A Theological College belonging to the Church of North India
VISION Bishop's College trains men and women to be agents of God's transforming reign in the Church and in the world by offering a contextual theological education, encouraging a creative ministerial formation and inculcating a spirituality of life. MISSION Bishop's...
Bishop's College 224 AJC Bose Road, PO Circus Avenue Kolkata 700017, West Bengal, India Phone: +91 33 2280 9659 Email us: [email protected] Do not send unsolicited advertising, promotional or marketing messages/email on the number.
Bishop’s College was founded by the first Anglican Bishop of Calcutta, Bishop Thomas Middleton on 15th December 1820 at Shibpur, on a site next to the Botanical Gardens by the side of Hoogly river. The original buildings still survive as part of the Bengal Engineering College. It was originally intended to serve as an Arts and Science College, as well as for the training of Indian Christians for the priesthood, and as catechists and teachers in Christian Colleges and Schools. The first students were received on March 9th 1824. The first Indian and the first student of the College to receive ordination was Christian David, a Tamil, working in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
The plan was, the students, who normally entered the College at about the age of fifteen, will remain some five years in the college, during which the College would lay the foundation of a good education as it was then understood in England – learning Greek, and Latin classics and mathematics, with some divinity and general knowledge, and perhaps a little Hebrew – together with the study of Indian languages. After this they were to be sent as catechists to various S.P.G. Missions, and if they acquitted themselves satisfactorily then they were to be called to the College as probationers to prepare directly for ordination, between 1832 and 1837 a number of Bengali Hindu converts joined the College, among whom were Mahesh Chandra Ghose, Krishna Mohan Banerjee and Madhu Sudham Seal.
