Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Cranmer's Curate: Oak Hill, Wycliffe Hall (Oxford) and Ridley Hall (Cambridge)

WHY OAK HILL STRUGGLES FOR SUPPORT
There are historical reasons why Oak Hill, the Reformed Anglican theological college in north London, struggles to get the backing of English conservative evangelicals. The roots of the current problem lie in the Oxbridge focus of late Victorian Anglican evangelical leaders such as J.C. Ryle.

Regularly select preacher at both Oxbridge universities in the 1870s, Ryle was instrumental in founding
Wycliffe Hall, Oxford in 1877 and Ridley Hall, Cambridge in 1881. Oxbridge was chosen as the strategic location for these residential clerical training colleges, laudably established as evangelical strongholds against the growing influence of Anglo-Catholicism in the national Church.

In the 20th century, the trajectory of Ryle's Oxbridge strategy led to the establishment of the Iwerne Minster ministry in the 1930s. This work was based on evangelistic holiday camps for boys from the top 30 English public schools. Iwerne's professed strategy was to reach the few in order to reach the many.
For more, see:
http://cranmercurate.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-oak-hill-struggles-for-support_14.html

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