Westcott House is an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

theological college based on Jesus Lane in the centre of the university city of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.Westcott House website, Home pag

Retrieved on August 27, 2006. Its main activity is training people for Holy orders, ordained ministry in the Church of England and other Anglican churches. Westcott House is a founding member of the Cambridge Theological Federation. The college is considered by many to be Liberal Catholic in its tradition, but it accepts ordinands from a range of

traditions A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

in the Church of England.

History

Westcott House began its life in 1881 as the Cambridge Clergy Training School.

Brooke Foss Westcott Brooke Foss Westcott (12 January 1825 – 27 July 1901) was an English bishop, biblical scholar and theologian, serving as Bishop of Durham from 1890 until his death. He is perhaps most known for co-editing ''The New Testament in the Orig ...

, the then Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, was its first president. He later became the Bishop of Durham. A pioneering and respected New Testament scholar himself, the school was the product of Westcott's own passionate concern to raise the standard of clergy education and to equip clergy to meet the challenges of parish ministry.Westcott House website
"The History of Westcott House", Retrieved on 13 February 2013. Westcott was also exercised by the way in which the Church of England was increasingly dominated by parties and factions. Westcott himself eschewed any party affiliation. The college has often been associated with a "Liberal Catholic" ethos, although its essential charism embraces the breadth of the Church of England and the wider church: 'As a scholar, educator, priest and prophet, Westcott's legacy to the Church of England challenges sectarianism, ignorance, complacency and empty faith. This is the spirit which Westcott House seeks to honour today, drawing students from all backgrounds to prepare them for ministry in this historic centre of Christian learning'. In response to the

Faith in the City ''Faith in the City: A Call for Action by Church and Nation'' was a report published in the United Kingdom in autumn 1985, authored by the authored by Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie's Commission on Urban Priority Areas. The report create ...

report, published in 1985, the college has retained a firm commitment to develop expertise and capacity in the field of urban ministry and mission. Through its partnership with the Diocese of Manchester, the college has pioneered patterns of context-based learning and innovative approaches to contextual theology for over twenty years. These approaches have been widely imitated and developed by other theological education institutions. The college has also developed a programme for continuing ministerial development through the Westcott Foundation. The college provides training pathways in conjunction with the University of Cambridge and the

Common Awards Common Awards are qualifications for ordinands and lay ministers within the Church of England and its partners in the Baptist, Methodist, and United Reformed churches. Description Before 2014, Theological Education Institutions (TEIs) within th ...

(validated by

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

). It describes itself as "the home of a diverse, inclusive and international community of people who share a vision of ministry to all society". Drawing on the inspiration of B. F. Westcott and others, its ethos is expressed in a rule of life which was adopted in 2014.

Notable people

List of principals

The head of Westcott House is known as the principal. All the principals of the Clergy Training School and of Westcott House have been Anglican priests. *1887-1901:

Frederic Chase Frederic Henry Chase (21 February 1853, London23 September 1925, Bexhill) was a British academic and Bishop of Ely. Life The only son of Charles Frederic Chase, rector of St Andrew by the Wardrobe and St Anne Blackfriars, and Susan Mary All ...

*1901-1911: Henry Knight *1911-1916: Charles Lambert ''1916-1919: Closed during World War I'' *1919-1943: Bertram Cunningham *1943-1947: William Greer *1948-1961:

Kenneth Carey Kenneth Anton Carey (August 7, 1893 – January 4, 1981) was an American sailor who competed in the 1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an inter ...

*1962-1972: Peter Walker *1972-1981:

Mark Santer Mark Santer (born 29 December 1936) is a retired Anglican bishop. He is the father of television producer Diederick Santer. Early life and education Santer was educated at Marlborough College and Queens' College, Cambridge, before his ordinati ...

*1981-1993: Rupert Hoare *1993-2006: Michael Roberts *2006-2015: Martin Seeley *2015-2019:

Chris Chivers Christopher Mark "Chris" Chivers (born 16 July 1967) is an Anglican priest, composer, and author. From 2015 until 2019, he was the Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge, an Anglican theological college in the Liberal Catholic tradition. Ear ...

