Pusey House was founded on 9 October 1884 to be a centre, community, and home of theological study, worship, and pastoral care, and as a most fitting memorial to Dr E. B. Pusey. In his time Dr Pusey was Regius Professor of Hebrew, Canon of Christ Church, and a leader of the Oxford Movement. Pusey’s biographer, Canon H. P. Liddon, hoped that the new institution would be both ‘a home of sacred learning, and a rallying point of the Christian faith’. This meant that the House would not only promote ‘those great and majestic studies which attend on Christian theology’, but also examine the ‘ever-changeful fashion’ of the day. In other words, the charism of the House encourages serious engagement with contemporary trends and ideas, and conceptions of law and culture, while at the same time nurturing a thoughtful and robust faith nourished by rich worship. This combined life of faith and scholarship is expressed in hopeful and joyful service in the world and in the Church. Uniting the life of the mind and the life of prayer – keeping thought about God and God’s world together with the movement of the heart toward God – these principles still offer a dynamic and living foundation on which to build up the life of the House.

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Dr Pusey’s emphasis on the doctrine of the Incarnation embodies a wonderful affirmation. In Christ, we are ‘In-Godded, Deitate’, human words speak divine wisdom, earthly signs communicate heavenly life, ordinary community is shaped into the grace-filled body of Christ, the academy becomes a school open to divine truth, and all things shine, in  some measure, with divine light. This affirmation brings also a bracing challenge: to live into who we are in Christ, and to be transformed, not for ourselves, but for one another. The world desperately needs such Christiform disciples and Spirit-enlivened communities. The sacramental principle and the catholic life which inspired the leaders of the Oxford Movement still meet both contemporary needs, and the same old and deep longings of the heart, and these all serve as graceful keys to unlock the treasures of divine life, of evangelical zeal with love.

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It is both a privilege and a delight to see how the combined offering of liturgy, study, and community, continues to encourage and inspire those who are drawn into the life of Pusey House. We continue to be inspired by our motto Deus Scientiarum Dominus – The Lord is a God of Knowledge: ‘What are all our sciences, what are all our fragments of knowledge, all our forms of studying and learning, but droplets from that fountain of which we long to drink in all its fulness? My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God.’ Pusey House promotes serious scholarship by Christians, and witnesses to the basic principle that, because all forms of knowledge come from the one fountain of divine Wisdom and knowing, faith in Christ is a friend and handmaiden, not an enemy or hindrance, of the pursuit of truth in all its forms. That commitment is not always welcome, and may even be personally or institutionally costly, but it is a fundamental catholic and biblical principle.

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Since we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Chapel of the Resurrection in 2014, we have continued to build on the heritage bequeathed to us. In my role as Principal, I am constantly and thankfully aware that none of this would be possible without the work and dedication of Principals, Priest Librarians, Governors, Presidents, Friends, sacristans, servers, musicians, community members, and benefactors of both recent and more distant times. In response to the changing context of the University and the Church of England, the number of graduate students in Oxford, and the hopes of others, we responded to calls for catholic mission by becoming an all-year-round place of worship and learning, with High Mass every Sunday, full Holy Week, Easter, and Christmas celebrations, and with daily mass and offices most of the year. Sunday school takes place most weeks. The students and researchers of the Oxford Scriptorium gather most days in term in the Library and common rooms of the House.

 

The academic offering of the House has been enriched with a programme of lectures, conferences, and colloquia, often undertaken in partnership with other institutions and colleges, and also by working together with St Cross College. The number and character of the groups or partners meeting in the House on a weekly or occasional basis continues to grow. The pastoral ministry of the House, the community life, and all that makes this possible, have been amplified, and enlivened by the generous and creative ministry of teams of interns, dedicated staff, musicians, librarians and archivists, servers, researchers, priests, trustees, presidents, friends, supporters, donors, visitors, pilgrims, and community members, who together serve to shape the life and mission of the House, with our Library and Archive. All this enables us, by the gifts and graces of the indwelling Spirit which Pusey hymned and praised, to live into what were founded to be: a centre of theological study, a community of worship, and a home of pastoral care, in the hope that we send out rooted disciples for parishes and communities.

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It is often the sense of those closest to both the opportunities and challenges before us that the life of the House flourishes only as an effulgence of super-abundant grace (‘effulgence’ was a favourite Dr Pusey word). This life has been given to us in the inspired generosity and sacrificial ministry of generations who have loved and continue to love this place, given in the prayers of friends, supporters, colleagues on both sides of the veil of Christ’s flesh, angels ascending and descending on the Son of man, a gift of life growing through friendship and divine-human love. We give thanks for our inheritance, for innumerable gifts of grace, for lives of dedicated service, and even for treasure in all-too-earthen vessels. Let us also pray for such a measure of wisdom, faith, and hope that this House may continue to be a place of encounter, renewal, and ressourcement for God’s people.

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The Revd Dr George Westhaver

Principal of Pusey House

9th October 2024

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