Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship

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Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship ( UCCF ) is an evangelical Christian youth organization in Great Britain that was founded in 1928 as the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions .

The goals of the UCCF are:

  • Spreading evangelical faith among undergraduate, graduate and university members; such as
  • Promotion of biblical exegesis in study and research.

For this reason, the UCCF is mainly involved in three main tasks:

  1. Encouraging and assisting leaders of affiliated Christian Union groups (CUs) in the UK in conducting evangelism projects and helping Christian students grow in the faith.
  2. Publication and distribution of Christian literature and media through the subsidiary Inter-Varsity Press (IVP), Nottingham (not to be confused with the US-American InterVarsity Press ).
  3. Support for exegetical research, mainly for postgraduates.

There are currently around 200 Christian Unions in Great Britain with around 20,000 members. The Christian Unions offer fellowship and opportunities for Bible study and evangelism. Approx. 40,000 students participate in evangelism events each year.

The UCCF is a non-profit organization and employs around 80 people and also looks after around 80 volunteer "relay workers " in a one-year training program. Many of these staff and volunteers are graduates who were active as students in the CU . You support the Christian Unions with training, advice and materials.

history

In the summer semester of 1919, Norman Grubb , a student at Trinity College (Cambridge) , and a friend met ten representatives from the Student Christian Movement (SCM) to discuss their reservations because the SCM mainly cultivated liberal Christian tendencies in British universities. Grubb put the question at the center: "Does the SVM put the reconciling blood of Christ at the center of its teaching?" , but we don't necessarily focus on it. "

Grubb and his friends at Cambridge decided that they could no longer work with the SCM because they were departing from a Bible-centered teaching based on atonement through Christ. The Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union (CICCU) had separated from the national SCM since 1910, but it was only after this conversation failed in 1919 that they separated permanently. Further divisions in Britain and Ireland followed and two separate organizations emerged from which today's UCCF (originally IVF) and SCM were formed.

In addition to the infallibility of the Bible, there has been disagreement about the importance of evangelism ; Even if the SCM had originally started with the goal of “evangelizing the world in this generation”, the members of the CICCU were of the opinion that this goal in 1922 would not be adequately represented. The history of SCM also describes differences over management issues.

Grubb developed the vision of an evangelical witnessing community on every university campus (at the time there were only 28 universities in the UK and Ireland).

During 1919, students from the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union , Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union and London CU met in London for conferences for non-campus residents. Douglas Johnson , an alumnus of King's College , was won in 1924 as secretary of these inter-varsity conferences. As a result, he was commissioned by 14 University Christian Unions at the conference in the High Leigh Conference Center , Hoddesdon in 1928 to found the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions (IVF). He was the first General Secretary and served in that capacity until 1964.

In 1947 the UCCF became a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), which means that it continues to play an active role in international missions to this day .

During the 1940s, CU groups also emerged in the Technical Colleges under a sub-organization, the Inter-Colleges Christian Fellowship (ICCF), and the Colleges of Education Christian Unions (CECU) also assumed a comparable function for Christian Unions in teacher training colleges (pedagogical Universities). The work in these areas grew rapidly, especially in the course of the 1960s and 1970s, so that in the mid-1970s half of the employees worked in this field and the ICCF and CECU merged with the IVF to form the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship . A specialized group, the Religious and Theological Students Fellowship (RTSF), which publishes the Themelios magazine, remained a separate organization.

Since then, many colleges have acquired university status. Until 2007, UCCF served the fields of higher education (HE) and further education (FE). This year the organization FESTIVE ( FE & Sixth Form Initiative ) came into being, which freed the UCCF to focus on higher education again.

Employee

  • Douglas Johnson (Theologian) , Secretary, 1928–1964
  • Oliver R. Barclay , General Secretary, 1964-1980
  • Robin Wells , General Secretary, 1980-1992
  • Bob Horn , General Secretary, 1992-2001
  • Richard Cunningham , Director, since 2004

research

UCCF supports biblical research through Tyndale House , Cambridge (founded 1944).

From the late 1980s to the present century, the Whitefield Institute , Oxford (founded by E. David Cook ) has been providing assistance to students in Christian Ethics . In the summer of 2006 it was converted into the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics (KLICE).

activities

Activities include mission outreach (evangelism events at universities) with leadership training and staff support, a conference: forum with 700 participants, and work in Christian apologetics and theology through web applications . (UCCF's bethinking.org and theologynetwork.org), research (Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics) and succession planning for the Board of Directors

Confession

The UCCF is rooted in evangelicalism . The doctrinal basis consists of the "fundamental truths of Christianity, as revealed in Holy Scripture", in detail:

