Seminario Mennonita de Teología (Mennonite Biblical Seminary, SEMT), located at Vilardebo 964, Montevideo, Uruguay, was founded in 1956 as a co-operative effort of the Mennonite Church (MC) and the General Conference Mennonite Church for the training of ministers, missionaries, and church workers for the Mennonite churches of South America. It is sponsored and largely financed by the general mission boards of the two Mennonite conferences named above, but the board of directors also includes members appointed by the cooperative Mennonite groups in South America. The Bragado (Argentina) Mennonite Bible School was merged with it in 1958. At that time it was a bilingual school (Spanish and German) on the secondary level. Nelson Litwiller was the first president. The enrollment averaged 30-40, including some part time students.

The seminary closed in 1974 after difficulties brought on by the liberation movements in South America in the 1960s. The Mennonites in Paraguay withdrew their support from the seminary, leaving it nonviable. Nonetheless SEMT had great influence on a generation of leaders in Latin America especially through the teaching of faculty members like John Driver.

SEMT was followed in 1977 by Centro Evangélico Mennonita de Teología Asunción (CEMTA) in Paraguay.

Bibliography

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1106. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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