THE HISTORY OF HUGH GOLDIE LAY / THEOLOGICAL TRAINING INSTITUTION AROCHUKWU, IN AFFILIATION WITH THE ABIA STATE UNIVERSITY, UTURU
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES FROM 1927 TO 2004
LOOK NOT DOWN ON THE DAYS OF LITTLE BEGINNINGS (ZECH. 4:10)
The above statement suits the gradual growth of the Hugh Goldie academic from the 1920s to date. The Indigenous theological institution of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria was founded in 1918 in Creek Town, Calabar, with the Rev. Hugh Goldie as its principal. In 1926, the institution was transferred to Arochukwu, its present site, named after the Rev. Hugh Goldie.
HUGH GOLDIE (1815-1895)
The Rev. Hugh Goldie was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, in 1815. He joined the United Presbyterian Church Mission of Scotland in 1848 to serve in the Calabar field after spending a few years in Jamaica (1840-1847). He headed the Calabar mission field for fifty years. He was a great scholar of the Efik language. He wrote the Efik Dictionary and translated the Bible into the New Testament and the Psalms into Efik. He died here in Nigeria in 1895.
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
When Hugh Goldie Theological Institution reopened for academic activities in 1926, the Rev. Dr John Taylor, Dean, became its first principal and one tutor. He trained and sent to the field the first batch of indigenous ministers in the persons of the Rev. Isaac Uwakwenta, John Ijoma, Awa Ugbagha, J.M. Nta, A.O. Anicho, P.B. Onwuchekwa, Eyo Eyo Ekpo, Bassey Ita, E. Uyah, Johnson U. Kalu, Maduekwe, Nnochin Ebi, K.M. Ume, Rev. Udo and Nwafor Ogwuna as pioneer ministers (Mmahi 2004).
THE SHIFT
In 1984, following a new spirit of co-operation among the three evangelical missions operating bodies in Nigeria of the C.M.S. (Anglicans), Methodists, and C.S.M. (Presbyterians), the revolutionary idea of women’s education emanated. As a result, a joint Women Training College (W.T.C.) and Trinity (Union) Theological College were founded. Hugh Goldie hosted the W.T.C., now the Federal Girls College, Umuahia. Trinity College was at Awka, and in 1950 it was transferred to Umuahia, its permanent site. With these new developments, the Presbyterian Mission shifted all its theological training programmes to Trinity College. When the women’s training college moved to Umuahia, Goldie resumed training in 1959 when a Scottish missionary, Miss C. H. Denham, joined the Calabar Mission. She trained the first batch of women workers as church sisters who, in the 1990s, were renamed deaconesses. Those trained were the late Miss Lucy EliejeArua, OriEkekwe, and Grace Uwem, who was also the first ordained woman Elder of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria in 1958 at Aba by the Rev. Ochu Mbila. Others were Miss IsuIkona, Alice Uno, InyangEkanaem, and Nnennayakanu. The living among them are Miss Ako E. E. Oku and Comfort U. Otaka.
Thus, Hugh Goldie is one of the oldest theological schools in Nigeria. Hugh Goldie Lay/Theological Training Institution, Arochukwu (HGLTTIA), is the foremost theological and ministerial training institution of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN), which started as the Calabar Mission and was later known as Church of Scotland Mission (CSM). Early enough, the missionaries recognised that their enterprise’s growth would depend mainly on the vigour of committed workers drawn from among the locals. This informed the extra effort expended in the educational formulations of the mission. However, beyond the general education of the converts, there was the need to have qualified personnel from amongst the people. Thus, as early as 1852 – six years after the arrival of the missionary in Nigeria – Rev. Dr Hugh Goldie and Rev. Dr Alexander Robb had the primary responsibility of training local ministers at Creek Town for the mission (Aye, 1996; Johnston, 1988). This task was handed over to teachers who ran courses that met once a year for four years, beginning in 1864. The first Indigenous CSM minister, Rev. Essien EssienUkpabio, was ordained in 1872, and his peers were trained under this arrangement. By 1871 the course had grown to a 44-week, a week-year programme, with about 16 students who studied the Shorter Catechism, biblical exposition, ‘natural philosophy, geography, history, anatomy, physiology, and others under the informed tutelage of Samuel Edgerly (Johnston, 1988, p. 106).
