The marked increase in transnational higher education third party arrangements in recent years represents globalizing forms of education. Third party arrangements involve a partner institution being approved to deliver the primary institution’s government-accredited courses. The primary institute is accountable for monitoring and documenting quality assurance and the third party is responsible to the primary institute for meeting the required higher education standards. This arrangement is particularly attractive for students who want to undertake an accredited degree from overseas, while retaining close relational, industry and cultural links in the home country. There has been some recent examination of higher education third parties focused on equity, transcultural pedagogy, and quality assurance. However, little research has been done regarding the Australian context. Alphacrucis College is one of the largest non-university, faith-based independent higher education institutes in Australia with three onshore third party arrangements in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as two offshore in Finland and the Philippines. Based on a case study including participant observation and a staff survey, this research argues that the success of faith-based third parties is largely a result of shared values and collaborative relationships. These are outworked in professional development and mentoring in learning and teaching, joint research and scholarship projects, equity of student experience through resourcing, and effective governance and quality assurance built on trust. While other higher education institutes may not have faith-based approaches, these findings can serve to produce successful onshore and offshore third parties in a broad range of contexts. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11233-021-09077-1.

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Contemporary South Africa reflects complex, diverse, and evolving religious realities. Changes continue to manifest at the confluence of encounters between various religions and rapid changes in social institutions that affect, in one way or another, various religions in the nation. These realities are typically embedded in sociocultural contexts and give clarity and meaning to religious experiences. In the post-apartheid era, the spirit of openness toward religious tolerance often dwindles when it comes to interactions between African religion and Pentecostalism. When people understand why followers of other religions believe and practice their rituals and sacraments, this knowledge may help dispel mis- and disinformation and thereby construct inter-religious common ground. Using an extensive review of the relevant literature, this article investigates some of the factors that may limit harmony between African religion and Pentecostalism in South Africa. After providing some definitions and historical context, we discuss the power and legacy of anti-apartheid interfaith solidarity. We also explore ongoing factors hindering interfaith engagements between African religion and Pentecostalism in South Africa. We then explore opportunities for interfaith dialogue in South Africa. Utilizing Walter Hollenweger’s Pentecostal intercultural theology, we argue that expressive liturgy for biodiversity and sustainability, communal participation for reconciliation, and experiential spirituality focused on land care could provide a potential ‘fourth’ approach to interfaith dialogue for African religion and Pentecostalism in South Africa. This includes underappreciated albeit profitable interrelationships between Indigenous knowledge, traditional spirituality, and sustainable development. We also acknowledge some limitations and opportunities for future research. Finally, we offer a succinct concluding synthesis that recapitulates the paper’s main points. This article aims to invigorate interfaith consciousness through meaningful thematization of pertinent issues, including the articulation and application of relevant intercultural theology.

This chapter presents a case study of Christian charity work among mobile Chinese of the Cantonese Pacific which suggests that the pull of native place charity was not weaker among women Christian converts than among men wedded to patriarchal hometown lineages. Braced by her triple marginalization as a woman, a Pentecostal, and a member of the minority Chinese community in Australia, Mary Kum Sou (Wong Yen) Yeung (Chen Jinxiao 陳金笑‎, 1888–1971) expressed her faith through a life of empathy for the marginalized and generosity towards those in need. By tracing Yeung’s strategic networking, her vocal support for charitable contributions, and the patterns of community engagement that characterized her charitable work, this research illustrates the concrete connections linking her spiritual beliefs to her distinctive style of hometown charitable engagement. Mary Yeung’s experience as a girl, a young woman, and a pioneering missionary and charity worker of the Australian Pentecostal church is more than a story of native place charity. It is also a story of faith and suffering, and privilege wedded with sacrifice. At the same time, in Mary Yeung’s charitable practice we find native-place welfare preserved and transformed within a radical Christian protestant tradition.