David Cornick This is Me

Education

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1. 1. In the hot seat

   www.urc.org.uk/reform_magazine - [Cached]

   Published on: 6/12/2008   Last Visited: 6/12/2008

   It was in his early teens, says David Cornick, that reflecting on what he calls his ‘narrow range of abilities' he decided he was best suited to one of two jobs: the ministry or teaching.If it seems a fairly sober choice for one so young, at least he managed to fulfil both ambitions - but that is to jump to a later part of the story.
   
   Brought up in Gravesend, in Kent, David could very easily have ended up as an Anglican had not his widowed mother discovered that the local congregational church suited her spiritual needs somewhat better than the local parish church.David's enforced transfer to Old Road East Congregational Church (now St Paul's URC) came at the age of seven and seems to have suited him. -- at the age of seven his mother remembers him returning home from a meeting full of enthusiasm, exclaiming ‘I've met a real missionary.'
   
   By the time he was 15 David had become convinced that God had made the choice for him and was calling him into the ministry.The standard advice given by the church to young aspirants in those days was to go and get an arts degree, so he ended up at Oxford, studying English.The requisite degree completed he turned to theology, dividing his time between Mansfield College in Oxford and Kings College, London, his studies culminating in a PhD in the history of 19th century Presbyterianism.It was during that time that he gained his first taste of ministry as a part-time chaplain to London University, looking after a student hostel near King's Cross and situated in the heart of the area's red-light district.One senior colleague who visited the hostel for lunch later proudly phoned to inform David that he had been propositioned twice on the short walk back to Church House.
   
   College was followed by three years as a minister in the pleasant surroundings of Borehamwood and Radlet in south Hertfordshire but the call of education was not to be denied and in 1984 David moved to Cambridge to become chaplain to Robinson College.It was a daunting challenge, but one which he enjoyed greatly, as chaplain to the whole of a Christian community which ranged from Quaker to Greek Orthodox.From Cambridge he moved to Taunton, where he worked as Training Officer for the South Western synod - in his own words, ‘a real joy'.In 1992 David returned to Cambridge as lecturer in church history at the URC's own Westminster College.
   ...
   An avuncular figure, politely described as well-built, David Cornick gives the impression of someone who is more at home in a cardigan than in a suit.His relaxed appearance sometimes belies a sharpness of observation (and of wit), combined with a candour that is refreshing.A year into the job the multitude of challenges that face the church and the problems which have crossed his desk appear to have left him relatively unscathed -- though he did suggest that the question ‘how have you enjoyed you first year' be avoided, on the grounds that the reply might be unprintable.
   
   One year on, the things he misses most are teaching, the contact with students and, most of all, daily contact with ecumenical colleagues. ‘The ecumenical thing' is very close to the core of his faith, based on an unshakable belief that Jesus calls all his faithful followers to be one.Indeed, part of his enthusiasm for the URC is the hope that one day its experience in learning to live together and reconcile differences, such as those over infant baptism, will be of value to the wider church.The whole of his career in ministry has been spent, to a greater or lesser extent, working ecumenically - culminating in the richness of the daily ecumenical life of the Cambridge Theological Colleges Federation, through which students from Anglican, Methodist, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Reformed traditions share in both teaching and worship.
   ...
   As to what changes in structure might come, David Cornick appears to have an open mind.Asked whether there is a future for Church House his answer is simply that it is up to Assembly to decide which pieces of work need to be done but that there is no point in Assembly calling for work without ensuring that there are properly supported staff to carry it out.He takes an equally relaxed attitude to the considerable growth in synod structures and staffing which have occurred over the past 30 years, though he believes that some time soon there needs to be ‘a friendly discussion' over what responsibilities lie where.
   
   But the structures, he is clear, are not an end in themselves. ‘The biggest challenge facing the whole church in Britain is to maintain faithfulness and go on telling the gospel.
   ...
   David Cornick has mixed feelings, believing that we should not underplay the fact that the URC has achieved three unions, holding together a diversity of opinion and of church polity that others thought impossible.Some people, he believes, still see the URC as a beacon of hope, representing on a small scale what many hope to see one day achieved on a larger stage.
   
   At the same time he finds it understandable if others sometimes find it difficult to pin down the URC.Designed to be a catalyst for and a part of a larger union that never happened, the URC has never been quite sure of its own identity as either ‘united' or ‘Reformed'.Potential partners, he believes, are perplexed sometimes at the lack of clear statements of the kind of church we are.In any case, he feels that the moves to reconcile the Church of England and the Methodists should be warmly welcomed as an opportunity to ‘heal the memories' of past hurts between the two.The memories in our case, going back to the much earlier break-up of a united Protestant church in England in the 17th century, are quite different and will require a different conversation.In any case, he does not feel excluded: ‘I sense a great deal of graciousness from our Methodist and Anglican colleagues and a genuine sensitivity about where we are.I don't think they have the slightest desire to leave us behind in any moves they make and I hope we will continue in conversation with them either together or separately.'
   
   In the end it is the people he is meeting who give David Cornick hope -- people and the commitment he sees in them: ‘A commitment to faithfulness to Jesus Christ, to carrying on telling the Christian story and letting the Christian action happen.' And if the URC is not quite sure of its own identity or set in its ways, then that too he sees as not an entirely bad thing.Referring to a word that so often provides a ‘get-out' in URC documents and resolutions he observes: ‘We sometimes laughingly say that we've enthroned the little word "normally" in the URC, but that's no bad thing because the Holy Spirit is not given to normality but to the unusual and the challenging. . It's not going to be easy because the nature of our society is changing and what people expect from church is changing but I see all kinds of places where people are trying to meet that kind of challenge.'
   
   David Cornick is the General Secretary of the URC

2. 2. www.unitedreformedchurch.co.uk

   www.unitedreformedchurch.co.uk - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/17/2007   Last Visited: 5/17/2007

   The fact that the scurrilous rumours - that the book arose out of a evening's banter (some of it in the pub) with Westminster College Principal David Cornick - turn out to be true does not detract from the achievement. What started out to be a survey of the ‘theology of the URC' turned into a much more important project and one which has found a welcoming readership in the most surprising places in this country and around the world.
   
   After seven years in the job, and despite having been reappointed for a second term David found himself, for a variety of reasons, becoming restive. Though it seemed wrong to waste his experience of theological education, at the same time he felt a need to move back closer to the grass roots. The ideal combination presented itself when the post of tutor on the ecumenical North East Oecumencial Course became vacant, which he was able to combine with working for the Northern Synod half time as their Development Strategy Officer.

3. 3. Pax Christi - Press Releases

   paxchristi.org.uk/Archive/pres - [Cached]

   Last Visited: 1/26/2008

   David Cornick, United Reformed Church Peace Forum