CLARE MACINNES, a member of the Council of Wycliffe Hall, the increasingly troubled Evangelical theological college in Oxford (News, Letters, 28 September), wrote to its chairman on Monday to resign and explain her reasons.
She said on Tuesday that she had also written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the college’s Visitor, and to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. “My responsibility is to tell my story,” she said. “I am deeply saddened by this, and it gave me no pleasure to write this letter.”
The chairman of the Council of Wycliffe Hall, the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Revd James Jones, had replied immediately, “which I appreciated”, but she declined to give any details of his reply.
In her letter, she told him that she had raised “very serious issues” with him in May, but that he had simply suggested that she put them to the next meeting, “without any offer to facilitate the discussion and protect me in the debate. I was intimidated by this.”
At one council meeting, a member had told her not to take notes. “I was again intimidated by this.”
Dissension in the council was often not minuted, she said. When the council terminated the employment of three staff members, Dr Elaine Storkey, the Revd Dr Andrew Goddard, and the Revd Lis Godard (News, 28 September), staff were told that the decision was unanimous, although Mrs MacInnes, who was absent from the meeting, had sent a letter to record her opposition to the move.
“I regret that I have no confidence in the Chair, the Principal, or the Council as a whole to address these serious matters of governance, employment practice, and simple human relationships,” she told the Bishop.
The council had not followed due process over staff grievances, recruitment, and the termination of employment, she said.
When it had recruited the new Principal, Dr Richard Turnbull, two years ago, it was told to increase his pay from that advertised to that of a cathedral dean in order to secure his services. “There was no supporting paperwork with reasoned argument, but the Treasurer simply told us that we might lose the candidate if we did not agree.”
Dr Turnbull’s appointment was confirmed without a formal appraisal. When senior staff raised questions about that with the Bishop, they were not discussed in the council. “This was a serious oversight, since it raised questions about the integrity of the process, including issues of charity and employment law and good practice.”
“Serious matters of concern” had been raised by the Vice-Principal, the Revd Dr David Wenham, when he resigned last year; but the council had dismissed them as “simply a matter of style”, and the differences between an incoming principal and a long-standing member of staff.
On Tuesday, Mrs MacInnes said that she had sent a copy of her letter to the Bishop of Oxford, and to the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham James, who chairs the Church of England’s Ministry Division. She expected them to act on her findings. A spokesman for the Archbishop said that he did not comment on correspondence. |
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