Wycliffe Woes
Britain's leading evangelical college is facing increasing criticism, and not just from outside detractors.
Since a new principal took over last year at Wycliffe Hall, one of seven private Christian schools at the University of Oxford, more than half of its faculty have resigned. Critics charge new head Richard Turnbull with an abrasive management style and a narrowing of the college's theological vision.
A letter authorized by Alister McGrath and two other former principals said Turnbull's continuing leadership would turn away prospective faculty and students and saddle the school with a "limited focus on one strand of evangelicalism."
Adding to the school's troubles is a university panel review, released in September, which concluded that Wycliffe and Oxford's other Christian halls were not providing a liberal education in line with Oxford's values. The report recommended that Oxford regulate the curriculum of its permanent private halls. Teaching that squelches "the spirit of free and critical enquiry and debate" could cause a hall to lose its license.
Wycliffe Hall achieved permanent status with Oxford in 1996, thanks to the work of former principal McGrath, who significantly raised Wycliffe's profile. Throughout its 130-year history, the school has produced a number of notable alumni, including Regent College professor and CT senior editor J.I. Packer, Bishop N. T. Wright, and former member of Parliament Jonathan Aitken.
But the evangelical Anglican seminary, which annually matriculates about 140 students, has undergone a seismic shift since McGrath's resignation two years ago. One council member and 8 of 13 faculty members have resigned, including two of Wycliffe's leading voices, vice principal David Wenham and professor ...
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GUNNY HARTMAN - TEXAS
Wow! How tragic this is. When I was at Oxford in the late '90s Wycliffe Hall was one of the last bright spots of evangelicalism. It's a shame to see the school getting so derailed and spinning its wheels with such tomfoolery.
Roger - Australia
Looks as though the filthy, flea-infested rodent of humanism, pluralism and political correctness continues to chew at the toes of Orthodox Christianity. How quickly Oxford forgets that Universities were originally started by monks and theologians, and that the other subject areas developed around the core of Theological Studies. Not only has the British Empire become defunct, but now Britain itself continues its relentless nose-dive into cultural decline as it wakes up to find itself in the ever tightening grip of secularism, pluralism and multiculturalism. Its seems the Anglo-saxons will be pushed West like the Celts before them, and become the 'New Welsh'.
Another reader
I'm in Oxford, but not part of Wycliffe. I know several of those "dissenters" who have resigned, and I'm very aware of their perspective. Your article hasn't really done them justice at all: it would have been good to contact one or more of them, as well as Turnbull.