Call to save Heythrop’s Centre for Eastern Christianity

Experts have called for the part of Heythrop College that specialises in the study of Eastern Christianity to be saved, writes Abigail Frymann Rouch.

Heythrop has announced that it is to close in its current form in 2018 and its site in Kensington, west London, has been put up for sale. No provision has yet been made to preserve Heythrop’s Centre for Eastern Christianity (CEC), despite Eastern Christianity facing its greatest crisis in centuries due to religious persecution in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Fr Mark Woodruff, chairman of the Society of St John Chrysostom, which promotes Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, said the centre was vital for ecumenism and understanding Islam. Bishop Antoine Audo SJ of Aleppo, told The Tablet that the closure of the centre would be “a big loss”. He said he believed the Jesuits wanted to streamline their resources.

The Tablet understands that SOAS, University of London (formerly known as the School of Oriental and African Studies), has shown “an interest” in the CEC. SOAS runs a Centre of World Christianity and specialises in the study of Syriac, the liturgical language of a number of Eastern Churches that is also related to Aramaic, the language of Christ.