A community of communities shaped and centred in Christ
Our Ethos
Faithful worship – Eager learning – Diverse community:
Formation for generous service in God’s Church
Cuddesdon treasures and seeks to reflect the comprehensiveness of God’s Church for God’s world. Believing that there neither is nor should be any division in the Body of Christ, we are committed to the flourishing of all and to building a community of communities in which each disciple is enabled to make their unique contribution within the calling and ministry of the whole.
Within this ordered unity there is much diversity, promising both enrichment and challenge for each individual. We believe that every member of the body brings particular gifts and insights and is to be a blessing to every other. Diversity calls for generosity on the part of each, and a recognition that all are likely to experience sacrifice, as well as affirmation and acceptance, as we grow together in God’s wisdom and love.
We rejoice in our unity and celebrate our diversity through a commitment on all our pathways to joyfulness in worship, learning and fellowship. We seek to delight in our common calling and in one another, as we learn and grow by God’s grace and look for, and see, the fruit of the Spirit and the signs of the Kingdom.
Hospitality and environmental responsibility are at the heart of our common calling. We aspire to be an institution living in harmony with creation and a place of learning, shared belonging and refreshment for individuals and groups in a wide range of circumstances.
Formation
Character – Wisdom – Ministry
Formation is always and principally the work of the Holy Spirit. Our calling on the Cuddesdon pathways – as students and staff, pilgrims and disciples together – is to seek to work with the Spirit in this glorious endeavour. Formation for authorised public ministry may be considered under three broad headings, as intensification of Christian discipleship: Character, Wisdom and Ministry.
Character
We aspire to form:
· Ordinands and ministry students who are confident in their vocation and how to be obedient to it. They will continue to be people formed in and for a life of walking closely with God in prayer, committed to growing in holiness and the gifts of the Spirit. They will rejoice in the diversity of those God calls into the Church and Kingdom.
· Ordinands and ministry students who are instinctively collaborative with one another and the whole people of God, capable of deep relationality, imaginative and hopeful about the future of God’s Church and world, and ready to adapt and shape their lives to work within rapidly changing dynamics and contexts.
Wisdom
We aspire to form:
· Ordinands and ministry students who are rooted in the scriptures and in the learning of the Church, with a vision for ministry that is informed by theological scholarship and a healthily inquisitive engagement with the mystery of God and God’s ways with the world.
· Ordinands and ministry students who are natural theological reflectors, capable of reading and interpreting contexts and situations, responding well and bringing to bear rigorous, sensitive and critical theological insight to enable ministry that is both pastoral and prophetic.
Ministry
We aspire to form:
· Ordinands and ministry students who are realistic and enthusiastic about the challenges and opportunities of 21st century mission, confident in being, and helping others to be, missionary disciples engaging with the needs and blessings of the world.
· Ordinands and ministry students who are assured and equipped to engage in the tasks of ministry that await them, specifically as effective preachers, loving pastors, faithful leaders of worship and reliable evangelists of hope and good news.