In the weeks ahead, the members of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria will say goodbye to two of its most distinguished academics, Prof Nelus Niemandt and Prof Cas Wepener.

Prof Niemandt has been a part of the Faculty for twenty years and currently serves as a departmental head.  His areas of expertise include mission studies, theology of mission, missional ecclesiology, emerging missional churches, ecumenism and missional leadership.  Upon leaving the University of Pretoria, Prof Niemandt will take up a position as principal of Hugenote Kollege in the Western Cape.

Prof Cas Wepener has been with the Faculty for ten years, most of that time also spent as a departmental head.  He specializes in liturgy, homiletics and ritual studies, in addition to being a prolific author and poet.  From the start of next year, Prof Wepener will join the cohort of theologians at the University of Stellenbosch, also in the Western Cape, where he will continue practicing the craft of lecturing and postgraduate supervision.

On 21 November 2019, their colleagues in Pretoria and top representatives from their faith tradition, the Dutch Reform Church, gathered together in celebration of the time they all spent serving students and parishioners, acknowledging that careers may take professional people in different directions, but the relationships they build with one another will forever bind them together as one.