How it all began

In the summer of 1981, 40 men engaged in a preaching ministry gathered at a conference centre (Fairmile Court) in Surrey for a conference on ‘expository preaching’. Dick Lucas, then Rector of St Helen’s, Bishopsgate held this conference with the aim of examining and learning what particular Bible texts actually say.

The birth of E.M.A.

Residential conferences continued informally and proved extremely popular, and in 1984 it was decided to hold a larger non-residential conference, which became known as the Evangelical Ministry Assembly (the EMA). The EMA has been held every year since (with two online during the Covid pandemic), with speakers from all over the world, including Don Carson, John Chapman, Os Guiness, Jim Packer, John Stott, Phillip Jensen, Sinclair Ferguson and Tim Keller.

PT established

In May 1986 The Proclamation Trust was formed officially, in gratitude to God for the 25 years which Dick Lucas had spent teaching the Bible from the St Helen’s pulpit.

The birth and growth of Cornhill

In 1991 David Jackman, former minister of Above Bar Church, Southampton, joined the staff of PT to pioneer the Cornhill Training Course.

PT has grown over the years under the good hand of our God. The Cornhill Training Course (CTC) now trains about 90 students each year for diverse roles in ministry.

Our home

A building in Borough High Street, near London Bridge, became the home of PT from 1998-2022. It was named Willcox House after Ronald Willcox, whose support made this move possible.

In 2022 our new building opened in Elephant and Castle.

Our work today

Alongside EMA we run an extensive program of residential conferences for ministers, theological students, women in Word ministry, lay preachers and ministers’ wives. Our growing PT Resources provide training and instruction throughout both the UK and many other parts of the world, and Project Timothy seeks to bring our resources to developing countries.