wycliffe hall newsletter

Anglican Consultation ...................6, 7 & 8

Student Common Room ...........................9

Development ..........................................11

IN THIS ISSUE

Principal’s Letter .......................................2

2007/08 Missions .....................................3

New Staff ..................................................4

WYCLIFFE HALLOXFORD

Newsletter M I C H A E L M A S T E R M 2 0 0 7 / 8

2 newsletter michaelmas 2007/8

Principal’s Letter

Admissions Martin SpenceTelephone 01865 274205E-mail [email protected]

Development Office Mark TindallTelephone 01865 284876E-mail [email protected]

DBTS Molly SpenceTelephone 01865 274212E-mail [email protected]

Friends of Wycliffe Hall Mark TindallTelephone 01865 284876E-mail [email protected]

Library Chris LeftleyTelephone 01865 274204E-mail [email protected]

Newsletter Mark TindallE-mail [email protected] by Holywell Press Ltdwww.holywellpress.com

Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics Katie Law Telephone 01865 292933E-mail [email protected]

Summer School Mark TindallTelephone 01865 284876E-mail [email protected]

Dear Friends,

My heart is always stirred by stories of conversion. The most glorious is, of course, that of Paul, related to us three times in that wonderful Book of Acts. However, from Augustine of Hippo to Martin Luther to the heroes of the Evangelical Revival, the Lord has acted in the conversion of the heart. As a

historian of the Revival, it is from there that I find myself inspired beyond description by John Wesley (“my heart was strangely warmed and I knew that my sins, even mine, were forgiven”), John Newton (“amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me”), Charles Simeon (“hallelujah, hallelujah, Jesus Christ is risen today”), to the countless ordinary men and women who came under the saving grace of the gospel. I feel a book coming on!

Conversion and evangelism are closely connected. When we talk about mission and the whole range of holistic, evangelistic and pastoral issues that flow from that, it is essential that we do not lose sight of the essential nature of evangelism. What is the purpose of evangelism? Surely to make Christ known and to enable others to come into a saving relationship with him. In other words, conversion.

What are the prerequisites to evangelism, perhaps the particular things that an individual (even, perhaps a candidate for ordination) might need to be equipped with?

❖ A heart of compassion for the lost

❖ Understanding the gospel

❖ Ability to articulate the gospel succinctly

❖ Capability to lead a person to Christ

It is not that the ordained have the sole responsibility – indeed not, evangelism is the responsibility of the whole people of God. However, unless the ordained leaders of congregations both advocate and model the practice of evangelism, the local church will quickly lose its passion for seeing new converts to Jesus. So I do have some hard questions for those of us who are the ordained leaders of local congregations. How many people have come to Christ in your parishes in the last year? What place does evangelism have in the parish vision? What advocacy for evangelism is there? Do you model evangelism yourself? What training is given?

What role then can we play in a theological college? First, we can ensure that candidates meet the basic criteria set out in the four bullet points above. Second, we can ensure that we provide a whole range of opportunities for mission and evangelism and placements, at home and overseas, in parish and other settings, that give candidates exposure in practice. Third, we can model prayer, regular intercession for those who do not know Jesus, testimony – feedback from examples of the Lord’s work in the hearts of individuals – and give thanks to him.

In all my own years and experience of parish ministry, there is no greater joy than seeing people come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. No greater joy!

With my love and prayers,

Revd Dr Richard TurnbullPrincipal

Wycliffe Hall, 54 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PW

T 01865 274200 F 01865 274215 E [email protected] W www.wycliffe.ox.ac.uk

Contact Us

www.wycliffe.ox.ac.uk 3

The following are brief descriptions of the missions so far confirmed for the current academic year:

Bath15 – 23 March 2008Working with St Saviour’s Church, Larkhall, near Bath, a team of up to 10 students will be involved in a parish-wide mission, during Holy Week. The team will be involved in the practicalities and leadership of events and services enabling the local community to make their own journey towards the Christian climax of Easter Day itself.

