Dynamic Chaplaincy

Dear current students and Wycliffe Alumni,

I would like to seize this moment and invite you all to support our whole Chaplaincy Team in prayer.

As for my own contribution, I am drawn towards two kinds of prayer: Thanksgiving and Intercession.

There is a lot to give thanks to the Lord for over these last 10 years:

* I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve the Hall as a Chaplain. It gives a fresh meaning and purpose to life and ministry in my so-called retirement. I love the chance to offer pastoral care to all the students at Wycliffe, both those planning to become church leaders as ordinands, and those gaining fresh confidence and competence as ambassadors for Christ in the world of work.

* I greatly enjoy the privilege of leading Fellowship Groups in college, enabling a deeper trust and a growing friendship between members of the group, in Bible Study, open discussion and personal prayer. It has been fulfilling to follow students to their Ordination services in different cathedrals like Truro, Winchester, Derby, Southwell, Oxford, St Albans, St Pauls, Southwark, Guildford and Coventry. We have shared joy at answers to prayer in healing and recovery; and we have shared sorrows in bereavement when cancer steals a student away.

* I am delighted to engage in the planning and delivery of Wycliffe Missions in March each year. Last year we offered a spread of urban, suburban and rural contexts for mission. This time we seem guided by the Spirit to consider local, national and global settings, based on Acts 1:8. Over the last 3 years I have seen God at work through mission teams in Watford, Ealing and Hereford. Long may these visits continue. They refresh and inspire local churches. They offer grace and hope to needy communities. And we pray they give a taste of mission initiative to students which can last all through a life of ministry.

Now would you join me in prayer for God’s guidance in 3 specific ways:

1. Pray for our worship in Chapel. We believe this is the engine room of our whole college life, where rigorous scholarship is enriched in regular prayer. Pray for all who prepare and lead worship, for those who speak from scripture, and especially for those who inspire us in song, both familiar hymns and contemporary music.

2. Pray for God’s wisdom, for staff and students alike, that we may discern what the Spirit is saying to our community, that we may follow Christ as his faithful disciples, and that we may know how to be obedient to the gracious call of the Lord, especially as ordinands discover their pathway to a good training incumbent for their curacy.

3. Pray for our witness as a college, that we may honour Christ in all our relationships, with the University of Oxford, with the Bench of Bishops, with the larger evangelical churches, and with the Council and present members of our whole college community. Pray for our Open Days, that those who are wondering whether they should come to Wycliffe will say “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I never knew this before. This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven”

Furthermore, please pray also for me, that I may open my mouth boldly as I ought to speak.

Thank you so much.
God bless and guide you.
Love and prayers, Bruce.

Canon Bruce Gillingham 
Chaplaincy Team, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford