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| | The E-pistle News from the University Church |
| | Last Sunday in SMV was an odd beginning to Lent. We sung the hymns but thought about something completely different in the address. This week we’ll get back to some good old Christian ethics. And there’s plenty to think about: Bishops writing letters, political grandees’ greed exposed, the University’s moral conundrum over the castle Mill site, quite apart from terrorism and anarchy belching up like volcanic eruptions in various parts of the globe. So how encouraging and reassuring to receive this letter in the Church Office on Monday: a child had stolen from the church shop and wrote a letter of apology to accompany the return of the goods.
‘I find a pen and a rubber in the paper bag
But I didn’t pay for it.
I must return them to you.
I apologise for it very much.
Yu Yuan.’
And then from the parents:
‘We visited your university church. As parents we apologise for it.’
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| Tonight for Students and 20-somethings
Meeting in the Dark
The final part of our exploration of Nicodemus. After Jesus' death, Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes to anoint the body for burial. Is this final apperance, in John 19, a demonstration of devotion or incomprehension?
Discussion, Q&A and cheese and wine with Dr Mary Marshall, 7.30pm on Thursday 26th Feb in the Vaults and Garden
Bible Study
Final Bible Study of term is this coming Tuesday and we're finishing off our series on Creeds with a discussion on "one holy, catholic and apostolic church", 8pm in the Vaults.
Joint Service with Wesley Memorial Church Thursday 5th March, 6pm at Wesley Memorial Church |
| Into the Wilderness: Reflection morning for Lent, Saturday 14th March
Come and share a relaxed, late breakfast to explore Jesus in the wilderness, and our experience of lent, through discussion prompted by poetry, paintings and reflections. Everyone welcome. Saturday 14th March, 10.30am, in the Old Library. To sign up email: layassistant.smv@gmail.com
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Services this Week
Tuesdays & Thursdays 12.15pm Lunchtime Eucharist
Sunday 2nd February Lent 1 10.30am Choral Eucharist Preacher: Canon Brian Mountford |
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Forthcoming Events
Wednesday 18th February 7pm: Poetry Workshop, Old Library
Thursday 26th February
7.30pm: Student Series: Meeting in the Dark
Tuesday 3rd March
8pm: Student Bible study, Vaults
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Forthcoming Concerts
Carson Becke Piano Recital: Sunday 22nd February |
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Poetry Corner
Vacancy Chain Unlike the hermit crab, no mind can leave its outlived shape behind; though every skull’s constrained with bone a thought not certainly its own.
– Jacob Polley (1975- ) This week, in the poetry workshop, we’re thinking about memory. St Mary’s is full of memorials: it’s a place to remember, both specifically and broadly. From martyrs to soldiers to now-obscure townspeople, it’s brimming with past lives: it’s what Philip Larkin might call “luminously-peopled”, a phrase he uses in his poem “Here”.
One such interesting memorial is that of William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794), philologist. Jones had command of an astonishing thirteen languages (with reasonable knowledge of a further twenty-eight). His research was instrumental in the understanding of the relationship between Indo-European languages.
I love this cheeky, aphoristic quatrain from Jake Polley; he manages to sound both portentous and flippant, in a rather eighteenth-century way. Even the thought expressed in his poem is, of course, not new. The fact that humans share a community in ideas must have been particularly evident to William Jones, who would have been familiar with the similarity between (for example) the word for “mother” in various Indo-European languages: māter in Latin, mḗtēr in Ancient Greek, mātár- in Sanskrit, māthir in Celtic… Sometimes a good idea is worth having more than once. |
| Poetry Workshops: Rewriting History
The Education Officer, Penny Boxall, leads 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.
6th Week (24th February) John Radcliffe: Poetical Science. Using Radcliffe as our starting point, we will look at the poetry of science.
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