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Rescued from the Brink: the Collapse and Resurgence of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The twenty-five theological colleges of the Church of England entered the 1960s in buoyant mood. Rooms were full, finances were steadily improving, expansion seemed inevitable. For four years in succession, from 1961 to 1964, ordinations exceeded six hundred a year, for the first time since before the First World War, and the peak was expected to rise still higher. In a famously misleading report, the sociologist Leslie Paul predicted that at a ‘conservative estimate’ there would be more than eight hundred ordinations a year by the 1970s. In fact, the opposite occurred. The boom was followed by bust, and the early 1970s saw ordinations dip below four hundred. The dramatic plunge in the number of candidates offering themselves for Anglican ministry devastated the theological colleges. Many began running at a loss and faced imminent bankruptcy. In desperation the central Church authorities set about closing or merging colleges, but even their ruthless cutbacks could not keep pace with the fall in ordinands.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 44: Revival and Resurgence in Christian History , 2008 , pp. 354 - 364
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2008
References
1 Paul, Leslie, The Deployment and Payment of the Clergy: a Report (London, 1964), 298 Google Scholar.
2 For official reports dealing with the crisis, see Theological Colleges for Tomorrow (the de Bunsen report) (London, 1968); First Report on the Reorganisation of the Theological Colleges, 1968 (Church Assembly no. 1708); Second Report on the Reorganisation of the Theological Colleges, 1969 (Church Assembly no. 1766); Reorganisation of the Theological Colleges: a Report of the House of Bishops, 1971 (General Synod no. 20). For the unpublished report of the evangelical commission chaired by John Stott, to rival the official Runcie Commission, see The Future of the Evangelical Theological Colleges, 1970 (copy at London, Lambeth Palace Library, Ramsey Papers, vol. 193, fols 2–23).
3 David Anderson (b. 1919), principal of Melville Hall/Immanuel College, Ibadan, Nigeria 1956–62, of Wycliffe Hall 1962–9, lecturer in religious studies at Wall Hall College near Watford 1970–84.
4 James P. Hickinbotham (1914–90), principal of St John’s College, Durham 1954–69, of Wycliffe Hall 1970–9.
5 See further, Andrew Atherstone, The Founding of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford’, Anglican and Episcopal History 73 (March 2004), 78–102.
6 Oxford, Wycliffe Hall Archives [hereafter: WH], Ember Letter, Michaelmas 1963.
7 WH, Ember Letter, Advent 1963.
8 WH, Ember Letter, Trinity and Michaelmas 1969.
9 WH, Ember Letter, Michaelmas 1963.
10 WH, Ember Letters, Michaelmas 1964, Advent 1964.
11 WH, Newsletter, Spring 2002.
12 John A. T. Robinson, Honest to God (London, 1963).
13 WH, Ember Letter, Trinity 1965.
14 David Anderson to Andrew Atherstone, 3 October 2005.
15 David Anderson, ‘Images of Man in Sartre and Camus’, Modem Churchman 8 ns (October 1964), 44.
16 ‘Central Advisory Committee on Training for the Ministry Inspection Report 1965’, 4–5, available at the Church of England Record Centre (London) file ACCM/COLL/WYC/i.
17 Alan L. Dunstan (1928–2004), vicar of St Mary’s, Gravesend 1957–63, chaplain of Wycliffe Hall 1963–6, vice-principal 1966–70, vice-principal of Ripon Hall, Oxford 1971–4, vice-principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon 1975–8, precentor of Gloucester Cathedral 1978–93.
18 Anderson to Atherstone, 3 October 2005. On the MCU see especially Alan M. G. Stephenson, The Rise and Decline of English Modernism (London, 1984).
19 For the conference papers, see Modern Churchman 8 ns (October 1964), 1–92.
20 Alan Dunstan, ‘Conference Sermon’, Modern Churchman 8 ns (October 1964), 2.
21 ‘Honest or Not’, Times, 8 August 1964.
22 Modem Churchman 8 ns (October 1964), 1.
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24 Syms, Richard, Working Like the Rest of Us: an Alternative Ministry (London, 1979), 67 Google Scholar.
25 WH, Ember Letter, Trinity and Michaelmas 1969.
26 John R. W. Stott (b. 1921), rector of All Souls, Langham Place 1950–75. See further, Timothy Dudley-Smith, John Stott: the Making of a Leader (Leicester, 1999) and idem John Stott: a Global Ministry (Leicester, 2001).
27 Mohan to Stott, 27 March 1969, papers of John Stott.
28 Stuart Y. Blanch (1918–94), bishop of Liverpool 1966–75, archbishop of York 1975–83.
29 Stott to Blanch, 3 April 1969, papers of John Stott.
30 James I. Packer (b. 1926), warden of Latimer House, Oxford 1962–9, associate principal of Trinity College, Bristol 1972–9, professor at Regent College, Vancouver from 1979. See further, McGrath, Alister E., To Know and Serve God: a Biography of James I. Packer (London, 1997)Google Scholar.
31 Blanch to Stott, 8 April 1969, papers of John Stott.
32 Blanch to Hickinbotham, 1 October 1969, WH, Council Minutes.
33 WH, Ember Letter, Trinity 1970.
34 WH, Ember Letter, Lent 1971.
35 Wycliffe Hall Prospectus 1977, 3–4 available at the Church of England Record Centre (London) file ACCM/COLL/WYC/i.
36 Principal’s Report, January-June 1970, WH, Council Minutes; WH, Ember Letter, Trinity 1970.
37 WH, Council Minutes, 5 February 1970.
38 David C. M. Fletcher (b. 1932), Scripture Union field worker 1962–86, rector of St Ebbe’s, Oxford 1986–98.
39 Peter J. M. Southwell (b. 1943), senior tutor of Wycliffe Hall from 1970, chaplain of Queen’s College, Oxford from 1982.
40 David R. J. Holloway (b. 1939), vicar ofjesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1973; Oliver M. T. O’Donovan (b. 1945), tutor of Wycliffe Hall 1972–7, regius professor of moral and pastoral theology at Oxford 1982–2006, professor of Christian ethics and practical theology at New College, Edinburgh from 2006.
41 John S. Reynolds (b. 1919), rector of Dry Sandford near Oxford 1956–85.
42 Roger T. Beckwith (b. 1929), librarian of Latimer House, Oxford 1963–73, warden 1973–94.
43 WH, Ember Letter, Michaelmas 1971.
44 Principal’s Report, June-December 1972, WH, Council Minutes.
45 WH, Ember Letter, Trinity 1970.