*2019–2020 (acting): Paul Dominiak, Vice-Principal *''2020-2021 (interim): Tim Stevens'' *2021–present:

Helen Dawes Helen Elizabeth Dawes (born 5 January 1974) is a British academic administrator. Since 2021, she has been Principal of Westcott House, Cambridge. Before returning to Westcott House where she had trained for ordination, she served in parish minist ...

Staff

Besides the aforementioned principals, notable staff have included: * Charles Freer Andrews, vice-principal; then missionary, educator and social reformer in India * Michael Beasley, chaplain, tutor and vice-principal; current bishop suffragan of Hertford * Spencer Carpenter, vice-principal; later Dean of Exeter *

John Collins John Collins may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Collins (poet) (1742–1808), English orator, singer, and poet * John Churton Collins (1848–1908), English literary critic * John H. Collins (director) (1889–1918), American director an ...

, vice-principal: later Canon of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

* Don Cupitt, vice-principal; later Dean of

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

Charles Garrad Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

, vice-principal; then missionary and Bible translator in Burma * John Habgood, vice-principal; later Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of York * John Harmer, vice-principal: later Bishop of Adelaide and

Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...

* Hugh Montefiore, vice-principal; later Bishop of Birmingham *

Jeremy Morris Jeremy Nigel Morris (born 22 January 1960) is a British historian, Church of England priest and academic. He specialises in church history. From 2014 to 2021, he was Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Previously, he was Dean of Trinity Hall from ...

, tutor, director of studies and vice-principal; former Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge * Robert Runcie, chaplain, tutor and vice-principal; later principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon, Bishop of St Albans and

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

* Mary Tanner, tutor; later European President of the World Council of Churches * Angela Tilby, tutor and vice-principal; current Canon of

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

* Alan Webster, chaplain and vice-principal; later Dean of St Paul's * Harry Williams, chaplain and tutor: later Dean of Trinity College, Cambridge, theologian and monk of the Community of the Resurrection * Rowan Williams, chaplain, tutor and director of studies; later Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford and canon of Christ Church

Bishop of Monmouth The Bishop of Monmouth is the diocesan bishop of the Church in Wales Diocese of Monmouth. The episcopal see covers the historic county of Monmouthshire with the bishop's seat located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Woolos in Newport, which ...

, Archbishop of Wales,

and Master of Magdalene * Edward Wynn, vice-principal; later

Bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of nort ...

Alumni

Notable alumni of Westcott House and of the Clergy Training School include: * Robert Atwell, current

bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

* Paul Badham, Professor ''emeritus'' of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Wales, Lampeter *

Simon Bailey Simon Bailey may refer to: * Simon Bailey (priest) (1955–1995), Anglican priest and writer * Simon Bailey (archivist), Keeper of the Archives at the University of Oxford in England * Simon T. Bailey (born 1968), American speaker, author, life co ...

, writer and priest * Alister McGrath, Professor of Religious studies & Science and writer * Andrew Ballard, retired archdeacon of Manchester *

David Bartleet David Henry Bartleet (11 April 1929 – 1 November 2002) was a British Anglican bishop. From 1982 to 1993, he was the fourth Bishop of Tonbridge, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Rochester. He was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and St ...

, Bishop suffragan of Tonbridge * Dewi Bridges,

Bishop of Swansea and Brecon The Bishop of Swansea and Brecon is the Ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. The diocese covers the City and County of Swansea and the ancient counties of Brecknockshire and Radnorshire. The diocesan cathedral is the C ...

* Gareth Bennett, academic renowned for criticising the then-Archbishop *

Chiu Ban It Joshua Chiu Ban It (; – 9 November 2016) was the Bishop of Singapore from 1966 to 1981, and was the first indigenous Bishop of Singapore. Chiu graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of London in 1941 and was ordained after a peri ...

, Bishop of Singapore * Stephen Conway, current

bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of nort ...

Christopher Cunliffe Christopher John Cunliffe (born 25 September 1955) is a retired Anglican priest who served as Archdeacon of Derby from his appointment in 2006 until his retirement, effective 31 December 2020. He was educated at Charterhouse, Christ Church, Oxfor ...

, current archdeacon of Derby *

Henry de Candole Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) *Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal ...

, Bishop suffragan of Knaresborough and liturgist *

Griff Dines (Philip Joseph) Griff Dines is a former Provost (religion), Provost of St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow He was born on 22 June 1959 and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, University College London and Clare College, Cambridge. He was o ...

