By the Universities Tests Act of 1871, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in the UK became ‘freely accessible to the nation’. There was to be no discrimination against Catholics, Jews, Non-conformists and agnostics or atheists (except against women), and no obligation to subscribe to any religious belief (except for professors of divinity) or attend any form of public worship. The rights of the Church of England were preserved, however, by the requirement that morning and evening prayer be celebrated on weekdays in all colleges in accordance with the Church of England Book of Common Prayer, unless expressly allowed to be adapted, and on Sundays with no adaptation. Because of this clause, some if not all college chaplains and (religious) Deans are still required by College Statutes to be members of the Church of England (C of E).

A college was vaguely defined in the Act as ‘a place of education, religion, learning and research’, a definition that is still regarded by some as requiring all members to profess some religious belief, although others argue that not all members are educators, or learned, or researchers, and neither need all be religious.

Cambridge and Oxford colleges vary in size from a few hundred to a thousand or more. Many have a chapel and consequently one or more chaplains or religious Deans, who conduct services and may offer or be asked to offer pastoral help and general counselling to members of their college. Several theological colleges swell the presence of religious people, though these colleges are not of equal status with the rest. ‘Divinity’, or theology, is of course studied by ordinary students in both Oxford and Cambridge, but Cambridge has no such chair as that of Richard Dawkins, Oxford’s first Professor in the Public Understanding of Science. Oxford Cathedral, however, is united with the collegiate foundation of Christ Church, and can only be reached through the College quad.

Services are held regularly in college chapels, especially in King’s College Chapel, whose Christmas Carol Service is televised all over the world. Magdalen College, Oxford’s Mayday singing is also highly popular. The Cambridge University Church (C of E) was moribund till about 1955, when it was revived by an energetic vicar and for some years maintained a large attendance for sermons by prominent men and women; it has faded somewhat since then. Oxford’s University Church, also C of E, has a similar history.

Compared with other British universities, most of which have perhaps one C of E. chaplain and a few part-time representatives of other faiths, the religious and ecclesiastical presence in Cambridge and Oxford is heavily weighted. Nowhere else in the world can there be so many ministers of religion per student – one to four or five hundred gives a rough idea. The deans and chaplains, all Church of England, are reputed to be liberals, and make no strong efforts at conversions, nor do the Roman Catholic Chaplaincies, independent bodies with their own premises.

But there are many small influences, apart from the centrally-placed chapels and the prestigious rooms allocated to chaplains. Although chapel services are not well attended, except at King’s, and are no longer compulsory, the chapel choirs offer to student singers some attractions, including the chance of a tour performing in Europe or elsewhere at little or no personal expense. Present and former students like the opportunity of being married in their own chapels. The annual Commemoration of Benefactors, held in chapel, is well attended even by Fellows with little interest in religion, and funerals of Fellows take place in chapel more often than not. Large sums of money have been donated over the centuries for research into theology, and cannot be legally diverted to other purposes.

A less important inheritance is the saying of Latin grace at dinner in Hall, thanking God for feeding everybody and ending ‘per Christum Dominum nostrum’. Similarly, degrees are conferred with a Latin formula ending ‘in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost’, which may be omitted on request, but is treated as a matter of course. Such trivial but traditional formulae prolong the impression that both University and colleges are essentially Christian, not to say Church of England.

It matters more that student organisations, the Cambridge and the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Unions (ICCU), are active in every college, as they have been for generations, holding prayer meetings, discussion groups, campaigns for conversion, dinners, tea-parties. They are perhaps not favoured by the chaplains, who did favour the liberal Student Christian Movement while it flourished. CICCU declined in popularity after its close relation in the 1930s with the politically right wing so-called Oxford Group whose leader leaned towards Hitler, but recovered in the late twentieth century. As the historian of Cambridge University Professor Christopher Brooke [1]
writes, in a history of the University dated 1993, ‘in the mid and late twentieth century fundamental evangelicalism has been a major growth area in the protestant churches, and the CICCU has flourished again’. He adds ‘outside the colleges, the CICCU and SCM, a whole spectrum of groups and societies flourish, especially those associated with the leading parish churches, with the Catholic Chaplaincy in Fisher House and the free church chaplaincies and colleges’. These are all open to membership by junior and senior members of the University, as is the more recently launched nation-wide ‘Alpha’ course of Biblical studies.

At Harvard a Humanist Chaplaincy was recently the topic of a thirtieth anniversary symposium. To press for one at Oxbridge might not be well received, with so much entrenchment on the other side, and failure might be wrongly interpreted. But there is a wealth of support for students, some might say too much, for probably all Colleges except those with mostly graduate members provide for their junior members a Welfare Officer, a Counsellor, a Nurse, and Tutors, while the University and national resources provide a Linkline, LesBiGay representatives, a Counselling Service, Alcoholics Anonymous, National Victim Support, Rape Crisis, Eating Disorders Association, Samaritans; the help of doctors is always available too. Though some religious counselling may be needed, the expense of keeping so many rather than appointing a chaplain for groups of colleges, or even one University Chaplain must now be seriously questioned. The rôle of chaplains and deans in promoting music would need special consideration. But no serious effort at defending the situation created over a hundred and thirty years ago has ever been made.

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Ron Gray: Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. University of Cambridge, Lecturer in German, Retired. MA, PhD Cantab. Former Vice-Master, Emmanuel College, Cambridge

References

1 Christopher N.L. Brooke, A History of the University of Cambridge 1870-1990, Cambridge 1993, p.133.