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OXFORD: TROUBLESOME DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH
By Jonathan Aitken
The Times Letter to the editor
December 17, 2021
Sir,
"Mad, is he? Then I hope he will bite some of my other generals." These words of George II about General Wolfe can be applied now to Martyn Percy, the dean of Christ Church.
The fifth attempt in four years by a cabal of disaffected dons to defenestrate their dean ("Oxford college turns to medical team in row over dean's future", Dec 16), this time by voting for him to be classified as mentally ill, is both comic and contemptible. I saw Dr Percy this week. He was on sparkling form, battered but unbowed by the continuing civil war at The House.
A humorous observation might be that he is far sharper and saner than some of the obsessive academics who have so far wasted over £3 million in legal fees and lost at least another £3 million in cancelled charitable donations in their fruitless efforts to dislodge the head of their college. How much longer can this expensive and unpleasant nonsense continue?
There are signs that the Charity Commission and the chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten of Barnes, might finally intervene.
Biting or, better still, removing the "other generals" of Christ Church would be a good start.
The Rev Jonathan Aitken
Christ Church alumnus 1961-64
London SW5. ENDS
Here is Archbishop Cranmer's blog take on Percy.
https://archbishopcranmer.com/martyn-percy-is-mad-and-unfit-to-govern-christ-church-oxford/
Another source told VOL, the fact of the matter is, whatever the theology or previous mistakes of Dean Percy, what is going on it is a very clear case of secularists being unwilling to accept the appointment of a Christian to head the college. The secularists conveniently forget that the whole institution and their jobs are due to the sacrificial investment of Christians over the centuries to ensure that leaders of the nation are well educated.
END