, Provost of

St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow The Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin (Scottish Gaelic: Cathair-eaglais Naomh Moire), commonly called St Mary's Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church. It is located on the Great Western Road, in the west end of Glasgow, ...

* Maurice O'Connor Drury, left Westcott after one year * Peter Eaton, current bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of South-East Florida The Episcopal Church in Southeast Florida is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) which extends from Key West, Florida on the south, to Jensen Beach on the north and inland to Clewiston on the west. Majo ...

* David Edwards,

Provost of Southwark The Dean of Southwark is the head (''primus inter pares'' – first among equals) and chair of the chapter of canons, the ruling body of Southwark Cathedral. The dean and chapter are based at the ''Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Saint Saviour ...

Peter Eliot Peter Charles Eliot (30 October 1910 – 16 December 1995) was an English Anglican priest who served as Archdeacon of Worcester from 1961 to 1975. Eliot was the great-grandson of Edward Eliot, 3rd Earl of St Germans, by his youngest son, ...

, Archdeacon of Worcester * Ralph Emmerson, Bishop suffragan of Knaresborough * Michael (Fisher) SSF, Bishop suffragan of St Germans * Launcelot Fleming, Bishop of Norwich * Frank Ford, Archdeacon of the East Riding * David Galliford, Bishop suffragan of Bolton *

Herbert Gwyer The Right Reverend, Rt Rev Herbert Linford Gwyer was the second Anglican Diocese of George, Bishop of George, and a survivor of the sinking of . He was educated at Uppingham School, Uppingham and Magdalene College, Cambridge. After a period of stu ...

Bishop of George The Diocese of George is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. History The seat of the diocese is the Cathedral of St Mark in George in South Africa. List of Bishops * Henry Bindley Sidwell 1911-1936 * Herbert Linford Gwyer 1937 ...

Stuart Hallam The Revd. Stuart Hallam is an Anglican Royal Navy chaplain, notable for being one of the handful of commando-trained chaplains. Hallam was born and brought up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and graduated from St Martin's College, Lancaster in ...

, a current Naval chaplain *

Barry Hollowell Barry Craig Bates Hollowell (April 14, 1948 – August 17, 2016) was an Anglican bishop in Canada. He was the seventh Bishop of Calgary. Life Born in Boston, Massachusetts and educated at Valparaiso University after which he studied theology ...

, Bishop of Calgary * Forbes Horan, Bishop suffragan of Tewkesbury *

Anthony Hoskyns-Abrahall Anthony Leigh Egerton Hoskyns-Abrahall (13 October 19031 May 1982) was an Anglican priest and bishop who served as the Bishop of Lancaster (a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Blackburn) from 1955 until 1975.Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Pe ...

, Bishop suffragan of Lancaster * Noel Hudson,

Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak The Bishop of Kuching is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Anglicanism, Anglican Diocese of Kuching in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. The bishop exercises episcopal authority over Anglican churches in the Malaysian state of ...

* Andrew Hunter, former MP for Basingstoke * Robert Keable, novelist and missionary * John Lewis, Archdeacon of Hereford * Barry Morgan, former archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Llandaff *

Edward Patey Edward Henry Patey (12 August 1915 – 5 September 2005) was the Church of England Dean of Liverpool, England from 1964 to 1982. Patey was born in Bristol and educated at Marlborough College, Hertford College, Oxford and Westcott House, Cambridg ...

Dean of Liverpool The Dean of Liverpool is based in Liverpool and is head of the chapter of Liverpool Cathedral. Sue Jones was installed as Dean on 5 May 2018. A former dean, Edward Patey, said that being Dean of Liverpool was "the best job in the Church of Engl ...

Guy Pentreath Rev. Canon Arthur Godolphin Guy Carleton Pentreath, M.A., Cantab. (Guy Pentreath; 1902–1985) was an Anglican clergyman, and a headmaster of several schools. In his retirement, he was a chaplain and guest lecturer on many Swan Hellenic cruises. ...

, chaplain and headmaster *

John Polkinghorne John Charlton Polkinghorne (16 October 1930 – 9 March 2021) was an English theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest. A prominent and leading voice explaining the relationship between science and religion, he was professor of ma ...

