| Dr Grace Susanna (Herr) Holland |
| 07.10.1932 – 09.10.2025 |
This obituary is just a small reflection on the legacy of Grace Holland from the perspective of the theological education by extension (TEE) movement. Much more could and should be said about her contribution, as well as the decades-long ministry partnership of Fred and Grace Holland, especially in the service of TEE. The two of them worked closely together and were genuine ministry partners who shared a ministry vision and worked diligently to provide learning tools that truly served their constituencies, those who needed access to theological training and education the most – the grassroots/lay leaders with minimal schooling in Africa. In that way, the Hollands were pioneering understandings of theological education. They were early adopters of TEE, but more than that, they were key pioneers in refining and contextualising TEE for Africa in its early days, and thus have a lasting legacy to this day. Grace and Fred Holland’s ministry will be especially remembered in Africa, both individually for their work in promoting, introducing, and developing TEE.
Grace has been, from the very beginning, a very active TEE practitioner, fully involved in all aspects of the TEE ministry, starting in Zimbabwe, then in Zambia, and then reaching out to other parts of Africa and beyond, promoting, teaching, organising, and training others in regional and global workshops. Furthermore, Grace Holland is linked explicitly to the development of the TEXT Africa series (TEXT Africa stands for Theological Education by eXtension Texts for Africa). TEXT Africa, as the series is known, is still published by Evangel Publishing House in Nairobi, Kenya, to this day (https://www.evangelpublishing.or.ke).
A key focus of Grace’s ministry has been her dedication to the production of TEE workbooks. TEE, as an extension training program, relies heavily on the availability of relevant TEE coursebooks. These workbooks are so central that TEE does not function without them. Yet producing TEE workbooks, especially for lower educational levels, is challenging yet essential. Grace was involved in the painstaking writing, development, testing, and rewriting of the TEE workbook for four decades. But Grace herself was also a course writer in her own right and part of the course writing team that produced the needed textbooks. Here, it is especially noteworthy that the last two workbooks that Grace co-wrote: Women in Ministry (2004) and Overcoming the Enemy (2012) were titles that she was very passionate about.
Between 1972 and 2012, 44 TEE books were published in the TEXT Africa series across three difficulty levels (easiest, moderately easy, and more difficult). Grace also envisioned extending the curriculum to higher levels. TEXT Africa workbooks have been translated in whole or in part into over 200 languages. Currently, TEE-TEXT-ASIA is introducing the workbooks into Asia.
Grace Holland’s Doctor of Missiology thesis was published in 1993 by Evangel Publishing House under the title: Theological Education by Extension Study Materials: Which Way for a Changing Africa? The importance of the publication is evident in a recently published list of key TEE publications pre-2000.[1] This shows what kind of key thinker Grace Holland is within the TEE movement, especially around the production of TEE Study materials and a contextual curriculum. A great strength of the book, and of Grace’s approach in general, is her humble, self-reflective focus on improving TEE study materials (even her own) to serve the individuals who meet in study groups, and on how learning materials need to serve their needs and contexts. At the same time, Grace examined the TEE through the important pedagogical lens of curriculum development to support the formation of individuals in an African context that is developing and changing in some quarters while remaining static in others. Grace was committed and carried forward through her continued involvement with the TEXT Africa project, to work towards implementing an ever-increasing, contextually relevant curriculum.
Though Fred and Grace wrote the first book of what will later be called TEXT Africa, called “Talking with God” which was published originally in 1972 by Evangel, the experiencing of writing the first book within a context of the imminent feedback of learners helped to refine the learning outcomes, by testing, re-testing, rewriting of lessons, experimentations, careful attention to functional literacy levels, observance of problems and counselling to students while at the same time refining a learning methodology for its context. It is Grace who is especially remembered for her work in producing a curriculum of programmed or self-instruction texts to be used across Africa. Grace concentrated on producing the TEE workbook, which became a significant part of her ministry. Editing of workbooks is a difficult task, and yet Grace did it for decades until the initial curriculum was published. Early on, the decision was made to ensure that the curriculum is relevant and the content is contextual, reflecting the diversity of African cultures. A conscious decision has been made to have writing teams write the majority of TEXT Africa workbooks.
List of TEXT Africa books
Easy Titles
Following Jesus
Talking With God
Bringing People to Jesus
New Testament Survey 1
New Testament Survey 2
New Testament Survey 3
The Shepherd and His Work
Looking at the Old Testament 1
Looking at the Old Testament 2
Looking at the Old Testament 3
Looking at the Old Testament 4
Life of Christ 1
Life of Christ 2 Proverbs
Moderate Easy Titles
Acts of the Apostles 1
Acts of the Apostles 2
First Corinthians
Seven Letters to All Churches
Baptist Basics
Christian Family Living
Genesis 1
Genesis 2
Helping the Church to Grow
Teachings in John
Preaching from the Old Testament
Honouring and Worshipping God
Caring for God’s Things
Taking the Good News to Muslims
Foundation of Faith Living for God
Moderate Difficult Titles
Ephesians and Philippians
Powerful Bible Teachings
Study the Book of Mark for Yourself
Isaiah
The Letters of Hebrews
Letters to church Leaders in Hard Places
Romans
Lessons from the Past for the Church
Revelations
Starting and Strengthening New Churches
Helping People to Good Health
Theology Part 1
Church History Part 2
Theology Part 2 Overcoming the Enemy
Grace Holland left behind a legacy of investing in the TEE movement, continuing to strive to provide relevant, contextual, and needed access to theological education to thousands who could not otherwise access it. Her desire was to start from the bottom up, develop materials for the lowest educational groups, and then provide courses and a full TEE curriculum for higher levels. Her legacy is to think deeply, to continue to try and experiment, to seek research and the input of learners in the development of learning materials, to recognise her own limitations, and to invest in inter-denominational and intercultural course writing teams that actually provided most of the workbooks in the TEXT Africa series. The theological extension movement is greatly indebted to her legacy and vision as a course writer, editor, publisher and champion of contextual curricula in a changing environment. The legacy of the TEXTA-Africa project will never be fully comprehended, as the workbooks were locally translated and used in many parts of Africa to this day. For example, a few months ago, someone reached out to TEEnet, and that was when we first heard that, for 34 years, a ministry had been using TEXT-Africa books in a West African country, both in French and in one of the vernaculars. The ministry of TEXT-Africa and the legacy of Grace Holland and her course writing teams continue…
TEENet recently republished Theological Education by Extension: Accounts from the 20th Century, which includes an interview with Grace Holland in which she reflects on her involvement with TEE and TEXT Africa. The free online book can be found under https://teenet.org/teenet-press/accounts-from-the-20th-century. The interview is on pages 237-241.
A link to the official obituary can be found here: https://www.cocklinfuneralhome.com/obituary/DrGrace-Holland.
[1] David Burke, “Bibliography: TEE for the 21st Century” in TEE in Asia, p. 270.