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The Council of Advisors exists primarily to assist in developing and maintaining continuity in the GCU’s vision and activity. With an ever-changing student body, the Council of Advisors is an essential, foundational element of the GCU. Please meet the current advisors below.
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Ard Louis
Dr. Ard Louis is a University Lecturer in Theoretical Physics. Until recently he taught in Chemistry at "the other place", where he was on the advisory council for the Cambridge Christian Graduate Society. Ard was born in the Netherlands, but raised in Gabon, central Africa. After his first degree at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands), he did his PhD at Cornell University (USA) before heading to the UK. He is international secretary for Christians in Science and on the advisory boards of the Templeton Foundation and Arca Associates, an international development organisation. Ard is also working closely with Friends International to help support work with post-graduate students nationwide (see: for more details).
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Ken Barnes
Rev. Dr. Kenneth J. Barnes: An ordained minister, scholar and former corporate executive, Ken now serves as Chaplain and Director of the Oxford American Mission. He is also a Tutor in Theology and Religious Studies, teaching courses in Biblical Studies, Church History and Philosophy of Religion. In addition to a ministry of pastoral care and mentoring, Ken leads the Wednesday evening Apologetics Group and 'Breakfast With...' on Saturday mornings. Ken is actively involved with the GCU, the Veritas Forum and the Trinity Forum. He is married to CCM recording artist Debby Barnes. They live in Oxford and have three grown children, Bernadette, Christian and Julia.
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Leslie Marsh
Leslie Marsh, historian and theologian, specialising in the historical understanding of Jesus, welcomes everyone to a weekly open seminar ('THE GIST', The Historical Event - Getting It Straight Today) at 12 Norham Road.
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Joe Martin
What connects Little Rock, Harvard, Princeton, L'Abri, computers, barn dances, ukuleles, & Oxford? Answer: Joe Martin. Joe delights in giving space & time (& lending books) to encourage students to think Christianly in their work. (He also loves helping them to have fun).
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More formally stated, the Council of Advisors fulfils the following functions for the GCU.
- To be a locally based team of visionary encouragers of the Oxford Graduate Christian Union (GCU).
- To meet periodically with the members (and especially the Committee) of the GCU, individually and/or as a Council, in order to learn about, encourage, and challenge them in dreams, ideas and plans for the exercise of Christian faith in their own lives, and for fostering the graduate Christian community in Oxford.
- To help ensure that the GCU maintains continuity through a capable new Committee with at least three office bearers (President, Secretary, Treasurer) appointed each year in accordance with the GCU constitution, early in May (for the following academic year), and entrusted with a vision for Graduate Christian Ministry.
- To always acknowledge and protect the identity and ownership and of the GCU as being a student/university-based and student-led organisation.
- To seek out and connect Christian faculty members in Oxford with the GCU in common vision and partnership.
- To work together as a Council to form ideas, produce position papers and engage Church leaders and other Christian leaders in Oxford towards a united vision and cooperative activities in connection with Graduate Christian Ministry.
- To reach out to Christians involved in Graduate Christian ministry beyond Oxford, both nationally and internationally, in establishing cooperation, connections, and ideas for Graduate Christian ministry.
- To encourage dialogue and engagement amongst Christian students and faculty for working out and living out the Christian world-view and faith (Romans 12:1-2) with regard to:?(a) The various subjects of study in the fields of Social Sciences, Humanities, Physical Sciences and Arts, and the vocations associated with such study. (b) Complex moral questions and choices that Christians can expect to face in these vocations and in the course of their lives.
- To encourage through the GCU, ‘conversations’ that creatively engage the University with the transforming reality, centrality, supremacy and challenge of the historical Jesus and what it means for Christians to believe in, love, and follow the Triune God revealed in the Bible (Colossians 1:15-20). [the Veritas Forum in US universities is an example]
- To encourage concern and activism amongst students for justice and mercy (Isaiah 58:6-7; Jeremiah 9:23-24; Micah 6:6-8) rooted in the Biblical partiality towards the marginalised, voiceless and oppressed (Psalm 82:2-4; Isaiah 1:17; Luke 4:17-21), particularly in countries and regions represented in the student body.
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