, theoretical physicist and theologian * William Rees, Archdeacon of St Asaph * David Reindorp, vicar * John Richardson, Archdeacon of Derby *

John Robinson John Robinson may refer to: Academics *John Thomas Romney Robinson (1792–1882), Irish astronomer and physicist * John J. Robinson (1918–1996), historian and author of ''Born in Blood'' *John Talbot Robinson (1923–2001), paleontologist *John ...

, Bishop suffragan of Woolwich *

Patrick Rodger Patrick Campbell Rodger (28 November 1920 – 8 July 2002) was an Anglican bishop and ecumenist. He was the Bishop of Manchester (1970–1978) and Bishop of Oxford (1978–1986). He came from the Scottish Episcopal Church, having served minist ...

, Bishop of Oxford * John Edmondson, member of the House of Lords *

Paul Shinji Sasaki Paul Shinji Sasaki (パウロ佐々木鎮次)、(March 11, 1885 – December 21, 1946) was an Anglican bishop of the Diocese of Mid-Japan and later of Tokyo, in the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, the Province of the Anglican Communion in Japan. Early l ...

Bishop of Tokyo The ''Nippon Sei Ko Kai'' ( ja, 日本聖公会, translit=Nippon Seikōkai, lit=Japanese Holy Catholic Church), abbreviated as NSKK, sometimes referred to in English as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, is the national Christian church repr ...

Allan Shaw Charles Allan Shaw (16 February 1927 – 16 July 1989) was an Anglican priest in the last third of the 20th century. He was born in Westhoughton, Lancashire on 16 February 1927, educated at Bolton School and Christ's College, Cambridge and o ...

, Dean of Ely * Shimun XXI or XXIII Eshai, Patriarch of the

Assyrian Church of the East The Assyrian Church of the East,, ar, كنيسة المشرق الآشورية sometimes called Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East,; ar, كنيسة المشرق الآشورية الرسول� ...

Percival Smith Harry Kingsley Percival Smith (5 June 1898 – 27 January 1965) was Archdeacon of Lynn from 1956 until 1961. He was educated at Haileybury; Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and Westcott House, Cambridge. During World War I he served wit ...

, Archdeacon of Lynn * Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark *

Carol Stone Carol Ann Stone (formerly Peter James Stone, 1954–2014) was an English Anglican priest and chaplain. She was the first serving priest of the Church of England to transition from male to female. She was ordained in 1978 as a male, underwent ...

, vicar * Graham Usher, current Bishop of Norwich * Graham Ward, current Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University * Richard Watson, Bishop of Burnley *

David Wilbourne David Jeffrey Wilbourne (born 15 September 1955) is an Anglican bishop. The son of a priest, he has spent the majority of his ministry in Yorkshire. He was the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff from 2009 until 2017, working alongside the Archbishop ...

, former

assistant bishop of Llandaff The Bishop of Llandaff is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff. Area of authority The diocese covers most of the County of Glamorgan. The bishop's seat is in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (the site of a ...

* Trevor Willmott, former bishop of Dover *

Kenneth Woollcombe Kenneth John Woollcombe (Ken; 2 January 19242 March 2008) was an Anglican academic who was Bishop of Oxford in the middle part of his career, from 1971 to 1978. Early years Woollcombe was born in Sutton, where his father, the Reverend Edward Wo ...

, former Bishop of Oxford *

Barry Till Barry Dorn Till (1 June 1923 – 12 June 2013) was an Anglican priest, author and academic. He was born on 1 June 1923, educated at Harrow and served in the Coldstream Guards from 1942 to 1946. He studied at Jesus College, Cambridge, where h ...

, academic and educator *

Cherry Vann Cherry Elizabeth Vann (born 29 October 1958) is a British Anglican bishop serving as Bishop of Monmouth in the Church in Wales. She previously served as Archdeacon of Rochdale from 2008 to 2020, having served all of her ordained ministry with t ...

, current

* Benjamin Vaughan,

Gallery

Image:Westcott House Old Court Lawn.JPG, Old Court Lawn Image:All Saints Jesus Lane.JPG, All Saints Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1887 Anglican seminaries and theological colleges Anglo-Catholic educational establishments Institutions of the Cambridge Theological Federation Anglican buildings and structures in Europe 1887 establishments in England