Community

Full-time students come to the community with a wide range of experiences and interests, some with considerable work experience, others direct from other colleges or university, with a great range of personal circumstances. The community includes families, of course, and partners and children are highly valued members of the community. 

The Common Room is the centre of the College's social life, with a licensed bar and a busy diary of events. If you're a musician, you can join in with a variety of music-making; if you're into sports, there's a football and cricket field, plus a croquet lawn. 

Where you live

Spouses, partners and families

Student stories

Worship

Worship is central to College life, and through a regular pattern of prayer and worship we learn to engage more deeply with God. The rhythm, simplicity and continuity of the offices provide space for prayer, worship and reflection on Scripture in an otherwise busy day.

A typical week in term time would involve (7.30am Eucharist), 9am Morning Prayer and 4.30pm Evening Prayer (and 9.30pm Compline). Students are expected to attend Morning and Evening Prayer but other worship is optional. On Wednesdays at 11.45am the whole community usually gathers for a Sung Eucharist.

Students, who come from a wide diversity of traditions, are encouraged to bring variety to this pattern of worship by preparing and leading informal liturgy instead of Thursday Evening Prayer, and creative liturgy usually instead of Monday Evening Prayer.

Programmes

As students come from diverse backgrounds with differing prior qualifications and experience, we offer a wide range of flexible academic routes. Students either enrol with the Durham University Common Awards programme or for University of Oxford degrees. Depending on which course you take, training will be for two or three years based on the university calendar. When you visit, we will take time to listen to your circumstances and discuss the most suitable options with you.

Durham University Common Awards

University of Oxford

Ministerial Formation

The aim of our training programmes is to prepare the whole person for mission and ministry in today's world. Modules in both mission and ministry help to develop an understanding of the mission of God and the tasks of ministry, and modules in human development and pastoral practice equip you to know what it means to live a fully human life and how pastoral care is responsibly exercised.

Minsterial Formation components