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Oxford

On Friday I went to Harris Manchester College Oxford to speak to the tutor there about Unitarian training. It was cool. Oxford would be a good place to study in many ways. Lots of good books and a chance to rub shoulders with intellectual folks. But I kind of feel like I've already done that a bit living in Boston and having access to lots of intellectual stuff. I have a degree in theology, what I really want to do now is learn how to be a minister by doing ministry. And there's more chance of that at Manchester. The thing is I'm good at theology, so in some ways it would be easier and safer to be at Oxford, it would be more challenging for me to be in Manchester where I would be in a church the whole time, and applying everything I learn directly to ministry all the time. It would be more difficult, but that's what I need, to be stretched.

Plus, something in my (sort of) working-class-ness reacts against Oxford. It's Oxford, you know? A bit posh. Seems too removed from the real world. I want to be doing urban ministry, mission, evangelism, and social justice and do my theological reflection out of that work. I'm more excited by the prosect of doing that kind of thing in Manchester.

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