About Our Facilities

Chapel worship is the focus of the start of the day's activity, with a 25-minute time of prayer, praise and reflection, led either by a member of faculty, or by a student or guest speaker. Occasional Prayer Vigils and other exercises contribute to the spiritual development of the seminary community.

The Seminary Library

The library contains the largest collection of theological books in Pakistan, having recently passed the 20,000 total of volumes listed in the Accession Register. This also includes some 700 Urdu titles. It also boasts the finest study environment in the country. In 1998, the whole library was complete refurbished to provide a radically new setting that is highly conducive to study and reflection.

Students can now study at individual carrels in an air-conditioned environment, while consulting the 3,000 more easily accessible and up-to-date volumes kept in the modern Reference Section of the Reading Room. Volumes needed for more specialised assignments such as thesis research are kept in the Stack Room along with the notable archives material.

All books in the Reading Room are arranged according the the Progressive Classification System, a contemporary positioning of titles that traverse the various fields of theological studies in a progressive and unifying order. A student, on entering the library, will thus find him or herself by the first sections dealing with Biblical Studies and Christian Doctrine (where we find the church's message of salvation). He or she may then move on through the sections on Apologetics, Contemporary Studies and Communication -- which includes Preaching and Missiology. (These concern the church's mission of witness.) Church History follows (describing the church's movement of discipline), before finally the sections are reached that concern Practical and Pastoral Theology (the church's ministry of praise, nurture and care).

In this way, the student's whole course of studies is mapped out, and the relationship among the various subjects set forth.

This draws attention to a unique feature of the classification system -- its integration with the seminary curriculum, which was completely overhauled in 2001. This inter-connection allows what is said in the lecture hall to be read easily in greater detail in the library. All reference books are now numbered according to the same system as the curriculum classification.

While the Reading Room is thoroughly modern and abreast of theological scholarship required for a basic theological education according to the ethos of the seminary, the Stack Room is a treasure trove of older volumes and more specialised works, including writings from other traditions. It includes also an archives section containing Mission Reports dating from 1830, British India Census from 1910, and miscellaneous pamphlets of the early 20th Century. The Asian Church History section is a particularly rich resource for students of the 19th Century and Pre-Partition India. Antique books on the stack shelves include Jonathan Edwards' Works (New York, 1830) and Archbishop Tillotson's Works (Edinburgh, 1749). Oriental works include a huge and beautifully printed copy of the Granth Sahib, the Sikh Holy Book written in Gurmukhi.

Housing and Classrooms

Married students are housed in more than 20 apartments around the campus. There are two separate hostels for single men and women. The seminary also has pleasant housing for its professors and staff. Adjoining the centrally located chapel are the academic and administrative buildings, housing classrooms, offices, a computer lab, and a small dispensary.

Chapel and Teaching Block

The central building is a fine cloistered block containing chapel, classrooms, library and offices, built in the late 1950s. Its focus is the central chapel building and bell tower. The library, which was completely refurbished in 1998, houses a spacious modern Reading Room and an extensive Stack Room of some further 16,000 volumes. A dispensary is available for the use of all students, teachers, staff and their families.