Subject: News from the University Church

 

What does Home mean to you?


by the Revd Hannah Cartwright


Where is home for you?

Perhaps home is a place which you come from - an area, a building or a childhood house or perhaps it is a place you go to when you are feeling vulnerable.Or perhaps home is a feeling that you get when you arrive somewhere important to you: comfort, familiarity, safety. Or perhaps it is a gathering - being among ‘your people’, the ones who ‘get’ you and who you can relax and be yourself with. But sometimes of course some of the places we call ‘home’ have not always been the safe or affirming places they should have been for us. Many of us know only too well that a house is not automatically the same thing as a home. Some of us have also experienced the trauma of losing our homes or of being made homeless.


Homelessness is a deep injustice in our society. We were shown by the ‘everyone in’ policy during covid that it categorically is possible (should we put proper resource into it) to ensure that everyone has a roof over their heads. It is the active will of those who make decisions from the comfort of their home office or who go back to a comfortable bed at night, not to prioritise continuing this kind of initiative and giving everyone the opportunity for safe shelter in society. We can end homelessness but we choose not to. Homelessness is not an identity, it is a circumstance - yet we still treat so many people in that situation in dehumanising ways.


We alone cannot solve the problem of homelessness, without the (literal) concrete action of those who steward this nations resources. We may not individually be able to provide housing (although many have through opening their homes under recognised and properly regulated asylum schemes), but we can help to make this church a home for everyone.

Because home is neither a place, nor a people, nor a feeling (although at their best those things do represent something of the essence of ‘home’) but home is in-fact a relationship. It is not temporal, spatial or circumstantial: home is (as the saying goes) where your heart is. And God’s heart is with his people: wherever they are, especially when they find themselves in tough times and in need of love and community. God is home because God is Love: Love that is dependable, love that does not rely on us or how we are at the time, love that is there waiting to welcome us home and love that IS home. Home found in relationship. We are God’s people and so are those who find themselves without a home: let’s be their ‘people’,their ‘safe space’, their community of comfort to which they can return; not on our own as individuals but as a whole supportive church and community who choose to stretch out our arms to embrace every child of God who needs a relationship with the One who is truly our refuge.


Professor Willie James Jennings has been speaking powerfully on the topic of home and habitation through the Bampton Lectures and on Sunday afternoon at 3.30pm there will be a special service of choral evensong, at which he will preach. This will be followed by a brief housing justice reception to speak to Professor Jennings and to hear from volunteers within our own congregation. This is for all who are interested in how we can make this church and city a place all can call home.

Please do come along and encourage others to hear their powerful words on this topic.

Livestreamed Services

at the University Church

We livestream our 10.30am Sung Eucharist every Sunday.

Please follow the links below for our social media channels.


If you have any feedback or questions about our livestreamed services,

please email ana-maria.niculcea@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk

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Click the image to see our events for Trinity 2023

Notices


CHORAL EVENSONG & RECEPTION – 3.30PM, THIS SUNDAY, 28 MAY

The Revd Dr Willie James Jennings will be preaching at this special service of Choral Evensong. Afterwards there will be a reception with opportunity to hear from some of those involved in issues of homelessness/housing justice locally. All are warmly encouraged to come and invite others to hear more about this important topic.


BAMPTON LECTURES CONTINUE – 10AM & 11.30AM, TUESDAY 30 MAY

Given by the Revd Dr Willie James Jennings: ‘Jesus and the Displaced: Christology and the Redemption of Habitation’, these lectures focus on the problems of displacement (geographic, racial, social, and environmental) & how a fresh consideration of the landed life of Jesus might speak to these problems. NB: there will be no 12.15pm Eucharist on this day.These are livestreamed on our YouTube channel.


COFFEE & DOUGHNUTS – 11.15AM WEDNESDAYS

All are welcome to join us for coffee, doughnuts, and conversation in DeBrome.


POETRY HOUR - 5.30PM WEDNESDAY, 31 MAY

Poetry Hour is a forum for a diverse group of poets who have been reading and writing poetry together since 2015 in a relaxed and supportive environment. This term we are reading and responding to Liz Berry's collection The Home Child.


QUIET EVENING FOR FEAST OF THE VISITATION – 7.30PM WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, 31 march, 7.30-8.15 pm there will be a Quiet Evening for the Feast of the Visitation. Come to celebrate the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (Luke 1: 39-56) by exploring multi-cultural images, poetry and texts, with time for quiet prayer and reflection, followed by refreshments. Led by The Revd Dr Jane Baun. Register here.


FREE LUNCHTIME RECITAL SERIES - 1PM THURSDAY

This week we welcome Diana Hinds to play works including by Boulanger and Faure.


THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES BIBLE STUDY – 12.45PM FRIDAYS

Theologian Willie James Jennings describes Acts as a book of ‘revolution’, that highlights the disrupting, joyful presence of the Spirit of God, and our reading will be guided by his recent commentary The Book of Acts in the Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible series. All are welcome to join us in the Old Library.


OXFORD PRIDE SERVICE – 10.30AM SATURDAY 3 JUNE

Oxford Pride, the annual celebration for the LGBTQIA+ community, takes place on Saturday 3 June. There will be a brief act of worship at St Mary’s at 10.30am before the Pride Parade sets off from Radcliffe Square. We’re delighted to be welcoming priest, author and advocate The Revd Ruth Harley to preach at this special service. Whether or not you are LGBTQIA+ yourself, all are welcome to join in solidarity and support. There will also be a service of closing prayers at the end of the march.


PARISH LUNCH – 12PM NEXT SUNDAY

There will be a Parish Lunch in the Old Library on 4th June at 12noon. If you are able to contribute a dish, please contact Katie Hicks or email the church office: admin@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk


CHILDREN’S CHURCH & GODLY PLAY – SUNDAY 11th JUNE

Please note that Children’s Church with Godly Play will take place on 11th June this month.


SUNDAY FORUM – 12PM SUNDAY 11th JUNE

The Revd Dr Erica Longfellow, Dean of Divinity at New College, will help us consider our current debates about marriage through the lens of the radical changes that took place at the Reformation. We will challenge some of the myths about ‘traditional marriage’, and ask what we might like to keep from our Anglican past, and what we might need to change, as we think about equal marriage.


ANNUAL INTERFAITH FRIENDSHIP WALK - THURSDAY 15 JUNE, 6PM

Join us for a walk through the city centre with people of many faiths. We will begin our journey from the synagogue in North Oxford via St Giles Church and then on to the University Church in Radcliffe Square before ending our journey

at the Mosque in Stanley Rd. This is a great community celebration and everyone is very welcome to join us.


WALKING BOOTS - SATURDAY 17 JUNE, 10.30AM - 2PM

A walk from the church to Iffley via Christ Church Meadow and the Thames Path to look at the church of St Mary which is one of the finest 12th century churches in England. Fine dogtooth carving over west and south doors, and a John

Piper window inside. Returning to the church along Meadow Lane to take in Ascot’s Ayot nature reserve. Bring a picnic/refreshments for an en route break.


SUPPORTING OUR MINISTRY   
If you would like to support the ministry of the University Church, you may wish to make a cash donation at the offertory or via the contactless card machine by the High Street entrance. You can also make a donation online (please use the QR code) through the Parish Giving Scheme or by sending a text: Text "SMV X" to 70085 to donate £X. E.g.: "SMV 5" to 70085 will donate £5.00. Texts cost £X plus one standard rate message. Thank you!

St Mary's Church, High Street, OX1 4BJ, Oxford, United Kingdom

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