Moving to a sustainable future

In August 2025 Wesley House will be moving from its Jesus Lane site to alternative premises within central Cambridge. The move enables the college to secure its long term sustainability and develop new patterns of work for the changing needs of theological education.

 

A new chapter

Beginning in a staff house on Brookfield Avenue with students living at the nearby congregational college Wesley House moved onto the Jesus Lane site in 1925. One hundred years on we are moving again as we adapt to changing patterns of education and the contours of our growing worldwide mission.

Our new premises will house our staff offices and our library; provide teaching space and study space, and be located close to Cambridge Theological Federation partner institutions who can accommodate visiting students and scholars. Although we will no longer have our own overnight accommodation the college will continue to host regular residential intensives that will enable cohorts of scholars and students to study together in person. Our weekly in-person worship, social and academic events will be open to friends and visitors, and we will continue to offer regular online opportunities for study and community.

Christine Elliott, our Board Chair says,

“Whilst we will be sad to leave the Jesus Lane site, the prize will be a sustainable future for our work and the flexibility to adapt to developing educational needs across the world.  In the last ten years our work has grown from up to 30 students registered on degree programmes to more than 70 and from an undergraduate focus to a research focus.  Our work in consulting with churches and other organisations offering professional development courses both in Britain and overseas has mushroomed. Selling our lease enables us to invest in staff, in scholarships, and in the learning infrastructure we now need.”

 

Our worldwide mission

Rooted in the world class university city of Cambridge Wesley House specialises in public and practical Methodist theologies. Together with our partners in the Cambridge Theological Federation, the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University we offer a full range of study opportunities from open access online short courses and accredited professional development courses to Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral degrees. We work in partnership with Methodist theological seminaries and colleges all over the world through our membership of the International Association of Methodist, Schools, Colleges and Universities and with the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Higher Education as one of its LEAD Hubs. We continue to value our work with the Methodist Church in Britain, the World Methodist Council and with ecumenical partner churches and non-profit organisations with whom we consult and offer training programmes.

The Revd Dr Jane Leach, Principal since 2011 says,

 “The college has been through many changes in its history and has needed to adapt to keep playing its part in God’s mission to the world. We see the need now for a Wesleyan-inspired theological education, much as our founder did more than a century ago, and we are stepping out in faith again, trusting that the God who calls us will also equip us.”

 

Our intercultural vision

Our vision is to see the fruits of our research and teaching making an impact in God’s world: increasing spiritual attentiveness, social inclusion, peace resilience and intercultural collaboration.

Through our teaching programmes and our ways of working we form leaders who are both spiritually attentive and intellectually critical; both theologically rooted and contextually engaged; who can work independently and collaborate with others; who can celebrate their own identities and embrace those who are different; who can navigate complexity and live simply and equip each other for the tasks of decolonization.

We believe that the tools of the Wesleyan theological tradition provide deep roots to nourish collaboration and solidarity in an increasingly polarized world. Our free access, peer review journal, Holiness, for example, provides a multi-lingual platform for international conversation that helps build theological tools for navigating change and complexity, informed by the scholarly and practical work being done in multiple contexts.

 

Background

At the time of writing we have over 70 students studying for degrees in practical and public Methodist theology. The majority are from Africa (40%), with 30% from the UK & Europe, 25% from North America, and 5% from Asia. In common with many higher education colleges, we are finding that the demand is for students, particularly at masters and doctoral level, to study part-time alongside their work and family commitments and in their home contexts. These students and those studying on our professional development courses in reflective pastoral supervision and skills for ministry (at any one time numbers average 100) work through intensive study weeks in person, with ongoing online support.

This trend for distance learning enabled by advances in IT and accelerated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, has widened possibilities for worldwide teaching and collaboration. We have been able to expand the network of people actively engaged in delivering and supporting our work and expand the circle of those engaged in learning.

Our need now is less for permanent residential accommodation and a daily pattern of college life than it is for a base for cohorts to visit for intensive experiences, supported by high quality digital library resources and infrastructure.

The Board of Directors have decided, therefore, that the resources of the college are best released from the historic premises in Jesus Lane so that substantial payment we will receive can be invested to support our future work. We have therefore given notice to Jesus College that we will be handing them back the remainder of our buildings in August 2025.  Activities will continue on the Jesus Lane site until the end of July 2025 and then continue from September 2025 from our new premises.

 

Getting Involved

We continue to value your prayers and support as we embark on this new chapter.

Alumni and friends of the college are welcome to join us at any of our in person public events during the year. 

Details of these and other events and learning opportunities are on our website: www.wesley.cam.ac.uk.  Anyone wanting to visit during the year is welcome to come during office hours for a look around. To stay overnight or join us for a Thursday eucharist and meal please contact the office to book: office@wesley.cam.ac.uk.

We have been hugely grateful for the generous gifts to our bursary fund and to capital projects from so many individuals and grant bodies, particularly over the past ten years . As we transition to new premises your gifts will be re-invested.  As we establish new lines of work we will continue to value your partnership and support.

For further information

Please see our FAQs on the Wesley House website: www.wesley.cam.ac.uk/faq

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