Crisis continues at Wycliffe Hall as Council member resigns

The controversy over Oxford theological college Wycliffe Hall has taken another dramatic turn after a council member resigned this week, saying she had serious concerns over the response of the Hall to "allegations of bullying, intimidation of Council members and a lack of transparency" in the decision making of the body.

|PIC1|Clare MacInnes laid out her reasons for resigning in a letter to the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, who is the chair of the Wycliffe Council.

According to CEN, who also received a copy of the letter, Mrs MacInnes said she had decided to put the letter in the public domain because of the "importance of the issues for the ongoing welfare and governance of the Hall and the wider church".

Mrs MacInnes stated that there had been a complete failure to "observe due process" by the Hall in terminating staff employment, staff recruitment, the listening process, records of Council discussions, and Council membership.

She also expressed her great dissatisfaction with the way in which the theological institution had "handled the staff restructuring, various dismissals, terminations of employment and resignations".

The letter comes not long after it was announced that three senior academic staff were to leave the institute. Last week it was revealed that Dr Elaine Storkey, the Rev Dr Andrew Goddard and his wife the Rev Lis Goddard were already in the process of leaving or had already left the theological school.

|QUOTE|In response to those reports, Mrs MacInnes explains in her letter that it was "damaging and misleading" to describe the decision to terminate the employment of those three staff members as unanimous. She stressed that she did not support the move, and that she was not able to attend a meeting on the issue.

According to CEN, she wrote: "The minutes of the Council do not contain points that I have made dissenting from the recommendations of the Principal and Chair, nor do they record votes against recommendations because no vote was taken, so there were claims that a decision was unanimous when no opportunity had been given to formally register dissent."

Mrs MacInnes went on to allege that an atmosphere of intimidation had engulfed Wycliffe's Council, adding that on one occasion she was asked to stop taking notes during a meeting.

"I have no confidence in the Chair, the Principal, or the Council as a whole to address these serious matters of governance, employment practice, and simple human relationships," she comments. "In a Christian foundation, we are bound not merely by the demands of natural justice, but also by the way in which we are called to live as fellow members of the Body of Christ, to ensure that we treat our employees and our colleagues with respect, courtesy and humanity."

Mrs MacInnes concluded, "I am left with no option other than to resign from membership of the Hall Council."

The Bishop of Liverpool's office said it is not possible for them to comment at this stage.