  1. There is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. - There is one God in three persons , Father , Son and Holy Spirit .
  2. God is sovereign in creation, revelation, redemption and final judgment. - God is the Lord of creation , revelation , redemption and final judgment .
  3. The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired and infallible Word of God. It is the supreme authority in all matters of belief and behavior. - The Bible, as it was originally given, is the inspired and infallible word of God . She is the supreme authority on all matters of belief and conduct.
  4. Since the fall, the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty, so that everyone is subject to God's wrath and condemnation. - Since the fall of man , all mankind has been sinful and guilty , so that everyone is subject to God's wrath and condemnation .
  5. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son, is fully God; he was born of a virgin; his humanity is real and sinless; he died on the cross, was raised bodily from death and is now reigning over heaven and earth. - The Lord Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son, is entirely God; he was born of a virgin ; his humanity is real and sinless; he died on the cross, was physically resurrected from death, and now rules over heaven and earth.
  6. Sinful human beings are redeemed from the guilt, penalty and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all time of their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God. - Sinful human beings are redeemed from the guilt, punishment and power of sin only through the sacrificial death once and for all through their representative and substitute, Jesus Christ, the only mediator between them and God.
  7. Those who believe in Christ are pardoned all their sins and accepted in God's sight only because of the righteousness of Christ credited to them; This justification is God's act of undeserved mercy, received solely by trust in him and not by their own efforts. - Those who believe in Christ will be forgiven of all their sins and will be accepted in God's eyes only out of Christ's righteousness, which is imputed to them; this justification is God's act of undeserved grace, obtainable only through trust in Him and not through one's own efforts.
  8. The Holy Spirit alone makes the work of Christ effective to individual sinners, enabling them to turn to God from their sin and to trust in Jesus Christ. - The Holy Spirit alone brings the work of Christ to unfold in individual sinners, and enables them to turn to God from their sin and to believe in Jesus Christ.
  9. The Holy Spirit lives in all those he has regenerated. He makes them increasingly Christlike in character and behavior and gives them power for their witness in the world. - The Holy Spirit lives in all those who through him reborn are. He makes them increasingly Christ-like in character and behavior and gives them strength for their testimony in the world.
  10. The one holy universal church is the Body of Christ, to which all true believers belong. - The one holy universal Church is the body of Christ, to which all true believers belong.
  11. The Lord Jesus Christ will return in person, to judge everyone, to execute God's just condemnation on those who have not repented and to receive the redeemed to eternal glory. - The Lord Jesus Christ will come again personally to judge everyone, to exercise God's righteous condemnation towards those who have not repented and to receive those who are redeemed to eternal glory.

Some Christians (including members of non- Protestant groups such as Catholics and Orthodox ) struggle with parts of this doctrinal base. Above all, the teachings of sola scriptura (item 3) and theology of the Atonement (penal substitution, item 6) are mainly challenged by theologians and Nontrinitarians are challenging item 1. In some cases the evangelical theology of the UCCFs has created difficulties with chaplaincies and / or other student unions . This is also the reason for the differences between UCCF and SCM (which is committed to oumenism ).

Groupings

Member organizations :

International sister organizations :

Other Christian student movements in the UK

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stephen Mansfield: Summary Information Return 2008 Of Aims, Activities and Achievements. Charity Commission for England and Wales , January 30, 2009, archived from the original on July 14, 2010 : "Entered through Annual Return 2008";
  2. ↑ a b About - Our Story. uccf.org.uk.
  3. ↑ Well, we acknowledge it, but not necessarily [as] central. Norman P. Grubb: Once Caught, No Escape: My Life Story. Lutterworth 1969, p. 56 (quoted in John Stott : The Cross of Christ. Leicester 1986, p. 8.)
  4. ^ Robin Boyd: The Witness of the Student Christian Movement, 'Church ahead of the Church'. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 2007, p. 26. ISBN 0-281-05877-6
  5. ^ John Raleigh Mott (1865–1955): The evangelization of the world in this generation. 1900.
  6. ↑ a b Emma Balch: Leadership, truth & witness: Emma interviews Oliver Barclay, former Gen Sec of UCCF. Evangelicals Now , Thornton Heath , England, October 2003.
  7. ↑ Constituent Charity 306137-1 Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions. Charity Commission for England and Wales , London , England: Governing document: Constitution adopted 2 April 1928, as amended on 5 April 1941, 28 March 1942, 31 March 1954 and 2 April 1960.
    Charitable objects: To co-ordinate the work and to unite the members of the Evangelical Unions in the furtherance of the Christian Faith in accordance with the Doctrinal Basis of the Fellowship.
  8. ↑ a b Oliver Barclay: Douglas Johnson: the invisible man. In: Evangelicals Now, January 2005.
  9. ^ Claire Povey, John Richards: Up against giants: mission to FE and sixth form colleges. ( Memento of July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: The Evangelical Magazine. December 2009, Evangelical Movement of Wales
  10. ↑ Pod Bhogal: Obituary: Robin Wells, 1935-2011. Evangelicals Now, Thornton Heath, March 2011.
  11. ^ Ray Gaydon: Obituary: Robert Millen Horn, 1933-2005. Evangelicals Now, Thornton Heath, February 2006.
  12. ↑ Our Team - Richard Cunningham. UCCF, Oxford 20th January 2015.
  13. ^ Doctrinal basis. UCCF, March 4, 2012.
  14. ↑ United We Stand? A report on current conflicts between Christian Unions and Students' Unions . Ekklesia , 2006: 4, 12.
  15. ^ Yorkshire Post - Campus Christians accused of breaking Students' Union rules.

literature

  • Douglas Johnson: Contending for the Faith - A History of the Evangelical Movement in the Universities and Colleges . ISBN 0-85110-591-2 .
  • Steve Bruce: The Student Christian Movement and the Inter-Varsity Fellowship: a sociological study of two student movements , (PhD thesis) - A copy is held at the British Library and also at the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, IL 60637.
  • Lindsay Brown: Shining like Stars - stories from students worldwide. ISBN 1-84474-167-2
  • Oliver Barclay & Robern Horn: From Cambridge to the World - history of Cambridge CU. ISBN 0-85111-499-7
  • Steve Bruce: Why the IVF succeeded where the SCM failed (unpublished PhD thesis), cited in Notes from a second class convert: How Leith Samuel became a Christian , Evangelicals Now , July 1998.

Web links