Selly Oak Colleges was a federation of educational facilities which in the 1970s and 1980s was at the forefront of debates about ecumenism - the coming together of Christian churches and the creation of new united churches such as the Church of South India; the relationships between Christianity and other religions, especially Islam and Judaism; child-centred teacher training; and the theology of Christian mission. It was located on a substantial campus in Selly Oak, a suburb in the south-west of Birmingham, England, about a mile from the University of Birmingham. In 2001 the largest college, Westhill College, whose main work was the training of teachers, passed into the hands of the University of Birmingham, and most of the remaining colleges closed, leaving Woodbrooke College, a study and conference centre for the Society of Friends, and Fircroft College, a small adult education college with residential provision, which continue today. History Woodbrooke College was founded in 1903 by George Cadbury and other local members of the Society of Friends, (or Quakers), in the former home of George Cadbury, whose father John created the chocolate-making company Cadbury. The Society did not have salaried clergy, or professional training for its leaders. So the College was set up to provide its lay leaders with good knowledge of Quaker traditions and of Christian theology, and Christian responses to social questions. It was not an official institution of the Society of Friends, but it had the active support of many Quakers on both sides of the Atlantic. Kingsmead College was founded in 1905 by the Friends' Foreign Mission Association, for the training of women missionaries. From 1915 Methodists came to the college, and Methodist influence and commitment increased, until in 1946 it came under Methodist control. In 1960 it became the centre for the training of all Methodist missionary candidates from the UK and a place that they could return to when they returned home on leave. Westhill College (1907) was also begun by Quakers, at first to train Sunday school teachers with, from 1912, a governing body which included representatives from the main Free Churches in the UK. Its work expanded to train youth and community workers, and it became a pioneering training college for primary and infants school teachers. Its teacher training stressed the importance of child-centred education, especially for young children, on the principles of Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852), and Christian education. Its students, and