Our Vision

Our purpose

Cranmer Hall is a vibrant and diverse Christian community forming Christlike leaders for today’s church through transformational learning.

We are a Christian community, members of Christ’s body who need each other in our diversity to learn and flourish as disciples of Christ. Come and meet people different to you who will become friends for life.

We form Christlike leaders, training people in a wide range of knowledge and skills whilst believing that character matters even more than competence. Come willing to be changed by God’s Spirit more into the likeness of his Son to the glory of the Father.

We serve today’s church, believing that the unchanging gospel of grace is ever-relevant and needed in a changing world. Come to see the world afresh through God’s eyes and to be sent out with a renewed heart for the church as central to God’s mission.

We offer transformational learning, seeking to go deeper in the Scriptures, the inheritance of faith, and the practices of the church within one of world’s leading universities. Come and explore your faith like never before.

Cranmer Hall is one of the Church of England’s brightest jewels. It combines a fresh sense of twenty-first century mission and ministry with unmatched historic roots. It draws on a world-class Theology Faculty while offering training experience in some of the country’s most needy areas.

Rt Revd Prof. N. T. Wright – former Bishop of Durham

Our Identity

We cherish our rich Anglican and Evangelical tradition, our beautiful North East context, and our world-class Durham University setting as part of St John’s College.

We are Anglican and Evangelical, founded to train ministers for the Church of England in the Evangelical tradition. This remains our spiritual foundation and heartland, and makes us a welcoming space for the breadth of traditions in the Church of England and people from a range of denominations.

We are located in the North East, a region whose contexts and communities are deeply beautiful and wonderfully real. There is nowhere better to train, with the full range of ministries and social contexts on our doorstep.

We are within Durham University as part of St John’s College. This gives us partnership with a world-leading Department of Theology & Religion and access to fabulous resources for study, sports, societies, and disability support.

This is a place that is about passion. The students are passionate about the community in which they live, passionate about learning more about Jesus and passionate about mission and ministry in a post-Christian culture. Right here, in the shadow of Durham’s ancient cathedral, we seek to be open to the Spirit in exploring new forms of mission, learning to communicate the gospel afresh in a media-dominated culture, and developing skills of leadership and pioneering for the 21st Century church.

If those are your passions too, I hope you will join us.

Prof. Jolyon Mitchell – Principal of St John’s College

Book a call or visit

Come and explore the campus, talk to current staff and students, and see how Cranmer can suit you.