Despite a steady rain, crowds gathered from around the world to dedicate the new four-story Learning Center and Lena and George Hendrickson Library of the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia, on June 10.

 

            The building, six years in development, finally allows students and visiting scholars to utilize its complete theological holdings as well as providing room to add to its collections.

 

            “In 1998, we started dreaming about this,” said Rev. Dr. Peter Kuzmič, founder and president of the seminary. “We knew from the beginning that our library space was not functional, not proper, but the capacity was not there to improve it.”

 

            With the opening of the new 35,000-square-foot building, the seminary will be able for the first time to utilize its full library of 65,000 volumes of specialized literature and more than 100 theological and biblical studies journals. Previously, the library was housed in such cramped space that some 30,000 volumes have had to remain in storage for years. The new library also provides ample reading room space for scholars to study as well as lecture halls and faculty and administrative offices. The added space also will allow for the development of programs such as the counseling department and media ministries which were too cramped to grow.

 

In addition, it provides a protected environment for the books. The seminary’s non-circulating reference library had been housed in a basement space that was subject to flooding and more than once had to be closed to users due to water problems.

 

The expanded facility also allows for development of critical holdings, such as Mission Studies and Church in Society in Eastern Europe.

 

The core strength of the library’s collection is in the classical disciplines of theological studies, with emphasis on biblical studies. Other special collections include the library of the Institute for Christian Pedagogy and Culture, an audio and visual collection and a collection of books and other works on CD-ROM, including the periodical base of the American Theological Library Association.

 

            The space freed up in the old building will be used primarily to provide more housing. The need is especially great for space to house married students, which the school is attracting more as it offers advanced degrees.

 

            The new building also conveys to the surrounding city and even the region of south central Europe the seminary’s permanence and commitment to the future.

 

            “The study center with its library is a milestone in increasing research and learning capacity of ETS,” Dr. Kuzmič said. “Taking seriously the trends of globalization and the international nature of our school, we are developing the best English language library in this part of the world. It will serve not only our academic community but Christian leaders, journalists and other intellectuals interested in religious studies.”

 

              Anto Đapić, mayor of the city of Osijek, congratulated the seminary on the building at the dedication service. Also providing greetings were Krešimir Bubalo, regional governor of Osijek and Baranja; Prof. Želimir Janjić, state secretary for the ministry of science, education and sports; Prof. Dr. Dražen Barković, vice rector of the Strossmayer University in Osijek; Prof. Dr. Robert Cooley, chairman emeritus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; and Rev. Toma Magda, president of the Baptist Church of Croatia. Denominational leaders from all churches in the region were present, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church and Montenegro Orthodox Church. Leaders of nearly all Protestant churches in the area participated in the dedication service or the graduation that followed.            

 

Lena Hendrickson, the namesake of the library, addressed the crowd in Croatian. Her son, Stephen, the founder of Hendrickson Publishers and Christian Book Distributors of Boston, USA, read her story. She was born in Canada but spent part of her childhood years in Voivodina, now part of Serbia. She returned to what was then Yugoslavia with her husband, George, in the 1980s and ministered at churches in Croatia and Serbia, which they did until his death in 1991.

 

             ETS serves Protestant students of all denominations primarily from the former communist countries of south central Europe, including Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Ukraine but has also had students from Asia and Africa. Its more than 900 former students minister in 60 countries across the globe.

 

              The seminary, founded in Zagreb in 1972 under communism, moved to Osijek, in the northeastern part of Croatia in the 1980s. This move positioned it at the crossroads of the two major streams of Christendom -- Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy -- as well as at the point of entry into Europe of Islam.