Ridley College, formerly known as Ridley Melbourne, is a Christian

theological college A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

in the parklands of central

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in the

Australian state The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. Established in 1910, it has an

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide Interdenominationalism, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "bor ...

foundation and outlook and is affiliated with the

Australian College of Theology The Australian College of Theology (ACT) is an Australian higher education provider based in Sydney, New South Wales. The college delivers awards in ministry and theology and was one of the first Australian non-university providers to offer an a ...

and the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the R ...

. The college offers on-campus and distance learning and provides training for various Christian ministries in a range of contexts.

History

Named after a 16th-century

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

martyr, Nicholas Ridley, Ridley College was established on 1 March 1910 to provide residential theological training. Its founders were

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 ...

clergy and laypeople from throughout

."History"
ridley.edu.au. Retrieved 7 March 2009. Ridley College's principals have included the prominent New Testament scholar

Leon Morris Leon Lamb Morris (15 March 1914 – 24 July 2006) was an Australian New Testament scholar. Born in Lithgow, New South Wales, Morris was ordained to the Anglican ministry in 1938. He earned Bachelor of Divinity (with first class honors) in 1943 ...

(1914–2006; principal 1964–1979), known for his studies of the

atonement Atonement (also atoning, to atone) is the concept of a person taking action to correct previous wrongdoing on their part, either through direct action to undo the consequences of that act, equivalent action to do good for others, or some other ex ...

. For much of its history, a main feature of Ridley College was its residential college, with students accommodated mainly in the Aiken and Baker buildings. Like other residential colleges in the area, it provided its students with a range of academic, social and religious programs. From 1965 to 2005, Ridley was an affiliated residential college of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

and, in 1972, it became the first of the university's colleges open to both men and women. In 2005, the residential college was closed due to rising costs. The following year, it was reopened to provide accommodation specifically for international students from the surrounding universities, the University of Melbourne,

RMIT University RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city ...

and

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

. The residential college was again closed at the end of 2007. Ridley Melbourne retains a small residential theological community in the renamed Baker building (formerly Bearham). The buildings were substantially upgraded in 2019.

Principals

The principals of Ridley College have been:

Education and training

Ridley College aims to provide Christian theological formation with a balance across three domains: ministry practice, Christian thought (theology and ethics) and biblical studies (including Greek and Hebrew languages). While the college teaches from an evangelical theological perspective, it is open to Christians of all backgrounds. Its stated aims are to equip its students for Christian ministries in a variety of settings, including a range of church denominations and

cross-cultural Cross-cultural may refer to *cross-cultural studies, a comparative tendency in various fields of cultural analysis *cross-cultural communication, a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate *any of vari ...

contexts. The college actively supports

parachurch Parachurch organizations are Christian faith-based organizations that work outside and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism. Parachurch organizations seek to come alongside the church and specialize in things that indivi ...

work as well as

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

and local church roles."FAQs"
ridley.edu.au. Retrieved 8 March 2009. Along with

Trinity College Theological School Trinity College Theological School (TCTS) is an educational division of Australia's Trinity College, the oldest residential college of the University of Melbourne. It is also one of the constituent colleges of the University of Divinity. The Schoo ...

, Ridley also trains ordinands for ministry in the

Anglican Diocese of Melbourne The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne is the metropolitan diocese of the Province of Victoria in the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese was founded from the Diocese of Australia by letters patent of 25 June 1847dioceses In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

. Ridley's academic resources include its library and bookshop. The Leon Morris Library has a collection of 46,000 volumes and 150 journal subscriptions and contains significant resources on biblical studies. The Ridley College is a government-recognised tertiary institution and a

CRICOS The Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) is a register formed under thEducation Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 It maintains a list of institutions, and courses, which have been granted ...

provider, offering education to international students. This means that domestic students have access to government support for tuition fees. The college offers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs and courses from the

, the education provider for 20 Christian colleges in Australia. Its programs include the

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and divi ...

, the Graduate Diploma of Divinity and the

Bachelor of Theology The Bachelor of Theology degree (BTh, ThB, or BTheol) is a three- to five-year undergraduate degree in theological disciplines and is typically pursued by those seeking ordination for ministry in a church, denomination, or parachurch organization. ...

. There have been a number of developments in recent years at the college. In 2008, Ridley College completed a new vision for development and began restructuring its education around six learning communities. These include the college's distance learning program, eRidley, which was established in 2007. eRidley – renamed Ridley Online in 2014 – is particularly designed to provide training for Australians in remote areas, in collaboration with the Bush Church Aid Society. In June 2008, Ridley College sold the southern half of its property to residential developers, including the Aickin, Baker, Cumnock and Larcombe buildings and the octagonal chapel designed by James Stahle. The Bearham building was subsequently renamed Baker to preserve naming according to the college's principals. In May 2009, Ridley announced the establishment of a

Jonathan Edwards Centre The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University (also known as the Jonathan Edwards Centre) is a department of the Yale University Divinity School responsible for publishing and providing scholarly information about the works of Jonathan Edwards (1 ...

affiliated with the Jonathan Edwards Center at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. Kenneth Minkema, executive director of the Jonathan Edwards Center, commented, "The establishment of the Jonathan Edwards Center–Australia at Ridley is a significant expansion of Edwards scholarship and will serve widely both academia and the church."

Campus and community

Ridley College is located in Parkville, a residential parkland suburb roughly three kilometres from the centre of

. The campus is situated between Royal Park to the west and Princes Park to the east. The campus buildings surround two main courtyards and are used as follows: *''Babbage''—chapel; faculty offices *''Baker''—faculty offices; student recreation block; residential theological apartments *''Stanway''—classrooms and bookshop (ground);

Library (above) *''Wade''—reception; staff offices *Dining room with adjacent kitchen and meeting rooms Campus life centres around lunches and chapel gatherings. The college community eats lunch together on Tuesdays and Thursdays and dinner is provided for evening students on Wednesdays. Chapel gatherings occur on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and alternate between Anglican and open styles of worship. The chapel services are organised by the Theological Students Association along with prayer groups, student newsletters, social events and the annual Launch Camp. The building is used by

St Jude's Church, Carlton St Jude's Church is an Australian Anglican parish church in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton. It is one of the first complete polychromatic brick churches built in the country. The church was opened in 1866 as a temporary wooden building, but was ...

for two of its Sunday services.

Notable faculty

* Michael Bird – Academic Dean * John Dickson - Distinguished Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Public Christianity

Photo gallery

Image:Ridleymelbourne-entrance.JPG, Main entrance Image:Ridleymelbourne-courtyard2.JPG, Baker building Image:Ridleymelbourne-dining.JPG, Dining room Image:Ridleymelbourne-maincourtyard.JPG, Main quadrangle, facing Stanway (left) and dining room (right) Image:Ridleymelbourne-stanwaya.JPG, Stanway A classroom Image:Ridleymelbourne-library1.JPG, Leon Morris Library Image:Ridleymelbourne-library2.JPG, Leon Morris Library loft Image:Ridleymelbourne-lounge.JPG, Lounge, student recreation block, Baker

References

External links

Ridley CollegeLeon Morris LibraryJonathan Edwards Centre
{{Authority control Australian College of Theology Anglican seminaries and theological colleges Educational institutions established in 1910 Anglican Church of Australia Ecclesiastical Province of Victoria Education in Victoria (Australia) Universities in Melbourne 1910 establishments in Australia Alumni of Ridley College, Melbourne