Mansfield memories

June 2009 marked the end of 123 years of education and training for Nonconformist ministers at Mansfield College, Oxford. The College has made a huge contribution to theology, ministerial education and the wider Church. Here, one graduate of the 1960s, Peter Jupp, reflects on what Mansfield training meant to him

In the swinging 60s Christians in many denominations vacillated about their vocation to ordained ministry. I was one of them, as my wife will testify. Still, after studying theology at King’s and New Colleges in London, I was accepted for training at Mansfield in 1966.

Looking back, these were abnormal years. All Mansfield ordinands, being already graduates, read for an honours degree in theology in two years. Unmarried ordinands lived in College and could defend their corner with students of other disciplines. The very context of Oxford stretched the mind. We were excited at the prospect of union between Congregationalists and Presbyterians. We did not foresee how quickly the decline in numbers both of ordinands and church members would accelerate or how secular our society was becoming.

This article is an extract from the September edition of Reform.

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