Dear friends
It gives me great pleasure to announce that Sarum College will re-open to the public on 1 August 2020. Visit this page for an overview of our enhanced cleaning and safety measures.
From the day the buildings closed in March, our academic team immediately rose to the challenge of converting all on-site work online so that students in ministry, spiritual direction, postgraduate and Exploring Theology courses could continue their study and these have now finished for the year. Our library is running a weekly collection service until we open next month.
We are now finalising processes, policies and the equipment set-up to ensure the buildings are a safe environment for our staff and guests. The College leadership team is working on a recovery plan and the main elements of this are in place. Some of this recovery has to attend closely to the harsh realities of finance.
Public safety measures will have a significant impact on our physical and financial capacity. So like many of you, we are working with a smaller budget. We are reviewing our finances to see where we can make savings while maintaining our commitment to learning and indeed developing capacity in our virtual learning space.
Books are central to the generation and spread of ideas and we will continue to help feed the appetite of all those who come to Sarum to learn. The financial pressure on our charitable work, however, means we must close the Sarum College Bookshop. We are sorry to make this decision. It is a tremendous sadness to us and will be to those who have enjoyed its services over many years. We are working with suppliers to ensure we continue to offer students fairly priced books.
In a world where the dominant narrative of this deadly virus has been scientific and economic, we shall need to attend to the spiritual and theological questions it presents. The global effect of this virus has sharpened the focus and need for life-affirming theology. Sarum has been doing this all along and will continue to do so by making the best use of the resources, expertise and the deep well of good will at our disposal.
with warm wishes from all us at Sarum
Sarum College Principal James Woodward
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