BirminghamEaster 2008A team of up to 12 students will spend a challenging week living as part of the Betel community in Birmingham, a christian rehabilitation ministry for ex-addicts (drugs and alcohol). They will be involved in the normal community routine each day, sharing themselves and the Gospel with the community members they work, rest, worship and play alongside that week.

France 17 – 22 March 2008Up to 10 students will be visiting Mantes, 50 km west of Paris, and the largest Urban Priority Area in Europe. There is a large immigrant population (many of whom are Muslim) and the team will be engaging with the local community in a variety of ways, from church services to practical service, youth work to evangelistic events, all leading up to a big Easter celebration.

Mid-Trent17 – 22 March 2008The team will work with a benefice of ten churches in Staffordshire, in the Diocese of Lichfield. Students will undertake the challenge of flexibility and ministry in this

mission. They will be leading, preaching and speaking at a wide variety of events in the run up to Easter, from the evangelistically social to Holy Week services.

OxfordAll year roundMission in Oxford University is a college-wide ministry and involves outreach in many forms to the wider student body throughout the academic year. Wycliffe members are involved in a wide range of University pursuits, from sports to quizzing, from Chaplaincy work to the Graduate Christian Union, all giving opportunity to be involved in the lives of those students who don’t yet know Jesus.

Specifically, some students get involved with the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (OICCU), www.oiccu.org.uk, which hosts a series of specific evangelistic events each year.

Southborough17 – 22 March 2008Working with four churches, up to 8 students will be working in a wide range of church and evangelistic events. Ideas for evangelistic events include a Men’s Golf Day, Dialogue Suppers and school assemblies. Students will also be involved in the Sunday services of this team of churches.

Uganda2 – 12 December 2007Since 2004, Wycliffe Hall has been working in partnership with the Diocese of Kumi, Uganda. Each year a group of students take part in the Diocesan Mission, preaching in schools, churches, youth clubs and at public evangelistic events. Many thousands of people have made a commitment to Christ through this fruitful partnership, and there is continued opportunity for a student team to contribute significantly to the mission work.

Student Missions 2007 – 08

Uganda Mission


New StaffIn recent memory Wycliffe has consistently been blessed with some great staff members; so it is good to sense the quality of those whom God has brought together into our staff team.

From this September, there has effectively been a full complement of tutors (roughly the equivalent of 10 full-time staff positions for a student body of 150). Between them they bring experience of over 75 years of academic teaching and 70 years of parochial ministry.

On the academic side they have completed doctoral research in the fi elds of Old Testament, New Testament, Patristics, Doctrine, Reformation and 19th Century Church history (x 2!). On the ministerial side they have experience of working in a wide range of contexts: town and rural, north and south, UPA and overseas, Anglican, Baptist and Dutch Reformed. Of those in Anglican ministry, two trained at Crammer, 1 at Ridley, 1 at Oakhill, and 3 at a place called Wycliffe!

This full-time team is complemented by several others who are involved in the Hall on a part-time basis. New this term is Dr Cathy Ross (J V Taylor Fellow in Missiology), who is giving the core teaching on mission for both our fi rst- and fi nal-year students. Simon Walker continues his much appreciated weekly course on Spiritual Transformation for Leaders. Claire Page takes students through their paces teaching speech and communications skills. Andrew Baughen visits us regularly to help our pioneer ordinands and to lead the week on Church Planting.

The teaching team is complemented by a support staff team of at least 13 members, with skills in administration, librarianship, computers, marketing, domestic and financial management. When we include those involved with the SCIO & OCCA programmes, the total number of staff climbs to 30! This contrasts with ten years ago when the total staff would have been around 12 or 13, so things have clearly been developing quite fast at Wycliffe in recent years.

We would like to introduce you to some of our new tutorial staff:

Revd Dr Andrew Atherstone – Tutor in History & Doctrine and Latimer Fellow.

“It is great to be part of the Wycliffe team. I am passionate about helping to train men and women for ministry in the local church as pastors, Bible teachers and evangelists, so that the Good News of Jesus Christ is joyfully and

effectively proclaimed. My main teaching responsibilities are to contribute to courses like church history, doctrine, Anglicanism and liturgy. I especially love learning from the example of faithful Christian believers in previous generations. They challenge and encourage us by their passionate love for Jesus, their bold vision of what God is doing, and their unshakeable confi dence in the power of the gospel to transform lives.”

