Background, mission, vision and values
The International Centre for Research, Inter-religious Dialogue and Development (ICRIDEV) is a brain child of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary (PTS), Kumba, and operates within the context of the mission of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC). PTS is a faith-based institution that trains theologians and leaders, geared towards missions in Cameroon.
In recent years, it has been the wish of the Seminary to extend its frontiers of learning to engage contextual issues. There was a need for pastors to gain additional capacity in areas of concern within the environment of their congregants, and to join other leaderships — community organisations, civil society, government and international partners — in collaborating on issues of concern within and beyond their environment.
As time evolved, the emergence of the Anglophone crisis reinforced this idea. The Seminary needed to be not only a ground for theological training and pastoral formation, but also a Centre for social action towards victims of the crisis, in the domain of humanitarian action and research. Considering that the Church remains one of the organisations holding a strategic voice in the community, its role in peace building and conflict transformation cannot be overemphasised.
It was recognised that the Seminary could not handle all these aspects alone. The Faculty of PTS therefore proposed to the Synod of the PCC, through its Administrative Council, the creation of a Centre to take up these concerns. The proposal was approved in 2018, and the Bishop July International Centre for Research, Inter-religious Dialogue and Development (BJICRID) was created and inaugurated to fill this gap. At the Synod of 2022 the Centre was renamed the International Centre for Research, Inter-religious Dialogue and Development (ICRIDEV).
Although created through the Presbyterian Theological Seminary and part of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, ICRIDEV operates as an autonomous unit. It is based on the principle of empowering people to live in harmony for holistic development. It holds that no one religion can claim all of the truth: each religion has a responsibility to share its truth, for the interdependence of truth among all religions, while maintaining its own identity. It is from this premise that ICRIDEV works with other organisations, both faith-based and secular.
The Centre seeks to promote research, inter-religious dialogue and development in order to generate knowledge, build understanding, and form holistic professionals who promote inclusive education, skills acquisition and social action. ICRIDEV is therefore rooted on three pillars: Research, Inter-religious Dialogue, and Development.
ICRIDEV exists as a professional Centre to foster social transformation through knowledge building, interreligious strengthening, and development interventions.
ICRIDEV, as a global reference institution, empowers citizens to live in harmony for holistic and sustainable development through excellent research, inter-religious dialogue, building of capacities and professionalism.
Coordinate, Connect and Commit
Together Towards a Better Tomorrow
PTS Campus, Kosalla, Kumba, South West Region, Cameroon
Promotes religious pluralism, religious co-existence and multi-pluralism in an increasingly fragmented world, in the spirit of ecumenism.
Expands knowledge through research and publishing, and by offering certification courses in professional studies — peace studies, humanitarian studies, domestic violence, community development, development studies, leadership, diaconal studies, inter-religious and inter-cultural studies, and human, women and child rights issues in development.
Promotes sustainable community development through its social action.
The Centre rejects the instrumentalisation of religion in all its forms.