Saturday 28 March 2009

Fulcrum leadership question inspectors' report on Wycliffe Hall

A member of the Open Evangelical group Fulcrum has challenged the assessment of Wycliffe Hall theological college presented by the Chair of the Church of England’s Ministry Division in a recent letter to the Church of England Newspaper.

Bishop Graham James had himself written to criticize the headline in the previous week’s CEN that Wycliffe had “failed” the inspection. This, Bishop James said, was “plainly wrong.” He continued,
On the contrary, the inspection team found Wycliffe Hall ‘fit for purpose’ displaying ‘a rich mosaic of evangelical traditions which come together in a community which shows respect for difference, and in which women are fully accepted and integrated’.
Now, however, Jody Stowell, one of the Fulcrum leadership team, has explicitly questioned that conclusion and the effectiveness of the inspection. Writing in a thread about the Bishop’s letter on the Fulcrum discussion forum, she stated,
i [sic] for one would be very interested to know the process by which it was determined that women are fully accepted and integrated.

which women were asked, if any? was this done in a way that the subtlety of power imbalance was avoided in order to get a true representation?
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1 comment:

  1. This is an interesting exercise in hermenutics. Some people can read the report and conclude Wycliff "failed" whilst others can read it and accuse the inspectors of a cover-up.

    Does anyone believe the "establishment" would be covering up "conservative" short comings? On track record wouldn't they pick up any stick they could to hit them with?

    Sadly, it seems colleges run in to tough times, from time to time. In a sense if there is decent cut and thrust theological debate we should expect it. But it seems some want the bad smell at Wycliff to stick and don't want it to move on. It strikes me that the only thing that REALLY causes difficulty for women ordinands at certain colleges, isn't the colleges but the people outside you go on about it to ensure as few women as possible go there, so they can then point fingers.

    Darren Moore
    (Tranmere)

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