Staff and Students Celebrate Opening of Etchells House

On Thursday 31 October Staff and students at Cranmer Hall celebrated the opening of Etchell’s House. The building, a large Georgian property located on South Bailey in the heart of Durham, has been completely refurbished to provide office and teaching space suitable for the demands of theological education in the twenty first century. Etchells House will be the new base for Cranmer Hall, the Wesley Study Centre, CODEC and Common Awards.

Etchells House is named in honour of Dr. Ruth Etchells, a former principle of St John’s College, Durham (1979 – 88). Dr Etchells, scholar, author and poet, was the first lay person and the first woman to be appointed to be principle of a Church of England training college.

To mark the opening of Etchells House a public lecture was given by the Revd Dr Ashely Null. Dr Null spoke on ‘Cranmer and the Eucharist: New Light on Old Issues’. Dr Null studied at Yale and Cambridge and is the author of a number of internationally acclaimed books. He also has a long history as a chaplain to elite athletes, serving in the Olympic Village during the Los Angeles, Athens and London Games. Dr Null said ‘I am delighted to join staff and students at Cranmer Hall to mark this significant occasion.’ The Reverend Mark Tanner, Warden of Cranmer Hall said, ‘This is an exiting time for Cranmer Hall. The opening of Etchells House represents our prayerful commitment to the provision of excellent theological education in the coming decades.’