What a year it’s been for all of us! Thought I’d just give a short update to you, especially for those I still haven’t had the chance to catch up with yet given the situation.
As you may know, back in October this time last year, I moved to Oxford, into Wycliffe Hall, a Christian College/Private Hall of Residence to start my studies as an Ordinand. What this would entail is 3 years in Oxford, where in the first 2 years I would be studying for a BA in Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford, and in the final year I would be focussing more on my formational training, learning how to be a vicar alongside some short-term placements.
This is not the ‘typical’ process for vicar training, where usually ordinands would study a three-year degree accredited by the University of Durham, and be having formal formational training throughout their studies. For me, studying an official Oxford degree – and in only two years – does change the feel quite dramatically, though that’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed my last year, or grown a lot from it!
I shall endeavour to update with a further post in the future detailing more of what I’ve been learning and what God has been teaching me over this last year, but generally my studies have felt really interesting and am excited to continue them this next year. For an insight into what I’ve been up to, please continue, but feel free to skip to my thoughts later on if you’ve already heard this!
The papers I have studied this last year have been the following:
Systematic Theology – probably one of the more general overarching subjects where each week we would be looking in depth into a different theological field of study, everything from the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, the Church, Sin, and much more.
Patristics – studying the writings and ideas of many of the early church figures and theologians, as well as a brief history of the Church before the Council of Nicaea.
Poetic World of the Hebrew Bible – this meant taking a much deeper approach to analysis of different Old Testament books like Psalms and Isaiah, asking the questions we often tend to overlook.
The Gospels – quite self-explanatory really, but asking different theological, textual, and literary questions about the composition of the gospel books, and often comparing their connections and differences.
Hebrew and Greek – supplementing the Classical Greek that I learnt back at Southampton, I have been transitioning to more Biblical Greek in an intermediate class, alongside taking a Beginners Biblical Hebrew class which has been most interesting!
Alongside our academic studies, we have various college lectures and meetings which seek to help us further our studies beyond just theological grounding, to include more practical teaching like how to preach, perform theological reflection, and use the oxford comma correctly (not so much the last one!).
We also have a principle’s hour once a week giving us opportunities to learn from specialists in their field from all sorts of different subjects which has proven very informative at times, and interesting at other times.
Of course, my favourite part of living in a Christian college is the Christian community that I am surrounded by, where each new day is enveloped by Morning Prayer and personal evening prayer, along with weekly Bible expositions often lead by N.T. Wright, Holy Communion services, and Fellowship Group meetings.
Reflecting back on this last year, I have a few thoughts I’d love to share.
Being in lockdown at a mature Christian college wasn’t actually that bad, in comparison to where I’d been living on my own before, I spent this lockdown in a house with 10 other people, in a bubble with 5 others who were always up for chatting and hanging out, and throughout the whole time we were still able to eat together as a college, socially distanced, in the main dining hall. Though our lectures and classes were online, it didn’t really affect my studies much, considering the fact that my course is heavily based on personal research, and one to one meetings with tutors, and the library books were all made available online.
I’ve come to learn in a much clearer way my limits this year too, not only academically with the amount I’m able to process, but also socially, what situations I feel comfortable in, and times when I need some space. Academically though, even though no parts of our work this last year were formally assessed, I realised how unprepared I was at the start to doing the reading and essays that we were set. Though I never particularly struggled with the workload, at times it did feel a bit too much, despite not having many social occasions to distract me due to the pandemic.
God has been teaching me so much about myself and how I am with others, though I realise I still have much to grow in different areas, it has been useful to be challenged by peers and by the Spirit with how I ought to act, and yet staying true to the personality and character that God has placed in me.
I have enjoyed getting stuck into St Aldates church, and though the first few months made it hard to get to know people and make friends, I am starting to feel welcome there and part of a community. Though I have been attending the Post Grads Student group there, which has been great, I recently joined a small group and felt such a feeling of relief and peace, being able to study the bible together and worship in someone’s home. Despite the friends that I have made throughout the year, I’ve realised that Oxford is quite a transient place, with so many students often only coming to study for a year, the friends we make, often are only for a time, and it’s hard to say goodbye after only getting to know them for a short time.
My dissertation work has been going well! Due to the fact that this is a 3-year course, where we have skipped the first year to only do the last two years, I am in effect going into my final year of the BA in Theology and Religion. Because of this, my final dissertation for the degree is due this coming Easter, meaning I’ve been needing to get ahead with this in preparation. I will be sending out more info on what I’ve been studying and writing for it another time, but in a nutshell, I am considering the New Testament interpretation and translation of Psalm 22, which is very theologically interesting, particularly because of the references made in Jesus’ passion narrative and what this meant to be written about 1000 years in the past!
I feel quite at home here at Wycliffe and am rather settled into my house, though I’ll be moving into a slightly nicer room towards the end of September which should be nice.
These have just been some of my ramblings, and not really in any kind of order, but I hope for those who have stuck around to read it, it’s been helpful to hear how things have been going!