Revd Will Donaldson – Director of Christian Leadership

“I have been appointed onto the Senior Management Team as Director of Christian Leadership. This means that I head up the Ministry and Mission Team, responsible for practical and spiritual preparation for ministry. My particular area of teaching is ‘Leadership and Ministry’, looking at the

skills of running a local church, and how you can mobilize it for mission. It is vital that we train future leaders to help move churches from ‘Maintenance’ to ‘Mission’, and to allow the Gospel to have its impact on individuals and society. Weekly and summer placements also give hands-on parish experience, as will the yearly missions. I’m here on the staff at Wycliffe with 25 years of Parish experience to get the students excited about the joys and challenges of Church Leadership!”

Revd Dr Liz Hoare – Tutor in Prayer, Spirituality and Mission.

“I am delighted to have been appointed to my dream job here at Wycliffe. It combines my two passions, which are accompanying individuals in their explorations of prayer and teaching spirituality. The Christian tradition is a rich treasure house of spiritual wisdom

stretching down the centuries and across many cultures as different people have encountered God in Christ Jesus. It offers today’s Christians resources for living out their faith in ways which will ground them deeply in God. I am looking forward to exploring some of these riches with Wycliffe’s students.”


Revd Dr Simon Vibert – Vice Principal and Director of the School of Preaching.

“I am Vice Principal and Director of the School of Preaching. The latter role carries the especially exciting vision of integrating preaching into every part of the training of ministerial candidates. I hope that in due course the Preaching School

will become a national and international resource for expository preachers; a place to hear some of the best Bible communicators around the world; somewhere for those who are involved in training preachers to be further equipped;

and that it will provide ongoing stimulus and resources for Gospel ministers in our country. After 18 years in parish ministry, where the building up of a local congregation through Bible exposition has been my main strategy, I feel privileged to be in a position to help train future ministers in this ministry.”

We also welcome the following new members of our support staff:

Nargiza Jedwab Ministry & Mission Administrator

Vince O’Connor Academic Administrator

Martin Spence Admissions Officer

Molly Spence DBTS Course Manager

Adrian Stark-Ordish Receptionist / Administration Assistant

Wycliffe Hall Staff 2007/8

IN THE STEPS OF SAINT PAULAn Illustrated Guide to Paul’s Journeys

Peter Walker(Lion Hudson March 2008)

Designed as a sequel to In the Steps of Jesus (Lion 2007), which traced 14 places from Luke’s Gospel, this book takes the reader through 14 places associated with Paul in the Book of Acts – from Damascus to Rome. Each chapter describes Paul’s activities there and then gives details as to what can be seen by visitors to that site today.

With colour photos throughout, and with numerous boxes and key dates in each chapter, the book should give everything that is needed for people wanting to imagine Paul’s journeys and understand his ministry in its original context. It also contains some radical new ideas on the dating of Paul’s letters.

Available from bookstores or directly from Lion Hudson (www.lionhudson.com).


‘A week is a long time in politics’ – and also in the Anglican Communion right now. Things continue to move very fast, and by the time you read this, things may look very different to how they looked when this article was first drafted (mid-September). For September 30th was the date, set at the Tanzanian Primates meeting in February, by which the Episcopal church in the United Sates was to give its considered response to the Primates: will TEC accept the judgments of the Windsor Report? And if it does not, who will decide that it has not complied, and what will be the consequences? Initial indications suggest that the central Anglican authorities consider TEC’s response to be adequate (complying with Windsor and the Tanzania requests), but that in the opinion of many this is patently not the case, leaving the door wide open for further splintering of the Communion.

The International Delegates

This unknown future was the context for the consultation held at Wycliffe in the first week of July. Hosted jointly by Wycliffe and the Anglican Communion Institute, the goal was to bring together orthodox Anglican theologians and clergy to look at two vital issues of the moment: the proposed ‘Communion Covenant’ and ‘Mission in the First World’. Around 120 delegates accepted our invitation. The majority were from the UK and North America, but there was a notable contingent of delegates from Australia and New Zealand. Other guests included Bishop Andudu Kuku (Sudan), Bishop Gideon Githiga (Kenya), Bishop Bill Godfrey (Peru) and Bishop Ben Kwashi (Nigeria) pictured below in his traditional dress.

