Thinking Anglicans

Wycliffe Hall: Jonathan Aitken comments

Jonathan Aitken a former Conservative cabinet minister and subsequent student at Wycliffe Hall, writes in today’s Guardian about the situation there. See This isn’t the Anglican split.

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NP
NP
16 years ago

Now, I guess we will see attacks on Aitken from some on TA……not for “pagan-rooted” views but probably for being a Tory and jail-bird (or “ex-Tory” if you believe that people can change)….

Hugh of Lincoln
Hugh of Lincoln
16 years ago

The sword of truth and trusty shield of fair play sort out the Wycliffe row I see.

badman
badman
16 years ago

Yes, if Jonthan Aitken says it is just a personality dispute, it must be true.

We’ll just forget about what the three previous principals and others have said about the substance of the matter.

Mynsterpreost (=David Rowett)
Mynsterpreost (=David Rowett)
16 years ago

NP: I don’t mean this as an ad hominem, but do you think you could avoid getting your retaliation in first?

Alumna
Alumna
16 years ago

We desperately need one of the resigned staff members to come out and say what really happened. I can only guess that Aitken has been the victim of a charm offensive from Turnbull, because this seems to be the most egregious spin: particularly on the Storkey story. The version I heard is that, after having signed the Covenant for the Church of England, RT claimed he had been pressured into putting his name to the document. Storkey replied something like ‘the Nuremberg trials taught us that we are responsible for what we sign’. This is very far from comparing RT… Read more »

Lapinbizarre
Lapinbizarre
16 years ago

Turnbull’s “right to change staff”? A personality clash with Elaine Storkey, who now emerges as the true villain, is the root cause of the crisis? Whose talking points might Aiken be fronting here?

The only “news” in this item is that Aiken and the Guardian are on speaking terms.

NP
NP
16 years ago

Come on Mynster – I a bit prophetic above!

Pluralist
16 years ago

It does not explain the content of the video to Reform, which was, in the words of Richard Turnbull, a strategic matter about Conservative Evangelicals versus the “liberal evangelicals” on the way to having a go at the liberals proper, with, apaprently, their strategy according to him.

“Pagan rooted” was a reference I made to African spirituality and its interpretation of signs and wonders in the Bible that then plugs into Protestant Reformation and Western movements. It does not apply to its allies and products of these movements in the selective literalism in the West, such as Richard Turnbull.

Steven
Steven
16 years ago

I know nothing about the writer, though I gather his history includes some very large negatives. (Am I wrong in this?) However, I am more interested in his report that everything is copacetic with the great majority of students, current staff, etc. If so, this certainly runs counter to the tenor of the reports I have read on TA as well as the many comments on the situation by the TA crowd. I would have thought that the institution was on the verge of collapse.

Steven

drdanfee
drdanfee
16 years ago

The Anglican and Christian Rights have learned to spin doctor as well as any lefty ever made do. How much of this is spin, and how much different presuppositional frames on brute realities – a fav of the rightwings that I know so far – and how much rock bottom truth about an administrative tempest in a teapot – well, time will eventually reveal all, if any of it matters by that time. Given Turnball’s published remarks about strategy and Anglican right campaigning, i.e., schools=power, one cannot take as a face-value relief, this whole hermeneutic narrative that Dr. Turnball is… Read more »

Mynsterpreost (=David Rowett)
Mynsterpreost (=David Rowett)
16 years ago

The big hole in the Aitken story is his inability to account for the infamous 2+4 comment and the allied stuff which transparently DID demonstrate a radical theological agenda. I now await NP’s spin on it all.

cardinal Wardrobe
cardinal Wardrobe
16 years ago

The moral of all this crap is that one should never stay for very long at some theological colleges, because you might find yourself going home with a theological label stuck on the back of your anorak.
Bring back the BCP. Everybody can hide behind that!
Cosy and cuddly is what we need.

jody
16 years ago

alumna

can you divulge where you heard your version of the comment by Elaine Storkey? it would be good to confirm it.

jody

Alumna
Alumna
16 years ago

Jody, I wish I could offer something more solid than Chinese whispers. I can’t divulge without permission unfortunately; which is why I asked for confirmation from elsewhere. It’s at least possible to say that this came from someone very close to those present at the meeting. So second-hand, but a good second-hand.

jody
16 years ago

thanks alumna

Matthew Firth
Matthew Firth
16 years ago

I have to say that this string of posts, like all the others on this subject, saddens me greatly. As a member of Wycliffe Hall, the speculation that is occuring on this website bemuses me. It bears little resemblance either to the character of the Hall or the processes that are happening at the moment. Since the vast majority of people who comment on this site are not members of the Hall, there is no way that their comments can be accurate. This string of posts amounts to gossip and gleeful picking over of juicy half-truths. It seems to me… Read more »

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