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The quality of the theological training provided at Oak Hill
From the Principal of Oak Hill Theological College Sir, — I was sad to read the critical comments about Oak Hill Theological College in a letter from Canon Patience Purchas in last week’s Church Times. She had picked up the comments of the Bishop of Durham about the book Pierced for our Transgressions, which has just been published by the Principal-elect, the Revd Dr Michael Ovey, and two of our postgraduate students, Dr Andrew Sach and Dr Steve Jeffery. At the same time, I was pleased that she included the qualification “assuming that Dr Wright’s judgement is fair”. In his review, he actually expresses agreement with the doctrine being defended, and points to places in his own works where he has argued quite strongly in favour of the penal substitutionary view of the atonement. The real point of his criticism was the alleged failure of the authors to engage with relevant material in the Gospels, and particularly with his own interpretation of the biblical evidence. Judgements may differ about the validity of his criticism, but to dismiss the whole work as “deeply, profoundly, and disturbingly unbiblical” is unfair. The book is a serious scholarly contribution to an important, ongoing debate in the Church, and defends an understanding of the cross which is, for example, reflected in the Prayer of Consecration in the Book of Common Prayer. Patience Purchas asks “on what possible grounds can [sending ordinands for training to Oak Hill] be considered appropriate?” The short answer to her question is that Oak Hill, like all other theological colleges, is regularly inspected by the Bishops’ Inspectors, and the last report clearly and unreservedly concluded that the college was a fit and proper place to train men and women for ministry in the Church of England. Canon Purchas knew this from a meeting that she attended at Oak Hill and where these findings were discussed. Our Ministry Division Moderator has continued to give us an encouraging annual report. Patience Purchas wants to “deselect” us on the basis of a single book review, which itself contains contestable material, in complete disregard of the procedures the Church of England has laid down for the recognition of training institutions. DAVID PETERSONOak Hill College, Chase Side London N14 4PS From Canon John Thomson Sir, — For the past three years, I have been the Ministry Division Moderator of Oak Hill Theological College. On each of my visits, I have found a college full of ordinands and independent students whose youthful age profile, energetic commitment to ministry, and hospitality are particularly impressive. I have also found frustration and pain associated with perceived caricatures and ignorance about the College. It is not for me to defend Oak Hill’s theological convictions in the debate with Bishop Tom Wright or in terms of the wider debates within Anglicanism. Suffice it to say that as one who describes himself as a Catholic Evangelical committed to a generous Anglicanism, I hope that those anxious about Oak Hill will engage rather than seek to marginalise this significant constituency within the Church of England. In particular, I would encourage diocesan directors of ordinands to visit the College, and diocesan missioners to consider inviting Oak Hill students and staff to share in diocesan missions, as a way of bringing people together rather than remaining locked within mutually antagonistic stereotypes. It was this sort of costly reaching out across divides which enabled the Church of the Province of Southern Africa to face and begin to subvert the poison of apartheid, and which so impressed me when I was a theological educator there. If the Anglican experiment is to survive, then common worship or a gracious conversational approach to seeking for God’s truth is vital. This is certainly a challenge to Oak Hill. It is equally a challenge to those anxious about it. JOHN THOMSON Sheffield Diocesan Director of Ministry Church House 95-99 Effingham Street Rotherham S65 1BL From Dr Steve Jeffery, the Revd Dr Mike Ovey, and Dr Andrew Sach Sir, — Maria Hearl (Letters, 4 May) complains that the Revd Mike Smith is incorrect to derive the idea that Jesus’s death was a “propitiation” (i.e. a means of averting God’s wrath) from Romans 3.25. Her argument is that the relevant Greek word hilasterion (strangely she omits the rough breathing — the initial “h”) is used to translate the Hebrew term for the “mercy seat” of the altar, used in the Day of Atonement ceremonies (Leviticus 16). This is true, but Hearl is wrong to think that this excludes the propitiatory connotations of the word attested elsewhere in the Septuagint and in contemporary Greek literature (e.g. 1 Clement, Shepherd of Hermas, Josephus, Philo); indeed, these are required by the context of Romans 1-2, which speaks repeatedly of God’s wrath against mankind. Despite N.T. Wright’s criticisms of our book, Pierced for our Transgressions, it is he whom we cite as an authority on this matter: “Paul’s context here demands that the word not only retain its sacrificial overtones (the place and means of atonement), but that it carry the note of propitiation of divine wrath.” STEVE JEFFERY, MIKE OVEY, ANDREW SACH Oak Hill College, Chase Side London N14 4PS From the Revd Lee Gatiss and others Sir, — As rectors, vicars, curates, and Ph.D. candidates trained at Oak Hill and now in pastoral ministry in Britain and abroad, we were deeply upset to read Canon Patience Purchas’s inflammatory letter alleging fatal “theological limitations” in our training. Many of us are Oxbridge graduates, and can testify that Oak Hill’s training was even more academically rigorous than our undergraduate degree courses, and repeatedly forced us to engage with arguments and material well outside our ecclesiastical and theological comfort zones. We all learned Greek, and most of us learned Hebrew as well. We all had sustained year-long placements in Anglo-Catholic, Open Evangelical, Charismatic, and liberal parishes and chaplaincies, in which dialogue with and learning about other traditions was positively encouraged. We lived in a genuinely ecumenical environment alongside brothers and sisters from all over the world training for practical ministry (ordained and lay) in Anglican, Baptist, and Free Churches. We are compelled to wonder from much of the highly prejudiced and grossly ill-informed criticism that has been thrown at the book Pierced for our Transgressions, written by three fine Oak Hill men, whether some in our denomination may have been sadly starved of the excellence in training which we were privileged to receive at the Church’s expense. That such an excellent book could be written by the Principal-elect, the Revd Dr Mike Ovey, does not surprise us. That a passionate and careful piece of scholarship was written by him and two students who have not even completed their training yet makes us, and should make others, envious of the high standards exemplified by the College that the Revd Professor David Peterson has built up over the past 11 years. We are amazed at the way the quality of training at Oak Hill has continued to improve. We respectfully suggest, therefore, that Canon Purchas desist from attacking the college, and submit to the proper authority of the Bishops’ Inspectors, who, in their latest report, commended Oak Hill’s practical training and academic rigour in the warmest possible terms. Lee Gatiss ,Tim Ward, Ben Cooper, Jeremy Hobson, Jason Ward, Graham Wintle, Richard Espin-Bradley, Steve Walton, Rohintan Mody, Paul Darlington, David Gibbs, Mark O’Donoghue, Marcus Nodder, Phil Keymer, Darren Moore, Paul Dawson, Tim Chapman, Andy Fenton, Neil Robbie, James Oakley, Iain Baker, Steve Rees, Carl Chambers, Steven Hanna, Matt Fuller, James Paice, Tim Silk, Daf Meirion-Jones, Andy Bousfield, Rupert Mackay, John Lenton, Alistair Seabrook, John Brook, Frank Price, Matthew Mason, James Hughes, Pete Jackson, Stuart Dean, Daniel Howard, Geoffrey Firth, Kevin Newman, Phil Chadder, Marc Baker, Paul Worledge, Jon Hobbs, Tim Crook, Jules Beauchamp, Richard Perkins, Nick Alexander, Nigel Little, Andrew McClellan c/o 15 Morgan Street London E3 5AA |
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