Our Chaplain & Sermons
Our chaplain to the chapel is the Rev’d Canon Nigel Cooper.
Nigel arrived in December 2022, having retired at the start of that year as the University Chaplain to Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge for seventeen years. Before that he had been rector of two villages in Essex, Rivenhall and Silver End, also for seventeen years. He served his curacy in Chelmsford and trained for the Church of England ministry at Ripon College Cuddesdon and Oxford University. He was made deacon in 1983 and ordained priest in 1984. He is an honorary canon emeritus of Ely Cathedral.
Nigel read NatSci at Queens’ in the early 1970s, doing Pt II Zoology. He then taught for four years in Romford.
He has continued his interest in biology throughout the years in three strands. As a practitioner he has been an ecologist in the Church of England, helping people care for the wildlife of churchyards in particular. Academically, he has concentrated on the philosophy and, more recently, the economics of nature conservation. He has led many nature and spirit retreats, mainly on the Isle of Arran in Scotland, where his family have a second home. His church contribution is now as the Diocesan Environment Officer for the diocese of Ely. This is another part-time role alongside his part-time post of chaplain.
He has not fully left ARU as he is a visiting professor in the university’s Global Sustainability Institute and the School of Life Sciences. His publication list is short, but quite well cited. He is a Chartered Environmentalist, a professional member of the Arboricultural Association, and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and of the Linnean Society.
Role as chaplain to the chapel
Churchill College is unique in many ways and one is that the chapel is ‘at’ the college and not of the college. As a result, the chaplain does not have an official role within the college. His focus is the chapel. However, if any member of the college wishes to chat to Nigel, he always appreciates company and can offer a cup of coffee to lubricate the conversation. He is mostly in college in term on Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons, as well as Sunday afternoons. Do contact him by email [email protected], he would love to hear from you.
He enjoys singing, even if not very well (he failed his audition for Queens’ chapel choir as an undergraduate). Fortunately, the Inter Alios Choir is welcoming, and he sings with the bass section.
His main task is organising and leading worship in the chapel. The routine are the Sunday evening services, mostly Evensongs when Inter Alios is singing in chapel, or said services at other times. Nigel also conducts special services such as weddings, funerals, memorials and hopes to have the privilege of also conducting a baptism sometime.
[picture of me behind the font. Caption: “Nigel at his inaugural service leading the renewal of baptismal vows.”]
Nigel takes preaching very seriously – perhaps too seriously. Several of his sermons are available as transcripts with links from this page. He hopes to add to these, both future sermons and by typing up old ones. He thinks of himself as fully orthodox, but also radical in his interpretation and application of the core doctrines of Christianity. He aims to speak to those outside Christianity, explaining what the religion might be about and why he and others practise it.