Prof. J. A. Schep Professor-Emeritus The End Of An Era.

Prof. K. Runia. Trowel & Sword. K. October 1964

Preamble: It would be fair to say that the majority of articles in Trowel and Sword were written for the purpose teaching or informing readers about Reformed faith and/or doctrine. This article does neither. It is instead a nostalgic piece written in recognition of the services rendered to both the church and the Reformed Theological College by one of the pioneers of both, who went above and beyond what would normally be expected of a minister of the church. Was he exceptional? Prof. Runia obviously thought he was. But then, many of the early pioneers were. How would we stack up today against men who did so much in such a short space of time.

Prof. J. A. Schep Professor-Emeritus The End Of An Era.

On Friday, August 4, at the occasion of the annual College dinner, we officially said farewell to Prof. Schep as professor in the College. It is almost impossible to visualise the reality expressed by these cold words. The names of Prof. Schep and of our College are inseparably related. When the College was established in 1955, Prof. Schep was one of the first lecturers, together with Prof. Barkley. As was said on August 4, he has borne the heat of the day and the cold of the night, which characterised the first years. At first there was really nothing. There were no funds, no building, no library, no organisation. There were only a handful of students and two inexperienced lecturers. But Prof. Schep undertook the heavy burden with all his energy, and that at an age then others are almost considering retirement! And the Lord has blessed his work wonderfully.

Now the first ten years have gone and precisely at this stage Prof. Schep has decided to retire from active College work. This is no less than the end of an era.

At the dinner, this time given in the honour of Prof. and Mrs. Schep, many words of appreciation were spoken. Attention was drawn to Prof. Schep’s great gifts of learning and teaching, to his fatherly interest in the students, and above all to his faithfulness to the Word of God and His great love for the Lord. Prof. Schep himself said at the end of the evening: “I am very grateful that I was allowed to do this work. These have been the ten richest years of my life and ministry”.

Now he has retired from his active duties, but we are all sure that he will remain active. He himself mentioned this too. All emphasis was placed on one specific activity: the labour of prayer for the College and its community. “I hope to ask the Lord daily that all connected with the College may remain faithful to His Word and that teachers and students may be Spirit-filled men”.

We believe it to be most fitting that this fact of Prof. Schep’s retirement is mentioned on the pages of our magazine. From the very beginning he has had a leading place in the life of our Churches. Several churches in Tasmania came into existence through his ministry. Through his work in the College, his articles in ‘Trowel and Sword’, his numerous advices given to sessions and individuals, his reports for Synod, etc. he has rendered invaluable service to all our churches in Australia and New Zealand.

Our prayer is that the Lord may bless him and Mrs. Schep in their days of retirement. At the moment they are making preparations for another world tour to visit their children in The Netherlands and Canada. They hope to leave Australia some time during this month. On behalf of all our readers we bid them Godspeed.

K. Runia

We look forward to receiving feedback about any of our posts. We also encourage you to share our posts with family, friends and acquaintances; in fact anyone you think may appreciate and/or benefit from the knowledge and wisdom handed down to us from the past.   To view previous posts visit our website at www.tsrevisited.com

Don’t forget to “Like” the article. It helps to spread the word to a wider audience.