Waldo Penner

{{Infobox clergy

| honorific_prefix = The Reverend Doctor

| name = Waldo Penner, CBM

| honorific_suffix = D. D. (Honoris causa)

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| birth_name = Waldo Penner

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1919|10|03}}[http://www.mbherald.com/45/10/deaths.en.html Mennonite Brethren Herald, Volume 45, Number 10, August 11, 2006]

| birth_place = Secunderabad, India

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2006|05|05|1919|10|03}}

| death_place = St. Catharines, Canada

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| nationality = Canadian

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| education = *B.A. (McMaster),Year Book of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, 1987, pp.115, 361. [https://books.google.com/books?id=KnvkAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo+penner]
B.Div. (McMaster),Baptist Yearbook 1959, Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, 1959, pp.168, 250, 262. [https://books.google.com/books?id=gXvkAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo+penner]
M.Th. (Berkeley)W. G. Carder, Hand to the Indian Plow: Volume One, Carder, Hyderabad, 1976, Appendix II, p.15. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7AcxNAEACAAJ&q=hand+to+the+indian+plough+carder]

| alma_mater =*McMaster University,Peter Penner, Russians, North Americans, and Telugus: The Mennonite Brethren Mission in India, 1885-1975, Kindred, Winnipeg and Hillsboro, 1997, pp.95, 105-106. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9ZMo4V4Ll8wC&q=waldo&pg=PP6] Hamilton, Canada

Berkeley School of Theology, Berkeley, California, United States

| occupation = Ecclesiastical Administrator and Pastor

| years_active = 1946-1981[https://books.google.com/books?id=dXTkAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo Yearbook 1991, Baptist Union of Western Canada, 1991, p.401] in India

| religion = Christianity

| parents = Anna and John Penner

| church = Canadian Baptist Ministries

| ordained = 1945Directory of Churches, Alphabetic by City, Church, Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, 1992, p.72. [https://books.google.com/books?id=SXHkAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo+penner+baptist]

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| offices_held = Principal, Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada, {{small|(1958–1964)C. L. Johnson (Edited), Canadian Baptist Mission 125 year's Jubilee Celebrations of Baptist Churches in Northern Circars, Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada, 1999, p.217-219.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/433990749]}}

| title = The Reverend

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}}

Waldo Penner2001 Annual Reports of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, The Convention, 2001, p.71. [https://books.google.com/books?id=s3vkAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo+penner] (1919 - 2006) was a Baptist missionaryJohn Frederick Keith, The First Few Wars are the Worst: His Grace Has No Measure, Canadian Baptist Ministries, 1998, p.99. [https://books.google.com/books?id=bfHmAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo+penner] who served in India from 1946 through 1981 as a team member of the Canadian Baptist Ministries. Penner was born in Secunderabad in India where his parents were missionaries of the American Baptist Mission.

Studies

For collegiate studies, Penner studied at the McMaster University,[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/44431358/ The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, 30 November 1942, p.16] Hamilton for the graduate degrees of B.A. and B.D. Penner also studied for a postgraduate course leading to M.Th. at the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School (renamed as the American Baptist Seminary of the West), Berkeley.

Ecclesiastical ministry

After Penner's ordination in 1945, he volunteered for missionary service in India and stayed on in the country for more than 35 years.

=Ecumenical initiatives=

In 1958 when A. B. Masilamani stepped down as Principal of the Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada, the Seminary Council appointed Waldo Penner to take on the Principalship of the Seminary. It was during this period that ecumenical conversations were building up for the formation of a unified Seminary in the state of Andhra Pradesh (Telangana included). Penner, together with his companion, A. B. Masilamani were in the forefrontIndian Church History Review, Volume 13, Church History Association of India, 1979, pp.79, 80. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wsTYAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo+penner] of the ecumenical conversations leading to the formation of the Andhra Christian Theological College, Rajahmundry in 1964 together with the Anglicans, Congregationalists, Lutherans, the Methodists and the Wesleyans.

On the formation of the ecumenical seminary in 1964 in Rajahmundry, Penner relocated from Kakinada to RajahmundryJohn Greenfield Leonard, Kandukūri Vīrēśalingam, 1848-1919: A Biography of an Indian Social Reformer, Telugu University, Hyderabad, 1991, pp.277, 306. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_enZAAAAMAAJ&q=waldo+penner] and joined the faculty of the newly formed ecumenical seminary and taught Systematic theology till 1971-1972 when the college shifted in its entirety to Hyderabad in Telangana. Meanwhile, the Seminary Council appointed Victor Hahn in place of Waldo Penner at the Baptist Theological Seminary, Kakinada. As for his companion, A. B. Masilamani, he had already moved to the Bible Society of India Andhra Pradesh Auxiliary, and like Penner was ministering in an ecumenical setting.

=Development initiatives=

When the 1977 Andhra Pradesh cyclone struck the coast of Krishna district along the Bay of Bengal, thousands of lives were lost. As part of the relief and rebuilding efforts, the Canadian Baptist Ministries also lent its hand and its work was supervisedJarold Knox Zeman, Baptists in Canada: search for identity amidst diversity, Acadia Divinity College, G.R. Welch, 1980, p.188. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BnXkAAAAMAAJ&q=penner] by Waldo Penner.