| Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar | |
| Birth Date: | 1963 3, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Bengaluru, Karnataka |
| Church: | Ordained in Arcot Lutheran Church |
| Education: | United Theological College
|
| Ordained: | September 3, 2006 |
| Offices Held: | Professor of Theology and Ethics, Serampore College.Professor, Theology & Women's Studies* United Theological College, Bengaluru |
| Reverend Doctor | |
| Parents: | Sheela Sujaya Kantha and John Anderson |
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar is a feminist activist ecumenical theologian who taught at Serampore College, Serampore (1990-1994) the United Theological College, Bangalore, (1999-2014). Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar was the first permanent woman faculty to serve as faculty in the Theology Department of the renowned Serampore College, founded by William Carey when he came to India in 1792. She was the first Lutheran Woman to serve as first Vice President of the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India in 2006. She comes from a family of theologians - about 17 of them, her father, all eight siblings, and seven of the eight who married into the family. Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar served as the President of the Association of Theologically Trained Women of India (ATTWI) and is a sought after resource person on Body Theology.
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar was born on 19 March 1963 in Bangalore. She is the third daughter in a family of eight siblings, (six sisters + two brothers) and all eight siblings completed their theological education and entered various forms of ministry. Acts 1: 8 "Be my Witnesses" is the under-girding Bible verse that motivates the whole family to witness to a loving and gracious triune God who sustained them in days of hardship and despair. Faith in God is therefore the richest resource that the family is endowed with, making the millionaires in faith to the rest of the world to state that God is a living and an ever present God, active in history, in everyone's lives. The neighborhood where Evangeline lived (The Jeremiah Road Neighborhood) is yet another large family comprising at least twenty families, belonging to all faiths: Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Christian, and those who were from different culture, caste, color and faith orientations. That this friendship and comradeship remains alive and vibrant even today after thirty – forty years speaks of the quality of relationship fostered in that neighborhood community.She went to Goodwill's Girls School and later joined Mount Carmel College, Bangalore where she obtained a BSc degree in the year 1983.
Evangeline Anderson-Rajkumar's father stands as THE person who influenced her most, in her personal and faith formation. How do those parents who have faced difficult moments in their own lives, convert those experiences into faith and commit themselves to building a positive family, neighborhood,
In the year 1984, Anderson-Rajkumar joined the United Theological College, Bengaluru and enrolled herself for pursuing the degree of Bachelor of Divinity (BD). She later left for Sweden in the year 1987 and pursued a one-year programme of the Church of Sweden in Göteborg.
Anderson-Rajkumar later returned to India in 1988 and pursued the degree of Master of Theology M. Th. in the discipline of theology in the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary, Madurai and completed it by 1990.
Serampore College, the constituent college of the Senate of Serampore College, Serampore, West Bengal invited her to be on its faculty. Accepting the offer, Anderson-Rajkumar left for Serampore in the year 1990 and taught Theology and Ethics.[1] She later left for doctoral studies to Bengaluru in 1994.[2]
Later, Anderson-Rajkumar enrolled as a doctoral candidate at the South Asia Theological Research Institute (SATHRI) in Bengaluru and earned the doctoral degree of Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) in the discipline of Feminist Theology.
The United Theological College, Bengaluru, Anderson-Rajkumar's alma mater invited Anderson-Rajkumar to join as a member of its faculty. Since then, Anderson-Rajkumar had been teaching theology to the students there.[3]
Sisters of Loreto was founded by Mary Ward who have their Indian provincialate in Kolkata. They descended in India in the year 1842 and have their presence entirely in North India.[4] Anderson-Rajkumar was invited in the years 2002 and 2003 to take up talks on re-reading the Bible.
Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bengaluru is a pontifical atheneum with degree-granting authority validated by the Vatican.[5] Anderson-Rajkumar also taught gender issues to the students there.
In 2004, Anderson-Rajkumar delivered talks on Asian Feminist Christology at the Federation of Asian Bishop's Conferences in Bangkok, Thailand.[6]
The Association of Theologically Trained Women of India (ATTWI), constituted in 1979 has a membership base of more than 500. Anderson-Rajkumar is a member of ATTWI and provided leadership to this ecumenical association from 2002 to 2006 as President of ATTWI.
The Women's Institute for New Awakening (WINA) founded in 1982 in Karnataka.[7] Anderson-Rajkumar has been serving as the vice-president of WINA since the year 2000.
Anderson-Rajkumar is a member of the Indian Theological Association (ITA) which meets every year. ITA was established in the year 1976 by Fr. Joseph Constantine Manalel.[8] In the recent annual conference of the ITA held in Bengaluru on the theme Women's Concerns and Indian Theological Responses, a 34 recommendations were arrived upon.[9]
Globethics.net, a network of institutions involved in applied ethics headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland was founded in 2004 by the ethicist Prof. Dr. Christoph Stückelberger. Anderson-Rajkumar was a board member of Globethics.net Association from 2004 to 2008. Since 2009, Globethics.net is a foundation with a new board.[10]
The Senate of Serampore College (University) (India's first University with degree-granting authority)[11] took note of Anderson-Rajkumar's activism and made her a member on its Academic Council in the year 2005. She earlier served as a member on the Board of Studies for Theology and Ethics under the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore College[12] (BTESSC), the regulatory body for theological education in India, from 2000 to 2003.
Anderson-Rajkumar is also the present Convenor of Board of Women's Studies of the BTESSC.