ST JOHN's Theological
College, Nottingham, is to renovate its entire campus in a
five-year plan an- nounced during the college's 150th anniversary
thanksgiving service at Southwell Minster on 13 July.
Central to the first
stage of the programme, to be launched next year with a
£3.5-million appeal, will be the building of a Learning Resource
Centre, to house the extensive library, and to provide a global
facility for research into the changing face of the world
Church.
The Principal, the Revd
Dr David Hilborn, described St John's as "a centre of excellence
for theological study and the training of Christian leaders".
Five former principals of
the college, which began life as the London College of Divinity in
1863, and moved from Northwood to Nottingham in 1970, joined him on
Sunday (pictured): Canon Michael Green, Bishop Colin
Buchanan, Professor Anthony Thiselton, the Revd Professor John
Goldingay, and Dr Christina Baxter.
Previous chairmen of the
St John's Council who were present included Bishop Roy Williamson,
Bishop Richard Inwood, and the Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd
Pete Broadbent. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey,
was among former staff members, and the preacher was the Dean of
York, the Very Revd Vivienne Faull, the college's first woman
ordinand.
Bishop Buchanan,
principal from 1979 to 1985, and associated with the college for 21
years, believed that St John's should take some credit for
Evangelicalism's becoming a "leading force" in the 21st century,
after its marginalised position of 50 years ago.
The Bishop, who has spent seven years researching and writing
St John's College Nottingham: From Northwood to Nottingham, the
story of 50 Years 1963-2013, revealed that he had wanted to
call the book God's Own College, but that had been
resisted by the college council as "theologically pre-emptive".