Wycliffe Hall Ordinand Speaks to NFL Players
As Wembley Stadium welcomed two of America’s top NFL teams the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears to the capital on Sunday, October 23, Christians in Sport were invited, through links with Athletes in Action, to speak to both teams at their hotel. Pete Nicholas, an ordinand at Wycliffe Hall and former Oxford Blue rugby player, spoke to the teams on behalf of Christians in Sport. Pete joined the staff in 2004 and is now an associate staff member.
Summer School 2011 was a smashing success! Here is this year’s group:
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The Venerable Julian Hubbard, Archdeacon of Oxford and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford since 2005, is to be the Archbishops’ Council’s new Director of Ministry. Julian Hubbard’s responsibilities will include acting as the principal adviser to the Archbishops’ Council, the House of Bishops and the Ministry Council on all ordained and licensed lay ministry issues. He will also help shape ministry for the needs of the Church in the 21st century, including by promoting more vocations – particularly of younger people to full-time ordained ministry – and by seeking to ensure that a mission focus is at the heart of the Church’s approach to ministry.
Julian Hubbard went to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford for ordination training, where he took the University degree in Theology. Julian Hubbard was a tutor at Wycliffe from 1984 to 1989.
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April 2011 marked an annual US teaching conference sponsored by Wycliffe, this time in Houston and co-sponsored by St. John the Divine Church. Nearly a hundred people from Texas, California, Georgia, and Florida joined to hear nine sessions that challenged and inspired us as we considered the topic Reforming the Church, Reforming Society. You can listen to all the conference audios here.
Wycliffe alumnus Michael Horton spoke on The Gospel Commission: Recovering God’s Strategy for Making Disciples during his final talk . He began by asking the audience to say the opening words of the Great Commission from Matthew 28 out loud. As you can imagine, almost everybody started with the words, “Go therefore…”. Mike rightly pointed out that the Great Commission actually begins with the words, “All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me” (v. 18). It’s only after Jesus says that, that he says, “Go therefore…” (v.19). This may seem like an insignificant thing but it’s actually a paradigm shattering observation. In fact, if we don’t see it, our understanding of the church’s mission will be weakened.
Horton reminded us that whenever we see an imperative in the Bible (what we must do) we need to look for the indicative that grounds it (what Jesus has done). Because, no matter how hard you try or how radical you get, any engine smaller than the gospel that you depend on for power to do what God has called you to do will conk out.
Stephanie Cocke
Spring 2011
