Ridley Hall, Cambridge

Calling and Charisms

The Calling of Ridley Hall

We believe that Ridley Hall, gifted by God's Spirit, is called to be:

A deep learning resource for the whole Church that:

• is:
  • Roots Down (into our evangelical convictions)
  • Walls Down (to others in the Church)
  • Bridges Out (to and from the world)
• provides:
  • education (deepening of wisdom in thought and judgement)
  • training (nurturing of gifting for ministry and mission)
  • formation (developing holiness in character and lifestyle)
• responds creatively to the missionary challenge of the contemporary world.

The Charisms of Ridley Hall

We believe that these are the primary gifts that God has given to Ridley Hall.

1 Commitment and Convictions

The foundational gift we have been given by the Holy Spirit is faith in and commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and to his Gospel as the good news of God for our world.

To us, as followers of Christ and believers in his Gospel, the Spirit has given us fundamental convictions

about the Bible
     . . . as the God-breathed authority for our thought and practice

about the Creeds
     . . . as statements of biblical truth

about the Church
     . . . as agent of God's purposes in the world

about prayer and worship
     . . . as the heart and soul of Christian life

about conversion
     . . . as the fruit of the cross, for individuals and societies

about mission
     . . . as the urgent calling of the Church.

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2 Cambridge

Our founders were guided by the Spirit to create a theological college in Cambridge, where Bishop Nicholas Ridley discovered the power of Scripture and the grace of the Gospel. We count it a privilege and opportunity to be located here. It offers us:

• an historic and magnificent place in which to learn and for some of us to live;
• a set of fine Victorian buildings, in beautiful grounds, positioned close to the city centre and to the heart of the University's academic life;
• the resources of two universities and with the particular benefits of a long-standing relationship with the University of Cambridge, including its libraries, IT facilities, public lectures, student societies, collegial structure and world-class Faculty of Divinity, as well as its opportunities for mission and evangelism;
• A strategic location to serve the region.

3 Collaboration

We have been given by the Spirit a desire and ability to work with others, and so we rejoice in opportunities to collaborate with various communities of learning.

• Since our foundation in 1879 we have been collaborating with the Faculty of Divinity and Colleges of the University of Cambridge.
• Since 1972 we have been partnered with other institutions of theological education in the Cambridge Theological Federation. At present the Federation is made of the following institutions working together:

• Wesley House (Methodist)
• Westcott House (Anglican)
• Westminster College (United Reformed)
• Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology (lay Roman Catholic)
• Eastern Region Ministry Course (ecumenical)
• Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies

The Centre for Jewish Christian Relations and the Henry Martyn Centre (for the study of mission and world Christianity) are associate members of the Federation.

• Through the Federation we are now a member of the Regional University Partnership of Anglia Ruskin University.
• In 1998 we were a founding partner of the Centre for Youth Ministry which has brought us into other partnerships with Oxford Brookes University and Romsey Mill Youth Centre in Cambridge.
• We provide a home to Grove Books Ltd and Anvil Journal.
• Our training programmes involve close partnerships with churches, chaplaincies and various agencies and we are committed to listening and responding to the education and training needs of the churches, youth agencies, the business community and others we serve.

4 Comprehensiveness

We have been given by the Spirit a vision for the fullness of the Faith and the wholeness of theological education.

We believe in the unity and necessity of:

• Word and Spirit
• Word and Sacrament
• Word and Deed.

We are committed to:

• deepening our understanding of the gospel by confident truth seeking, trusting in the Holy Spirit who shapes our thinking and leads us into the mind of Christ - so that we may have wisdom;
• developing our capacities for ministry by exposure to a variety of settings for ministry and training in leadership by experienced practitioners - so that we may be better gifted;
• nurturing the life and character of Christ by faithful and accountable living with others - so that we may be grow in holiness.

We are inspired by Colossians 1. 9-11.

5 Community

We enjoy the opportunity for life together and we celebrate the diversity of our community as:

• women and men;
• staff and students;
• an on-site community of people training for ordained ministry and other ministries who go off-site for attachments, placements and missions, and an off-site community of people training for youth and community work who come on-site for intensive periods of teaching and communal life;
• people with different theological emphases sharing in one learning community committed to Jesus Christ and his gospel;
• short to medium stay guests who are renewing their spiritual, mental and physical energy through our sabbatical programme;
• business women and men, seeking to apply their faith to their working lives, connected to the College through Faith in Business;
• friends and families of those in training.

We regard our community to be an open one which:

• embraces those who have trained and taught in the College in the past (who remain members of Ridley Hall);
• shares in the common life of the Cambridge Theological Federation;
• extends to those training in other CYM Centres
• offers friendship and hospitality to others.

We desire the heart of our community to beat with the pulse of prayer and worship so that personal lives, communities within our Community and the College as a whole will be built up in the life of Christ.

We work for a common life that flows from the cross, which breaks down the walls that divide us (Eph.2.14) and faces us with the love of God in Christ.

Our prayer is Ephesians 3.16-19

6 Care

Through the Spirit of fellowship, we seek to be an evangelical community in which the grace of the gospel, the good news of Christ, is lived out in our common life and all the members of the College experience the care and compassion of God.

• In our ordination and independent student programme (our on-site community), this commitment to care is expressed through:
  
  • fellowship groups
  • pastoral tutorial arrangements
  • the ministry of the Chaplain.
    
• In our youth ministry and community work programme (our off-site community), this commitment to care is expressed through:
  
  • fellowship groups
  • pastoral support in placements
  • high ratio of staff to students
  • targeted counselling and support

Informally our gift of care is expressed in our common commitment to the quality of relationships between staff and students and to the mutual building up of the life of Christ in our lives, individually and corporately.

7 Creativity

We rejoice in being able to share in the creative activity of God and we seek to be open to whatever God is doing in our time so that we can respond to the Spirit's leading to equip the body of Christ to serve the mission of Christ in the changing and challenging culture of today's world. Evidence of the creativity of God among us over recent years includes our contribution to the founding of:

• The Cambridge Theological Federation, with its commitment to train people for ordained and other ministries in a way that respects difference between and requires engagement with others.
• The Centre for Youth Ministry with its commitment to train people for ministry in the Church and service in the community, combining theological education with professional qualification.
• Faith in Business, with its commitment to help Christians apply their faith to their working lives in the world.
• The Simeon Centre for Prayer and the Spiritual Life, with its commitment to help members of the Hall and Cambridge Theological Federation, as well as church leaders and congregations around the country, to grow in their desire and capacity to pray, and to equip them to become leaders and teachers who enable others to pray.

And the staff team

This seven-fold gifting of Ridley Hall is nurtured by a committed staff team. They are dedicated to giving the best powers of their minds and spirits to the College's theological convictions. They work collaboratively, seeking to shape a challenging and comprehensive grasp of the Gospel. They do this through a holistic approach to training for ministry, using to the full the great assets of Cambridge and our campus, so that our common life as a worshipping community of care can be built up. With all the creativity available to us, we seek to serve the mission of Christ in the world, through the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God the Father.