery of accredited theological education, for the formation of new ministers to serve the Church of God. The memorandum was signed on behalf of ITPB by Dr. Ioan Brie, the President of the school, and Dr. Romulus Ganea, its Dean. On behalf of PTS the document was signed by Dr. Michael Backer, the seminary’s President, and by Dr. David Han, its Dean. This formalisation of the cooperation between the two institutions is also supported by the leadership of their respective denominations in Romania and USA. As such, the memorandum was also signed by Pastor Moise Ardelean, the President of the Romanian Christian Pentecostal Denomination and Dr. David Ramirez, Assistant General Overseer of Church of God. We are thankful to God for this important step ahead in the development of our school and are praying that He will continue to bless our joint venture and the workings of both ITPB and PTS.
”In keeping with the shared institutional vision between Institutul Teologic Penticostal din București (Romania) and Pentecostal Theological Seminary (USA), the following collaborative agreements represent a mutual commitment to help support one another in providing accredited theological education rooted in the Holiness-Pentecostal faith values of Christian tradition.
Collaborative Agreements
1. Institutul Teologic Penticostal (hereafter ITPB) and Pentecostal Theological Seminary (hereafter, PTS) will engage in a mutual effort to help support accredited theological education of ITPB in Romania.
2. PTS will strategically consider providing its faculty resources to help teach in the Master’s and undergraduate programs of ITPB insofar as such action is fiscally feasible and appropriate.
3. Whenever fiscally feasible, PTS will provide scholarship to select ITPB faculty and/or students to study at PTS. The ITPB administration will be responsible for selecting the said ITPB faculty and/or students and inform the PTS administration of their request, with the list of scholarship beneficiaries, one year prior to the start of their study at PTS.
4. If and whenever applicable, PTS will consider ITPB as a possible internship site for PTS students, e.g. teaching in the undergraduate programs of ITPB, mission-related internship at local congregations in Romania.
5. If and whenever possible, PTS will consider working with ITPB in helping increase the ITPB’s library resources.
6. ITPB and PTS will strategically consider convening academic conferences, either at ITPB or PTS, with a view toward publishing the papers presented at each conference.
7. PTS and ITPB will regularly review and assess the progress of the above collaborative agreements and may initiate alteration to any of the above collaborative agreements by revision, deletion and/or addition.”