The most stringent selection process aimed at enlisting only the most fitting candidates for this onerous divine task (Aye, 1996). 1 In 1918, ministerial training for the CSM was relocated from Creek Town to the present site in Arochukwu, where it was initially called Goldie Training Centre (GTC), named in honour of veteran missionary Rev. Hugh Goldie. Her work in the area of personnel development for the CSM was outstanding. This relocation was spearheaded by Rev. John Taylor Dean, the one in charge of the ministerial training of the Mission at the time. Without undermining the mission’s proclivity for qualitative education for its personnel, Dean’s philosophy of ministerial training was ‘to produce, not a generation of theologians, but competent working ministers’ (Johnston, 1988, p. 115). This philosophy remained the fulcrum of the life and work of the institution for decades. For many years, the task of training students for church ministry as pastors and evangelists went on smoothly at Goldie. However, following the ecumenical move among the Anglicans, the Methodists, and the Presbyterians, which gave birth to Trinity (Union) Theological College. Umuahia, in 1948, the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria subsequently concentrated its ministerial training programme at Trinity College. Goldie Training Centre, nevertheless, continued its lay training programmes, which took on a novel perspective in 1957 when the Scottish missionary Miss Christie H. Denham took over the helm of affairs at Goldie and introduced the training of a new category of church workers, called Church Sisters.
The Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) was as tragic to Goldie as it was to Eastern Nigeria. All the missionaries went home, and soldiers occupied the premises and devastated its infrastructure. Goldie Training Centre was laid waste for many years after the war, abandoned by the Church and encroached on by neighbours. The Church also established other training centres. Which fuelled the further neglect of the institution. In the early seventies, only leadership seminars and Evangelism Explosion training programmes were conducted in Goldie after Rev. B. I. Bassey had laboured to resuscitate the abandoned centre. It was not until 1974 that Rev. James U. Ukaegbu resumed regular training of evangelists in Goldie, with the later addition of deacons and deaconesses. In recognition of the broad categories of church workers trained in Goldie, including Deacons/Deaconesses, Evangelists, Lay Church Leaders and Teachers, the institution became known as the Goldie Lay Training Centre. During this post-war period of strictly lay training programmes, the following held sway as principal of the institution: Rev. Dr J.U. Ukaegbu (1975). Rev. M. G. Okore (1976–1979), Rev. O. Mbila (1979–1982), and Rev. D. W. Mackay (1984–1901) Training of candidates for the ordained ministry was restored in Goldie in the Nineties when Rev. M. G. Okore served another term as the principal. The institution at this time enjoyed.
The partnership of the Netherlands Reformed Church (NRC) gave some aid for training programmes in the school. The institution was, thus, rightly renamed Hugh Goldie Lay/Theological Training Institution (HGLTTI) in acknowledgement of the theological and lay-training programmes that ran concurrently in it. The following academics have led the school as rectors in this lay-theological training arrangement up until the present: Rev. M. G. Okore, Rev. C. Mmahi, Rev. Dr C. Umesi, Rev. Dr Orji A. Onuoha, Rev. Dr. Miracle Ajah, Rev. Dr. OloNdukwe and Rev. Theophilus Chukwu Ngele Philosophy. The institution has an essential philosophy that is concerned with the relationship of the creation to the Creator. This philosophy is enunciated on the revelation of the authority of God over the universe and God’s purpose for humans on earth, including their eternal destiny. Furthermore, this philosophy is lubricated by a ‘vision for Christian pedagogical witness’ that underscores ‘a holistic/praxis-based research and activities of the whole people of God in a sustained attempt at making ‘substantive contributions towards nation-building, social transformation and the development of our habitats’ (Ndukwe, 2012, p. 4). In this wise, Hugh Goldie Lay/Theological Training Institution hopes to remain a ‘reformed institution that seeks to equip the clergy and the non-clergy with the necessary knowledge and practices that will make them relevant in this generation’ (Ndukwe, 2012, p. 9).
Thus, it can be said unequivocally that the college currently effectively balances the concern of the founding fathers of the Church for an uncompromisingly high standard of theological education with the unwavering philosophy of J. T. Dean for training competent ministers for the work of the church. Between 2021 and 2025, the school housed the following staff who are working tirelessly to improve the institution and inculcate the right theological lessons for the young ministers. They include
Rev Theophilus Chukwu Ngele, PhD
Rev Ucheoma James Ucheoma
Rev Eke Ogbonnaya Eke
Rev Ademe Eke Jp2
Mrs Obiageri Chukwuemeka Bassey
Rev Alozie Chukwunyere Iroanya, PhD
Rev Albert Ikechukwu Chima
Prince Stephen Orji
Rev Amarachi Peter Ajama
Rev Okeebulu Okebulu Amadi
Rev Gift Uche Ebere
Most Rev Uma Agwu Onwunta, PhD
Most Rev Benebo Fubara-Manuel, PhD
Rev Fidelis Nnakalu Okorie
Rev. Obono, Samson Ibiang
Pst Miracle Chukwu Ngele
Mrs Chinemerem Oti
Pst Uka Onyemachi Prince