Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford

Banbury Road, Oxford

[]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wycliffe_Hall,_Oxford_Univeristy

Wycliffe Hall was founded in 1877 to train Christian workers as pastors and missionaries, especially as clergy within the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. It is one of more than 20 Anglican theological colleges established in England during the late 19th century. Its "sister college" is Ridley Hall, Cambridge, which opened in 1881. It was founded following evangelical public meetings in 1876 where the concerns were raised about how "the majority of clergy are professionally ignorant".[1]
Wycliffe Hall was founded in 1877 to train Christian workers as pastors and missionaries, especially as clergy within the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. It is one of more than 20 Anglican theological colleges established in England during the late 19th century. Its "sister college" is Ridley Hall, Cambridge, which opened in 1881. It was founded following evangelical public meetings in 1876 where the concerns were raised about how "the majority of clergy are professionally ignorant".[1]

The college is named after John Wycliffe, master of Balliol College, Oxford, in the 14th century. He was a philosopher and theologian who argued for biblical theology. One of the founders of Wycliffe was J. C. Ryle, a Bishop of Liverpool and theologian.

For many centuries the University of Oxford was explicitly Christian and Anglican. It was officially secularised by the University Reform Act of 1854 and the University Test Act of 1871, when it was opened to students and lecturers of all religious faiths or none. Wycliffe Hall’s vision was to maintain the teaching of biblical and evangelical theology at Oxford. Its first pioneers aimed to promote "doctrinal truth and vital godliness".[citation needed] Its Victorian trust deed upholds the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, which is the part of the English Reformation heritage of the Church of England, although it now welcomes students from all Christian denominations. Since the 19th century the college has had close links with the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union and the Oxford Pastorate, two evangelical organisations working with Oxford students.

During the first world war, Wycliffe Hall housed refugees from Serbia and trainees from the Royal Flying Corps who built a practice aeroplane in the dining hall.[citation needed]

In 1929 Wycliffe Hall staff and students on pilgrimage to Jerusalem were commissioned as peacekeepers during riots in Palestine. One student was shot through the shoulder.[citation needed]

William Henry Griffith Thomas, one of Wycliffe Hall’s best known principals and a noted theologian, is remembered by a bronze bust in the dining room.

In 1996 Wycliffe Hall became a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford, under the leadership of Alister McGrath. In 2005 it launched the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics in partnership with the Zacharias Trust.