Alphacrucis

Alphacrucis College
Former names
 Commonwealth Bible College (1948-1993)
Southern Cross College (1993-2009)
Motto You can tell.
Established 1948 (as Commonwealth Bible College)
President Michael Murphy
Principal Rev Assoc Prof Stephen Fogarty
Students > 500
Location Parramatta, NSW, Australia
33°49′14″S 151°00′26″E / 33.820448°S 151.007138°E / -33.820448; 151.007138Coordinates: 33°49′14″S 151°00′26″E / 33.820448°S 151.007138°E / -33.820448; 151.007138
Campus Multiple campuses - Sydney, Brisbane, Global Online
Colours     
Orange
Affiliations Australian Christian Churches
Assemblies of God
Council for Christian Colleges and Universities
Website ac.edu.au

Alphacrucis College (AC, formerly Commonwealth Bible College and Southern Cross College) is a Christian tertiary college and is the official ministry training college of Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. The College has several campuses, with the main campus in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. The College has programmes running in various colleges and churches around Australia. Since the College was founded in 1948, over 3,000 students have been trained and the graduates are engaged in ministry all around the world.

AC offers several vocational education and training courses in ministry, business, music, chaplaincy and counselling; accredited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority.[1][2] It is also a non-self-accrediting higher education institution,[3] authorised to provide a limited range of theology, ministry, business, leadership, and arts degrees up to doctorate level,[4] including a Korean language programme.[5] The college ethos is based on a Pentecostal/Charismatic orientation. In 2009, the college had an Equivalent Full Time Student Load of over 500.[6]

History

AC began as "Commonwealth Bible College" in 1948 in Melbourne, after an abortive attempt by Henry Wiggins to set up the college in the 1930s.[7] In 1949 the college moved to Brisbane,[7] first to New Farm, and in 1961 to a purpose-built campus on the Brisbane River which was destroyed in the 1974 Brisbane flood.[8]

After a year of temporary operation at Glad Tidings Tabernacle in Brisbane,[8] a new campus was obtained and refurbished at Katoomba, New South Wales in the former Palais Royale guesthouse.[9] The facilities of the Illawara Bible College were later added to the campus. The college remained at Katoomba until 1995.[8] In 1993 the name was changed, first to "Southern Cross Bible College" and then to "Southern Cross College of the Assemblies of God in Australia Ltd"[8] (not to be confused with Southern Cross University). From early 1996 to August 2011, the college was at Chester Hill, New South Wales.[8][10] For a period during this time, the college was associated with the Sydney College of Divinity.[6][11]

AC Central - Alphacrucis College Parramatta Campus, 2014

On 27 April 2009 at the Australian Christian Churches National Conference, Southern Cross College officially changed it name to Alphacrucis. The new name derives from the star that sits at the foot of the Southern Cross constellation named Alpha Crucis. The principal, Stephen Fogarty, says, “Alphacrucis is the brightest star in the Southern Cross, and it’s at the foot of the cross. […] We want our students to shine brightly at the foot of the cross.”[12]

In September 2011, AC relocated its main campus to 30 Cowper Street, Parramatta, Sydney (formally opening it in March 2012[13]); and also re-opened its Brisbane campus at the site of iSEE CHURCH – 308 Seventeen Mile Rocks Road, Seventeen Mile Rocks, Brisbane. In early 2014, the AC Brisbane campus relocated to 35 Thompson Street, Bowen Hills, Brisbane – on the grounds of Hope Centre International.

Faculty and research

The faculty of Alphacrucis includes fourteen staff with doctoral level qualifications.[14] The college has set up the Australasian Pentecostal Heritage Centre, which includes an online repository of historical Pentecostal journals – including issues of the Australian Evangel back to 1927. They have also created a refereed journal, Australasian Pentecostal Studies. As of 2008, the college library had over 19,000 volumes.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Degrees and certificates (Alphacrucis)
  2. ↑ Organisation details (Australian Government)
  3. ↑ TEQSA web site
  4. ↑ Australian Government "Study in Australia" web site
  5. ↑ New South Wales Government education web site
  6. 1 2 Charles Sherlock, Uncovering Theology: The Depth, Reach and Utility of Australian Theological Education, Australian Learning and Teaching Council, 2009.
  7. 1 2 Shane Clifton, Pentecostal Churches in Transition: Analysing the Developing Ecclesiology of the Assemblies of God in Australia, BRILL, 2009, ISBN 9004175261, pp. 108–111.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Our History (Alphacrucis)
  9. ↑ History of the Palais Royale Katoomba
  10. ↑ Carolyn Cummins, (12 May 2012), Campuses in class of their own, ‘’Sydney Morning Herald’’, p. 53
  11. ↑ Neil J. Ormerod and Shane Clifton, Globalization and the Mission of the Church, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 0567261832, p. ix.
  12. ↑ Principal Stephen Fogarty on the rationale behind the college's new name
  13. ↑ Votes and Proceedings, New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 29 March 2012.
  14. ↑ Faculty and staff (Alphacrucis)
  15. ↑ ANZTLA EJournal, No. 2, (2009)


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