Blogs • Revd Tim Hurd (Former Chaplain)

This weekend marks the return leg of the annual Selwyn-College House cultural and - in this instance - sporting exchange.

Inasmuch as the Knox-Selwyn competition has its roots in denominational distinction (Knox was established as a Presbyterian hall, Selwyn as Anglican), the College House connection is that both have an Anglican heritage.

What do those foundations mean today?

Well, there’s a tradition that all three Colleges share, incorporating both a connection with the institutional Church in terms of governance, a model of pastoral care that includes some sort of chaplaincy role, and at least occasional services that explicitly acknowledge the Christian dimension to the Colleges’ story.

And of course such resonances emerge elsewhere, like lightning arcing and earthing its energy at seemingly random points at Selwyn: the rituals of initiation and the year’s beginning, some of which have mythic and quasi-religious overtones (I’m looking at you, Verne); the echoes (as the Warden has noted) of water and pilgrimage…

Of course, there’s always been a bit of Selwyn’s culture that probably evolved in stark and explicit contrast to its apparent ecclesiastical accouterments - I remember the story around my uncle’s winning of the Turner Tossing Trophy (once a drinking contest), a feat met with some pride by my clergyman grandfather, who clearly didn’t know what the contest entailed…