With the focus on the ‘first world’, it was good to have some delegates with active or recent experience of Continental Europe (such as Rosie Dymond, a Wycliffe

graduate ministering in the Hague, and Canon Ambrose Mason). We were especially pleased that some of those who work in the Anglican Communion Office and in Lambeth Palace were able to join us, and indeed two of the Primates: Archbishop Drexel Gomez (West Indies), the Chairman of the Covenant Design Group, who spoke powerfully and articulately of the need for the Covenant; and Bishop Mouneer Anis (Bishop of Egypt and Presiding Bishop of the province of Jerusalem and the Middle East), who gave a powerful address on Joshua and the renewal of the covenant in Joshua 24 at the final Communion service. Unfortunately another Primate, Archbishop John Chew (Singapore), was unable to be with us, but he had given us key advice at the planning stage—to keep the mission focused on the ‘first world’ (rather than trying to speak to or for the Global South).

Wycliffe’s normal premises, of course, could not cope with this number of delegates, so the plenary lectures were held across the road in St Antony’s College, lunches were served in a marquee on the back lawn, and the final dinner was held in the 17th century hall of Wadham College. With the college also being used that week by our SCIO students, it was a logistical nightmare to plan, but in the end thankfully all went well!

The Two ‘Tracks’: Covenant and MissionDelegates were allocated to one of the two ‘tracks’, meeting in their own plenary sessions, and in small discussion and task groups. In addition, there were two full plenaries each day for all delegates, where those on one track could receive appropriate input from those on the other track. It took about 24 hours for delegates to get the hang of this (!), but once they sensed the shape of the programme, they began to appreciate what we were trying to do: to see how these two quite different themes

Anglican Consultation 2007


and concerns need to be held together. For a mere focus on the Anglican Covenant could be very inward-looking (just ‘intra-ecclesiastical’ politics); by contrast a mere focus on Mission, whilst no doubt very noble in its outward-looking focus and its appropriate attention to the variety of contexts, could be in danger of pulling the church in mutually contradictory directions. Put into terms of temperaments, the “hot-heads” and the “cool-heads” might actually need each other; or, if that analogy causes more trouble than its worth, perhaps one could speak of the ‘politicians’ and the ‘pragmatists’. This was precisely the mix of skills and temperaments that we wanted to bring together - to meet, listen and pray.

The Covenant track was chaired by the Bishop of Winchester, Michael Scott-Joynt. It focused on looking at the covenant’s background, rationale and purpose as well as the detailed wording of the current draft text. Through stimulating papers and lively small group discussion much was learned and will be contributed to the ongoing covenant process. One particularly powerful insight was the recognition that for the covenant to progress there needs to be a strong and representative Lambeth conference and for that to happen there needed to be a proper and adequate response to TEC after it responded to the Primates in September.

Although there were many concerns and anxieties – will the covenant prove ‘too little, too late’ and unable to hold together already fractured groupings? – there was also much excitement that the Covenant is a valuable and necessary development worth pursuing and shaping as much as possible. It offers the opportunity of filling a major lacuna in our common life as a global Communion and building mutual accountability between bishops and provinces into our structures in new ways. In addition, there was a strong sense that more work needed to be done on the current draft to emphasise the covenant’s missional foundation and goal.

The Mission track (chaired by Graham Cray, suffragan Bishop of Maidstone in the Diocese of Canterbury) heard from practitioners involved in mission in a wide variety of contexts: Europe, New Zealand, United States, inner-city Manchester, etc. We heard about the different effects of Alpha in quite different locations. Graham himself spoke out of his own pioneering work on Missional Discipleship and on the challenges of encouraging life-long discipleship which begins with ethics and forms Christ-like character in contemporary contexts. With participants from many different cultures and contexts, the Mission track placed a clear emphasis on the need for inculturation in mission, while continuing to give witness to the (covenanted) unity which is at the heart of the Trinitarian faith proclaimed. Proposals were made for greater sharing of resources in mission and especially for an effective use of the gifts and skills that women and laity bring to the mission of the church. Several speakers dealt with the challenging sociological and psychological context of the Global North and of the need for continued research and reflection of effective mission in this context. Other contributors

shared their personal, and often sacrificial, journeys of missional discipleship. One delegate, who has attended numerous previous gatherings discussing Anglican mission, commented on how different this gathering was in it’s clear agreement at the outset about what “mission” actually meant - bringing people under the personal rule of Christ.

