The University of Cambridge has awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity to the Revd Professor David Thompson, a former Moderator of the URC General Assembly. This degree is a higher doctorate, awarded by universities to a religious academic for accomplishments reaching well beyond the doctorate level.

David has spent his whole career in Cambridge, and is now Emeritus Professor of Modern Church History at the University and a Life Fellow of Fitzwilliam College. He specialises in the history of the European churches over the last two hundred years, in Christian missions and world Christianity since 1850, and in ecumenism, church-state relations and Christian social thought.

Beyond his academic duties David has served the URC in many capacities, convening (at different times) the group that produced Rejoice and Sing, the United Reformed Church Trust, the board of governors at Westminster College and our Law and Polity Advisory Group. He currently serves as President and council member of the URC History Society. He has had a high national and international profile over some decades as an ecumenist, helping Christians to understand one another’s different traditions and to grow in mutual respect and love. Yet he has been equally at home and equally committed in encouraging and supporting the life of some of our smaller rural congregations.

The Revd John Proctor, General Secretary of the URC said: “This is excellent news and a fine way for the University to affirm a scholarly and teaching career of enormous achievement. David has also found time to fulfil a host of important tasks in the Church, both in the URC and in many wider settings, and we are very grateful for all that he has contributed and continues to offer among us. We wish him God’s blessing in this celebration of the past, and in the continuing service of present and future.”

_{Picture: The Revd Prof David Thompson.
Published 21 November 2019}