The GOLD Project has developed out of more than 30 years’ experience of offering distance learning courses in the context of the UK church. Courses that were originally developed in India were adapted for use in the Oak Hill Extension College (OHEC) where several new courses were developed over the course of several years. After OHEC closed, OHEC’s courses were relaunched through Interactive Christian Extension Studies (ICES). ICES worked closely with St Albans and Oxford Diocese. In 2009, Trinity College Bristol took over the programme and developed the course materials as its Open Learning programme for six years until the end of 2015. GOLD Project became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2016.
Revd Mike Butterworth oversaw the development of Open Learning courses over many years. Before becoming head of the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course, Mike was a distance-learning course writer when on the staff of TAFTEE (The Association for Theological Education by Extension), India. Following his time in India, Mike was on the staff of Oak Hill Theological College where he developed further courses that were offered under the name OHEC (Oak Hill Extension College). Mike relaunched the courses under the banner of ICES (Interactive Christian Extension Studies) for the St Albans and Oxford Ministry Course. They were used for many years by the Ministry Course to train ordinands and independent students in theology and ministry. Mike now serves as a trustee of the GOLD Project.
Partnership with SEAN
SEAN courses have been used with remarkable success around the world for more than 40 years. It is our hope that the addition of these courses will enable discipleship pathways for churches and individuals to grow in their faith and contribute to the mission and ministry of the church. For more information about SEAN's history, click here.
GOLD and SEAN UK share a vision to equip all Christian believers in the UK in their faith and active ministry in their local churches and communities. As a result of this shared vision, SEAN UK and the GOLD Project entered into a partnership on 9th December 2018 to allow GOLD Project to use SEAN courses within its programme.
The SEAN courses have been reformatted and added to the courses that GOLD Project already offers. This enables GOLD Project to provide churches with a range of courses at different levels to fulfil their own vision to see church and society transformed as God's people learn to meet him through Jesus Christ in the power of his Spirit by studying together and applying the message of the Bible in all aspects of their lives.
As a result of this partnership, we are able to offer three levels of courses. Each group can choose the level at which they want to study.
