J.I. Packer awarded lifetime achievement award

For immediate release

Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Honours Noted Theologian J.I. Packer at Orlando Event 23 February 2009: Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, awarded Dr. James I. Packer with the Wycliffe Lifetime Achievement Award for his noted works in theology. The award was given at a gala banquet held in Orlando, Florida on Friday, February 13th. Dr. Packer is considered one of the most influential leaders of the evangelical movement in Christianity in the 20th century and authored the best seller Knowing God. The gala event was part of the Wycliffe Hall Winter Conference held in Orlando where faculty from Wycliffe Hall lectured and taught along with Packer and Jonathan Aitken. This was the first annual award launched to recognize those who have globally advanced the Christian message in a significant way.

Packer, who is now 82, lives in Vancouver, Canada, where he recently retired from the Department of Theology at Regent College. Packer also served as general editor for the English Standard Version of the Bible. The son of a clerk for the Great Western Railway, Dr. Packer won a scholarship to Oxford University where he was educated at Corpus Christi College where he obtained three degrees. As a student at Oxford, Packer was introduced to the teachings of C. S. Lewis, who become a major influence on his life. In a meeting of the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, Packer committed his life to Christian service. He spent a brief time train for ordination. Packer went on to become the Principal of Tyndale Hall, Bristol, and later as Vice Principal of Trinity College, Bristol. In 1979 he moved to Canada to join the faculty of Regent College.

Following the presentation of the award, Jonathan Aitken, another Wycliffe Hall alumnus, delivered the keynote address. Aitken is a former Member of Parliament and Secretary to the Treasury for the Conservative Party in the UK. In 1999 during a civil trial, Aitken pleaded guilty to perjury and was sentenced to 18 months prison. While behind bars, some of his friends, including the American Chuck Colson, began to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ with him. In his Orlando address, Aitken acknowledged how Dr. Packer’s scholarship, including Knowing God, helped inspire him to study theology.

The Wycliffe Lifetime Achievement Award is named after the 14th century clergyman who began the first translation of the Bible into English. Wycliffe’s passion was that everyone would have the opportunity to hear God’s word in their own language. The Wycliffe legacy continues to live today not only in Oxford but also in Orlando where Wycliffe Bible Translators is headquartered. Wycliffe Hall and Wycliffe Bible Translators, though not officially linked, enjoy a healthy relationship because of their common goals.

ENDS For further information please contact Helen Mitchell, Director of Administration on 01865 274200 Notes to editors For more information on Wycliffe Hall, visit the website www.wycliffe.ox.ac.uk Wycliffe Hall is a theological college within the diverse environment of the University of Oxford. We aim to equip our students for their future ministries, through excellent academic teaching, practical ministry experience and living as part of a vibrant and supportive Christian community.

Oxford Dreaming Spires – still inspiring

This was the view from the park just around the corner from our house this week.  It looked truly beautiful in the winter snow.

What a beautiful city we are privileged to live in!  Those dreaming spires remind the world that the Christian faith has been believed, but also attacked in many different ways over the centuries.  Oxford Christian students this week hosted an OICCU mission with Evangelist Rico Tice from All Souls Church London.  But, as you might expect, not all were uniformly pleased to have the preacher in town.  It ever was thus.  In 1941 Dr Martyn Lloyds Jones was leading a similar such event at the University Church of St Mary’s in Oxford.  Some felt that his unsophisticated evangelistic message was inappropriate for the Oxford Intellectual elite.  But he wisely replied

I regarded undergraduates and indeed graduates of Oxford University as being just common human clay and miserable sinners like everybody else, else, and held the view that their needs were precisely the same as those of the agricultural labourer or anyone else.  I had preached as I had done quite deliberately … there is no greater fallacy than to think that you need a gospel for special types of people (Preaching and Preachers p.129)

Local Churches, led by Rev Charlie Cleverly of St Aldate’s Church Oxford have stood out against the broadcast of the Muslim call to prayer in the city (see Seven reasons for reticence as regards an Islamic prayer call in Oxford).  In the tourist board you can buy a photo of the Oxford skyline with an artist’s impression of what it would look like with Mosque Domes added.  And just this past week I walked some German friends through Oxford.  It is still sobering to stand on X-marked spot in the middle of Broad Street where Hugh Latimer, Nicolas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer were burnt at the stake in 1555-6.  This is a city with a Christian history. Our University motto is The Lord is my Light, taken from Psalm 27.  What a wonderful city this is… to be living and learning is Oxford is the stuff dreams are made of.  But, there is a harsh reality that, for all the dreamy romanticism, the cold and cruel winds blow.  But that famous psalm continues: The LORD is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid? Great words indeed and words which strengthen my backbone somewhat!