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| | The E-pistle News from the University Church |
| Thanks to all those who have shown interest in my sermons since Christmas. I have not put the most recent one on line because it was incomplete, but I’m willing to email it to anyone who is interested.
Next week on Tuesday and Wednesday we shall have Bampton Lectures 3 and 4. David Ford got off to a brilliant start this Tuesday.
On Sunday Keith Ward will preach. He’s usually funny as well as very perceptive about the liberal take on religion.
By the way, there’ll be a great piano recital on 22 February at 5pm and it’s FREE.
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| Bampton Lectures 2015 Prof David Ford, the Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge
He is speaking on the Gospel of John: "Daring Spirit: John’s Gospel Now"
5.00pm Tuesday 27th Jan: 3, ‘Into all the truth’ – A Community of Learners.
5.00pm Wednesday 28th Jan: 4. The Literary John – Above all Dramatic. |
| This week for Students and 20-somethings
Meeting in the Dark
Due to popular demand Dr Mary Marshall is coming back for three discussion this term.
The subject is the intriguing and mysterious character Nicodemus. The first session is on the 29th January, 7.30-9pm in the Vaults with cheese and wine. Check the website for full details.
29th Jan: 'Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus...'
Nicodemus first appears by night- a teacher of Israel who receives instruction. But does he come into the light or is he still in the dark? The first session will explore Nicodemus' first appearance in John 3.
Bible Study
In the Vaults, Tuesdays, 8-9pm. This term we will be discussing the Creeds- we say one every Sunday but what do we think they mean? Why we use them? And do we need them? Newcomers welcome at any point in term. |
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This Week
Tuesdays & Thursdays 12.15pm Lunchtime Eucharist
Sunday 25th January 10.30am Choral Eucharist Preacher: The Revd Professor Keith Ward
Monday 2nd February 7.30pm:Taize Service for Candlemas A short, reflective, candlelit service in the chancel. Everyone is welcome- please join us.
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Forthcoming Events
Tuesday 27th Jan 5pm: Bampton Lecture
Wednesday 28th 5pm: Bampton Lecture 7pm: Poetry Workshop, Old Library: Illuminators
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Forthcoming Concerts
Oxford Sinfonia: Saturday 24th January
Hertford College Music Society, Friday, 13th February
Carson Becke Piano Recital: Sunday 22nd February |
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Poetry Corner
‘There is no Frigate like a Book’
There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away, Nor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry – This Traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of Toll – How frugal is the Chariot That bears a Human Soul –
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
This week we’ll begin a series of poetry workshops, in the first session thinking about the place that the Library – and its attendant books – holds in the imagination. But Dickinson’s romantic, nineteenth-century view of Literature as a great socialist resource is at odds with the privilege required to enter earlier libraries.
The Old Library of the University Church, begun in around 1320 and put to use by 1410, was the first University building; it would have contained an enviable range of texts, chained to desks to prevent theft. Aside from the exquisite and expensive skills of the scribes and illuminators required to copy a text, even the parchment upon which texts was written would cost the commissioner dearly. One hide of a goat or sheep, folded into two leaves, would provide only four distinct pages upon which to write – so a book of one hundred pages would require 25 animal skins. A sheep cost around 1s 5d in the mid-14th century; the parchment alone would have cost 425 pence – that is, £1 15s 5d. (Vellum, made from calfskin, was more expensive still.) A scribe earned around £2 per year; and the University, in the first years of the Library, could not afford to employ a librarian.
So while Emily Dickinson’s poem tells us that Literature transports us neatly – and at no charge – to different times and places, the reality of the book for the medieval scholar was rather less “frugal”. |
| Poetry Workshops: Rewriting History
Beginning this week the Education Officer, Penny Boxall, will lead a series of poetry workshops based on the history of the University Church and its surroundings. In each session we will discuss poems by established writers- both historic and contemporary- and look at the mechanism at work within them. Using images and objects as stimuli, we will write poems on topics connected to that week's theme. Whether you are a fan of history or poetry, write regularly or are relatively new to poetry, come along and see where this historical journey will take you. Wednesdays, 7-8.30pm in the Old Library.
This evening, 21st January - "The Library" Central to the University, the Old Library was the first University building, and a place for the transmission of ideas from past to present. We'll discover how different times inform each other in poetry.
28th January - "Illuminators" Before the creation of Radcliffe Square, Catte Street housed those involved with book production in medieval Oxford, including the scribes and illuminators. We will look at how poetry can conjure rich images with words. |
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