| | From All Saints to Advent : A Season of Remembrance
by Chris Leckey
At autumn’s turn to All Saints’, as leaves the colour of sunsets fall to the ground and in time bear fruit, we taste and see God’s mystic wholeness more fully. We break with the season’s cosy joys for the solemn silences of All Souls’, Remembrance Sunday, and Transgender Day of Remembrance, inviting the departed to enter again into our presence, and knowing ourselves invited into theirs. Crowding together with the leaves, we tell those who have died that we ‘re-member’ them, that in Christ we and they are one body.
We draw closer to strangers, too. Perhaps the simplest truth of the cenotaph and vigil is that, to remember the dead, we are to stand with the living. And if to stand in solidarity is to say that your life’s particularities cannot hinder us from godly fellowship, then to stand and remember those who have died, is to say that neither can the grave. All Saints’ brings us closer to those branches of the true vine who in death bear yet more fruit, enjoying forever their solidarity with the risen Christ and His body on earth – us, the gathered crowd – and who share in that body’s pain. The saints stand with those who know the violent cost of truth and bravery, for they knew it too. They knew poverty, and stand with those now facing the sharp bite of a hungry winter, as the question "eating or heating?" floats on the colder winds back into our conversations. They knew the scourge of war, and the wordlessness of grief. After our silences, we say to the fallen, and to each other, "no more". "Never again". All saints and all souls say it with us in holy solidarity, and quietly the Spirit stirs with the woodlouse and the earthworm to turn the leafmeal into new life.
Chris is one of the placement students at the University Church this year. | | This Sunday
8.30am Holy Eucharist - Chancel
Preacher: The Revd Canon Dr William Lamb
10.30am Choral Eucharist - Nave Preacher: The Revd Canon Dr William Lamb
3.30pm Choral Evensong - Chancel | | This Week
Monday 9.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel 12.15 Eucharist - Chancel
Tuesday 9.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel 12.15 Eucharist - Chancel 12.45 Canterbury Student Lunch - Old Library
Wednesday 9.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel 11.15 Coffee & Doughnuts - Adam de Brome chapel 12.15 Eucharist - Chancel
Thursday 9.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel 12.15 Eucharist - Chancel 13.00 Lunchtime Recital - Nave
Friday 9.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel 12.15 Eucharist - Chancel 12.45 Bible Study - Old Library
Saturday 10.00 Art of Dying - Old Library | | | | | Special Events
THE ART OF DYING – 10AM-12PM SATURDAY 16 NOVEMBER This panel discussion will bring together specialists from the University of Oxford and beyond. A theologian, a forensic scientist, a funeral director, and a palliative care doctor meet to discuss the intersection of academic and practical approaches to death and dying, and what these different disciplines and industries can learn from each other.
SUNDAY FORUM: – 12PM SUNDAY 17 NOVEMBER Oxford is home to many unique library collections, in addition to its two universities. Libraries, along with their staff and systems, are crucial to academic research and teaching and yet they are rarely the focus of attention. Two of the congregation’s librarians, Eleanor Peers and Ashley Cushman, offer a glimpse into the secret life of the library, the vast collections and infrastructures that underpin Oxford’s research and teaching, and the commitment and skill of those who maintain them. | | Upcoming Concerts
IT&T: Antonio Caldara: Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo
Saturday 9 November, 7.30pm
For a musician boasting a string of prestigious appointments – maestro di cappella at Mantua, to Charles III (pretender to the Spanish throne) in Barcelona, Ruspoli in Rome, and finally Vize-Kapellmeister at the Imperial Court in Vienna – Antonio Caldara (1670–1736) is strangely overlooked in our own time. He held these positions precisely because he was an outstanding composer, both of opera and oratorio. Instruments of Time & Truth, as part of its tenth anniversary season, will offer a unique opportunity to hear one of Caldara's finest oratorios, Maddalena ai piedi de Cristo, a dramatic telling of the struggle between Good and Evil for the soul of Mary Magdalena. Such libretti were the stuff of Lenten observance in European Courts, but there is nothing Lenten about Caldara's treatment, vivid, intense, compact and compelling. Six solo voices take on six dramatic roles; one fabulous aria follows another; all enriched by highly original writing for string orchestra.
Book a ticket here.Handel - Dixit Dominus
Friday 15 November, 7.30pm
One of Oxford’s newest professional ensembles, The Deitatis Consort and Players present music by Handel, Charpentier, and Carissimi, in three works which display a breath-taking range of expression and power, each bringing the very best of their respective schools and styles to the fore.
The Deitatis Consort and Players were founded to create a dynamic ensemble capable of facilitating the performance of music across the millennium and into the present day, with a current focus on music of the 17th century. As a choir, it draws on outstanding singers from across not only Oxford but the country and as an instrumental force, it functions not only in support of the choir but independently, and is commited to period instrumentation and exploration of historical performance practices.Directed by Luke Mitchell, singers and instrumentalists from the group perform in a range of combinations, having formerly performed a wide range of music in Oxford, and are currently working towards several projects, including reconstruction of Restoration Opera.
Book a ticket here.If you would like to join our brand new team of volunteer concert stewards, please get in touch with us at info@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk | | | Care for Creation - November
Green your home. Combat climate change and reduce heating costs by identifying and sealing drafts around your home. Find the gaps that let the cold air in and warm air out (think keyholes, letterboxes, cracks around the edges or bottoms of windows and doors, loft hatches, floorboards, etc.) and fix these gaps using the correct materials and online tutorials. Additionally, place foil or radiator panels to reflect heat into your room. Pray for those who might be experiencing the cold this winter.
From: https://arocha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ARUK-Eco-Tips-Calendar-2024.pdf | |
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