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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2019}}
{{BLP sources|date=September 2011}}
'''Graham Houghton''' -- founding principal of the [[South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies]] (SAIACS)<ref name="Arles1990">{{cite book|last=Arles|first=Siga|title=Theological education for the mission of the church in India, 1947-1987: theological education in relation to the identification of the task of mission and the development of ministries in India, 1947-1987, with special reference to the Church of South India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7XnYAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=27 September 2011|year=1990|publisher=P. Lang|page=283}}</ref> -- in [[Bangalore]], [[India]], was born 22 September 1937 and raised in [[New Zealand]], on a dairy farm in the Awahuri near [[Feilding]].

Houghton left high school during his fifth form year with an intention to expand the family farm. However, after a personal [[religion|religious]] experience, he left the farm, trained for two years (1960–61) at the Bible College of New Zealand, and became the first NZ missionary sent out by the then Oriental Missionary Society (now One Mission Society), a multinational Christian faith mission, a multinational [[Christianity|Christian]] [[evangelism]] organization. He arrived in India to do village evangelism in 1965 and has worked in that country until 2005.

Houghton completed [[undergraduate]] and [[postgraduate]] degrees, eventually earning his [[Ph.D.]] in [[South Asian History]] from the [[University of California, Los Angeles]] with a [[dissertation]] titled "The Impoverishment of Dependency." His wife Carol moved (née, McDearmid) from [[Virginia]] in the [[United States]] at an early age with her parents, who were [[Assemblies of God]] [[missionaries]]. She has lived in India almost continuously since, with the exception of her university education. Her marriage to Houghton in 1968 was arranged according to Indian custom by her father.

Houghton taught for many years as well as serving as the Principal of [[Madras]] Bible Seminary before founding SAIACS in 1981. The SAIACS campus now occupies almost five hectares (twelve acres) of land on the North edge of Bangalore, a fast-growing city of over 8 million, just over 300 km west of Chennai (Madras) in [[South India]]. SAIACS has now expanded to a total of about 130 full-time students, all studying at the [[masters degree|masters]] or [[doctoral]] level. Students come from many parts of India, and other nations such as [[Indonesia]], [[Malaysia]], [[Nepal]], [[Myanmar]] (formerly Burma), [[Sri Lanka]], [[Thailand]], and also [[Australia]] and New Zealand. Several have come from [[Africa]] and [[Central America]]. In the past year a number of Indian Students from the United States have also chosen to come to SAIACS in preparation for working in the sub-continent.

In 1997 SAIACS was recognized by the [[University of Mysore]] as an accredited research institution to the university, enabling SAIACS to offer an accredited Indian Ph.D. programme. This is the first [[Protestant]] institution to be so recognized since [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]]'s [[Serampore College]] in 1818. SAIACS graduates are working as organizational and denominational leaders, faculty at a number of [[bible colleges]], [[seminaries]], and [[graduate school]]s, and [[pastor]]s and missionaries with many indigenous missionary agencies throughout [[South Asia]].

In 2001 Dr. Houghton was invited as a part of a group to establish a department of Christianity at [[Peking University]], [[Beijing]], [[People's Republic of China]]. Teaching at the masters and Ph.D. level has been going on since then. The courses have reached both Christians from the Three Self Patriotic Church and other Christian groups as well as non-Christian students. As of February 2012, upwards of 100 are enrolled with more than 700 having completed the classes offered.

After Houghton's formal handing over of the SAIACS principalship in 2005, he and his wife moved to [[Cambridge, New Zealand]]. Houghton is still active in teaching and mentoring, especially in the Peking University Project.

==References==

{{reflist}}
His book, Christian Leadership for Building the Church and Building the Nation, SAIACS Press, 2010 has been widely influential.{{says who?|date=July 2019}}

==External links==
*[http://www.saiacs.org/ SAIACS faculty page with photo and brief biography of Graham Houghton]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061006160519/http://www.challengeweekly.co.nz/Vol_62_Issue_No_22.html ''Challenge Weekly'' interview with Graham Houghton]
*[http://www.magazine.ucla.edu/toc/06apr/reaction/ Letter to ''UCLA Magazine'' by Graham Houghton]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houghton, Graham}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni]]
[[Category:New Zealand emigrants to India]]
[[Category:New Zealand Christians]]
[[Category:People from Cambridge, New Zealand]]
[[Category:People from Feilding]]

Graham Houghton - Revision history

imported>InternetArchiveBot at 17:04, 1 January 2020