Our Story

The Cambridge Christian Study Centre is a ministry of The Foundations Trust. Originally called ‘Christian Heritage’, the charity was established 21 years ago by Francis Schaeffer’s son-in-law, the founder of English L’Abri, Ranald Macaulay. Early trustees included Lady Elizabeth Catherwood (daughter of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones) and Richard Cunningham who today is Director of UCCF.

From its outset the work has always ranged from student formation, through theological vision-setting and apologetics training, to direct public engagement, including by running the Round Church Visitor Centre, with its historical exhibition, walking tours and multilingual film expressly designed to introduce visitors and tourists to the Christian intellectual and moral foundations of Western culture.  

The study desks in the north aisle – originally known as the ‘Scriptorium’ – were installed by Andrew Fellows, Ranald’s successor in leadership both at L’Abri and subsequently at the Round Church until 2020.

In early 2022 the opening of the current Study Centre coincided with the charity’s name change, and the welcome of additional trustees – including Oxford professor emeritus John Lennox and former IFES global General Secretary Lindsay Brown, who also served as International Director of the Lausanne Movement.

The Trust now supports a suite of university ministry projects sharing the same vision and values and working together in co-ordinated partnership, avoiding duplication and ensuring that their overall impact will be greater than the sum of their parts. These include the Forming a Christian Mind conferences in Cambridge, the work of UCCF Research nationally, and the IFES Europe Postgraduate Initiative across the Continent, including the Association of Christian Postgraduate Groups.

The Cambridge Christian Study Centre seeks to work from a position of generous, humble confidence in the historic truths of biblical Christianity as summarised in the UCCF and Evangelical Alliance statements of faith, placing us within a classical Protestant evangelical tradition.