Wycliffe Hall "did not fail inspection" - Chair of Ministry Division

Sir, Your front page headline in last week’s edition (20th March) was plainly wrong. Wycliffe Hall did not fail its recent inspection. On the contrary, the inspection team found Wycliffe Hall ‘fit for purpose’ displaying ‘a rich mosaic of evangelical traditions which come together in a community which shows respect for difference, and in which women are fully accepted and integrated’.

Under the revised inspection system (one of the revisions is the full publication of inspection reports for the first time) there are thirteen areas of enquiry. It was in only one of these that Wycliffe Hall registered a ‘no confidence’ judgement from the inspectors.

It is clear that the Wycliffe Hall Council and the Principal are alert to the need to address the concerns of the inspectors, and it is not simply misleading, but false, to translate that single judgement into the sort of headline you saw fit to publish last week. Such inaccurate reporting does little service to those of us who have been arguing for full public disclosure of inspection reports.

The Rt. Rev Graham James
Chair, Ministry Division.

Subscribe to the Church of England Newspaper. (The irony of this suggestion in the light of the above letter does not, however, escape me. I also wonder when the folks at Fulcrum who are still picking away at this will catch up with the Min Div's verdict. Ed)

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