Both groups summarized their findings and reported back to the other. There was deliberately no attempt to draw up a unified Communiqué at the end of such a wide-ranging consultation, but the insights and concerns were immediately fed in to other channels (e.g., the Covenant Design Group, the Lambeth Conference Design Group etc). Various private letters were sent to those in the Communion’s leadership and several delegates went on directly to York’s General Synod, where approval was given to proceed further with the Covenant Process.

Final Refl ectionsAs for the effect of the gathering, who can tell? The intention was never to cause great political shockwaves through making grand statements, but rather to provide a safe place where people could turn off their mobile phones and internet connections and actually come aside to meet each other, to listen to each other, and to listen to God (helped by daily times of worship and exposition of Ephesians 1-3). We were praying for the Holy Spirit to draw us together, being present amongst us, and for Christ to refresh his people in his service. And we were deliberately bringing people with a range of theological and ecclesiastical perspectives together, even if under the umbrella of a generous orthodoxy, to give space for fruitful interaction. One delegate wrote that the consultation


was quite simply “excellent – Wycliffe Hall at its best: well conceived, well executed, very stimulating – highly professional”.

So a big thank you to my colleagues Andrew Goddard (Wycliffe and Fellow of ACI) and Mark Oxbrow (International Mission Director at CMS) who designed and operated the Covenant and Mission track respectively; to Elizabeth Baker (the Consultation’s Manager); to Lyn Boyce and her team for the domestic arrangements; to John Martin (our Press officer); all of whom in their different ways did so much to make this Consultation a reality. It was perhaps not quite as ambitious a project as Wycliffe’s consultation in July 2002 (which also included a conference open to the public held at St Aldates), but it may ultimately have been the more significant of the two.

For, if the 2002 event brought Wycliffe publicly and suddenly into the issues facing the wider Communion (for example, leading to the publication of True Union in the Body?), this time we were able to offer a quieter more

reflective space where the more unseen, but perhaps more important, things could be pursued: listening, rebuilding relationships away from the press limelight, pausing to pray in the midst of the Communion’s convulsions, and looking together into the future realistically but also hopefully. Those focused on Mission came to see how much they also needed a cohesive platform from which to speak (as offered in the Covenant); meanwhile those focused on the Covenant came to see how such ecclesiastical commitments are always in danger of become static and stultified if the Church loses its sense of Mission: we are brought into Christ’s people but for the sake of the world; we must go both inwards into Christ but also outwards, out to the world.

REVD DR PETER WALKERDirector of External Relations

Session papers are available to view and download at www.wycliffehall.org.uk/anglican.

Anglican Consultation 2007 continued

IN THE STEPS OF SAINT PAUL

A Tour for the Friends of Wycliffe HallAround the Aegean

From Athens to Ephesus

28 March – 11 April 2008

A unique opportunity to spend a week in Greece and then a week in Turkey exploring the many sites familiar to us from the New Testament: Athens, Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, Ephesus, Colossae, and Miletus (as well as 6 of the churches of Revelation).

This is both a holiday and a study tour: travelling with fellow Christians, enjoying daily prayers and talks based on the Book of Acts, and hearing the message of Paul’s letters in the very places to which he wrote them.

For full colour brochure, please contact Andy Webster at McCabe Travel(www.mccabe-travel.co.uk: 0208-675-6828).


The corridors are once again a-buzz, the lecture room is filled: a new academic year at Wycliffe Hall has begun. Over the summer months, many returning students occupied themselves with placements in churches across the globe, from Canada to Malaysia, New York City to London. Students and their families also had time for a bit of rest and relaxation, and now we are back, recharged and refreshed!

