The Oxford Pastorate has provided chaplains to work alongside students in the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, since it was founded in 1893 by

evangelical Anglican Evangelical Anglicanism or evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, a ...

s. Its objective is to encourage "true and lively faith" among Oxford's student population.

Evangelicalism

British historian Mark Smith cites the Oxford Pastorate as an example of thriving evangelicalism in early 20th century England. He contends that the Pastorate's success was due to it differing markedly from the stereotypes often associated with evangelicalism: "Far from being negative, exclusive and oppositional, it represented an evangelicalism which, while definite about its own position, was positive, inclusive and constructive in its emphasis."

Links with C. S. Lewis

In 1941, Oxford Pastorate chaplain Stella Aldwinckle founded the Oxford

Socratic Club The Oxford Socratic Club was a student club that met from 1942 to 1954 dedicated to providing an open forum for the discussion of the intellectual difficulties connected with religion and with Christianity in particular. The club was formed in De ...

, whose first president was

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

New focus on postgraduates

Since its inception in 1893, the main focus of the Pastorate had been on working with undergraduates. In 2008, the Pastorate's trustees decided to focus the ministry on Oxford's rapidly growing postgraduate student community.

Chaplains

Award-winning British author and theologian Jonathan Brant was retained in 2008 to serve as the new Graduate Pastorate Chaplain. He is assisted by two associate chaplains: Emilie Noteboom, and

Christian Hofreiter Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

, who is a Gosden graduate scholar in theology at

Keble College Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to ...

.The Oxford Pastorate, ''Team'', http://www.oxfordpastorate.org/team.htm

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

The Oxford Pastorate website
Religious organizations established in 1893 Organisations associated with the University of Oxford Christianity in Oxford Anglican organizations