The Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, usually known as CICCU, was the first university Christian Union and is the University of Cambridge's most prominent student Christian organisation. It was formed in 1877, but can trace its origins back to the formation of the Jesus Lane Sunday School in 1827 and the Cambridge Prayer Union in 1848. The organisation's stated purpose is "to make Jesus Christ known to students in Cambridge".
Students in many other universities followed Cambridge's lead in forming their own Christian Unions, beginning with OICCU (Oxford) in 1879. Initially CICCU became part of the Student Christian Movement, formed in 1889; however, the two organisations clashed in 1910, and CICCU left the SCM in order to provide a specifically evangelical ministry in the University of Cambridge. Again, OICCU and other Unions followed them in this split, and together they founded the Inter Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions (now UCCF, Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) in 1928, which spread to Canada in the same year and later to the USA, Australia (Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students) and New Zealand (Tertiary Students Christian Fellowship).
Read more about Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union: Membership Declaration, Leadership, Structure, Doctrinal Basis, Controversy, Affiliation
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