The Wycliffe community is also bolstered by the arrival of new students. This term, Wycliffe welcomes 37 new ordinands for training, several new independent theology students, 4 new undergraduates, and 13 fresh faces in the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA) program, all of whom form a vital part of our community. As we get to know one another over lunches in the dining room, orientation week programmes, and socials in the pub, and as we worship together in chapel services and a weekly Eucharist, we anticipate many new friendships that will be forged and strengthened over the coming weeks and years.

This autumn, during Michaelmas Term, we will not only get academically stuck-in to biblical studies, doctrine, hermeneutics, apologetics and spiritual formation courses, but also prepare for and participate in upcoming mission opportunities. Our training for future ministry is dependent upon being active in mission during the present.

We are called to Wycliffe to be trained and equipped for the future, but also to be involved in what God is doing in Oxford, this nation, and the world.

Looking ahead to December, a group of Wycliffe students will once again travel to Uganda to serve and encourage the church there, and to speak the message of the gospel to those who do not yet know Jesus. What a privilege it is for us to be participants in how God is transforming the lives of people in Africa.

Throughout this term and next, Wycliffe will also send students out on mission trips to Paris, Birmingham and Bath. As we are stretched and challenged by these experiences, God will refine and shape us to be the ministers he has called us to be—both now and for the future. What an exciting time it is!

As we look to the year ahead, we feel great anticipation about what our God will do in and through us, both in the college and in the wider world.

PAT CONLEYStudent Common Room President

JULIE ALDRICHStudent Common Room President-Elect

Student Common Room

Student Profi le – Janet TaftBorn in Macclesfield, Cheshire, I grew up with 3 brothers in a family where the only god worshipped was football. Saturday evenings were either times of celebration or melancholy depending on whether ‘the Reds’ – Manchester United – had won or lost that day. My geography of England was learnt not from books, but from travelling to away games!

I became a Christian aged 17, when on questioning the meaning, or to be more exact, the point of life, I was invited to hear a speaker in the centre of town. I remember nothing about what was said (!), but on the way out was handed a leaflet, “Journey into Life” by Norman Warren. On reading it I discovered not only the answers to the questions I was asking, but it also spoke of a relationship I could have with God himself through Jesus Christ. Knowing I wanted this more than anything else, I committed my life to Him.

On meeting Christians through the local church, I remember my frustration, as I wondered why I’d never known such people existed before! The challenge to be a bold and effective witness has remained with me ever since.

After studying at Sheffield University where I met my husband Chris, I taught English at a large comprehensive school, becoming joint head of 5th Year. Not always easy, it was nevertheless a great way to hone pastoral gifts!

After our 2 children – Laura now 21 and Simon 19 – were born, we lived for 3 years in Asia, returning to Abingdon which is where we now live. Currently in my second year at Wycliffe, I look forward to whatever God has in store for the next chapter of my life, knowing that the one who has called me is faithful and He will do it!


Oxford Centre for Christian ApologeticsOCCA Business Course

Eight weeks, five days a week – 40 days. If you are the Son of God, 40 days is long enough to defeat the devil and prepare for your mission as Messiah.

If you are just an ordinary Christian pilgrim, taking time out from your normal working life, it is long enough to re-invigorate your spirit, refresh your en-theos-iasm, re-kindle your love of the Bible, and set down deep roots of faith and love. At least it was so for me, my wife, and my colleagues who enjoyed the OCCA course in the summer of 2007.

What deeply engaged us was sharing in the worship and community life of Wycliffe Hall, and the quality of teaching, both from our core lecturers and from the many occasional lecturers who shared their love of the Saviour and his Word with us.

Our group was privileged and blessed to receive many sessions with deep Bible teachers such as John Lennox, Alister McGrath, Michael Ramsden, as well as up to forty different speakers drawn from a wide variety of fields. Each week, our group members said to each other, “It can’t get any better than this!” But then, next week, it did!

Sharing amongst members of our group, social times, prayer for each other, appreciating the life of regular students at Wycliffe and getting to know the faculty were very rich and cherished opportunities.

For myself, since returning to my busy role as Principal of a large Christian school (1300 students, 170 staff) on the Gold Coast, in Australia, I have found many, many opportunities to share with others what I learnt. I enrolled for the course with some very specific personal and spiritual goals. I am pleased to say that these were all met. I have told many people since returning, that I felt that I put down very deep roots of faith in my time away.

School teachers, Principals (two from Australia), accountants, business people and investment brokers (from USA) constituted our group of pilgrims who wended their way to Oxford, mimicking Chaucer’s motley band in his Canterbury Tales. For people who live their ordinary working lives without the constancy of deep Biblical teaching and daily corporate worship, the OCCA experience was a time to radically rebuild our lives, and to find again the pure and inexplicable joy of being with Jesus.

I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone – unless they were tired of being who they are, wanting to dig more deeply into God, and looking for ways to invest the rest of their lives.

For all those who formed part of our spiritual pilgrimage, thank you, on behalf of all of our class. We pray God’s richest blessings upon you all.

GRAHAM LEO

Student Profi le – Tyler SladeGrowing up, I was always a happy-go-lucky kid, and although I could quite possibly have been part of the reason that “Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder” was finally acknowledged to be a real disease in the early 90’s, I always seemed to do ok in school and to get along with the other kids on the playground.

This blissful aimlessness seemed to follow me all the way through to my university years. It really was not until New Year’s Eve of my third year of college, when my long time girlfriend demanded to know what I was planning to do with my life (as long time girlfriends are prone to do) that I realized that, although I had many hopes and dreams, I really had no idea what I was meant to do with my life. And so, as I went to bed, I turned to Jesus for the first time in my life and asked Him if He had a plan for me. That night my Creator spoke to me as clearly as I’ve ever been spoken to, telling me not what I might think about doing with my life, but who I actually am and am meant to be. In short, the Lord called me to be a minister of His gospel, and although I had absolutely no idea at that time where such a calling would lead me (nor what it would cost), my entire life suddenly made sense. I had had a thousand different dreams about how I might use my gifts of singing, public speaking and counseling, but when God finally took me by the hand and revealed His reason and plan for my life, my true and lasting purpose was revealed.

Ever since that wondrous night I have been chasing after God and His purpose both high and low and everywhere in between: from brief stints at monasteries and on the mission field, to a few years of service to the homeless and broken people in New York City, and now as a Seminarian here at Wycliffe Hall. I am not quite sure yet what the future holds, but at least I am blessed to know my life’s purpose and ambition: to be a son of God and to live a life of vibrant union with Jesus, that I might be a light to a lost and broken world.


DevelopmentNew Library Furniture

A BIG thank you to everyone who generously responded to our appeal in the last newsletter.

We raised the required amount for our librarian Chris Leftley to purchase a new suite of desks and chairs for the library, helping to improve the library environment for our students’ studies.

Thank you also to those you who sent gifts for new books for the library. Your generosity has helped us continue to provide our students with the up-to-date books they need for their research.

Donations in the United States

For a tax deductible receipt with your gift please send to:

ExcelsisPO Box 540026

Orlando, FL 32854

Excelsis is a 501(c)3 registered charity.

Alternately your can donate online at

www.wycliffehall.org.uk/donate

Mission

Throughout this newsletter you have read of the various forms of mission that the Wycliffe Hall community are involved in. These range from hospital, prison and parish placements to weekend and weeklong missions. In addition to these UK missions, Wycliffe students are also involved in one or two missions abroad each year.

To enable our students to participate in these mission partnerships Wycliffe Hall provides student expenses and mission costs. On average a weeklong mission in the UK will range from £400 - £500, with a mission abroad costing up to £5000. Our total annual budget for mission is £21 000.

We invite you to help support our student 2007/08 missions by sending your donation, using the response form and pre-paid envelope enclosed with this newsletter or by visiting our website at www.wycliffehall.org.uk/donate

Thank you.Uganda Mission

Register online www.wycliffehall.org.uk/summerschool

WYCLIFFE HALLOXFORD

SUMMER SCHOOL6 – 12 July 2008

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