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| | | Ethics has been on my mind, what with a Remembrance Sunday sermon to compose and all the dilemmas of war and peace.
But another issue got me going last week, which began with a news item that tampons are considered a “luxury item” & therefore attract VAT at 5%. This story gave stand-up comedians carte blanche to shout about menstruation, mugging the listener with intimate sexual talk. If you so much as think this is in bad taste you are accused of psychotic primness & all sorts of Freudian inadequacy.
Writing fifteen years ago on the same moral issue, Alan Bennett (in Untold Stories) begins with a quotation from Seamus Heaney on the task of the poet in which he says that poets help us to believe the promptings of our intuitive being… ‘Yes, I know something like that too. Yes, that’s right. Thank you for putting words on it making it more or less official.’ Bennett draws from this the thought that poets, novelists and auto biographers have less purchase nowadays on our deeper self-recognition than stand-up comedians: ‘Their coin is laughter bred out of recognition, their stock in trade riffs that begin ‘Have you noticed that…’ He continues to observe there now seems to be nothing that comedians cannot say. ‘Jaded though one may feel their observations may be, their aperçus contrived and seldom so spontaneous and joyously incidental…as they would have us think, nevertheless comedians are at the same game…’
In my view it’s got worse since Bennett wrote that and now we are often assaulted by unwitty comedians who shout obscenities in your face daring you to object as if you were supposed to be grateful to them for some kind of comedic cleansing of your deep-seated hang-ups and repressions. What’s immoral is that the laughs are cheap, exploitative and expected, both by comedian and audience.
One cannot be too mealy mouthed since comedy can light up our understanding of what is to be human as we see for example in Shakespeare in Lear’s fool on Falstaff. It’s fundamental to the writers’ craft to surprise us with recognition, both unexpected or ordinary, to make the penny drop. It seems to me that’s the task of theology as well – not to mystify but to lift the veil.
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| | | Services this Week
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Tuesdays & Thursdays
12.15 pm Lunchtime Eucharist
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Sunday 4th November 2015
Remembrance Sunday
10.30 am Choral Eucharist
Mass Setting: Rheinberger, Messe Misericordias Dominira
Communion Anthem: J.S. Bach, ‘Ruht wohl’ from Johannes-Passion Preacher: Canon Brian Mountford
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| | Ride and Stride
Congratulations to Gisele Earle, member of St.Mary's congregation and Bill Bliss, volunteer welcomer/guide, who between them amassed £294 in sponsorship money. Half of the money participants collect goes to Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust and the other half goes to a church of their choice. Gisele and her husband visited the churches of Otmoor and they are already looking forward to taking part again next year.
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| | Servers Rota
We are looking to recruit some new members to our serving team in the coming year. It's a great way to get involved in church services and is suitable for anyone from around the age of 10 up. If you would be interested in finding out more about what serving involves or would like to volunteer please talk to our head server Ellie Williams after the service or email her on 'eleanorpolly.smith@gmail.com'.
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| | Forthcoming Events
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Tuesdays 8pm, Vaults & Garden: Bible Study
The Bible Study for students meets in the Vaults cafe every Tuesday evening in term time.
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STUDENTS- There will be a Joint Service with Wesley Memorial Church Thursday of 5th (12th Nov) at 6pm in the Chancel at University Church.
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| On Death Series
Why do we want to talk about death? Does facing our mortality help us live better? And how do we want to be remembered?
University Church presents a series on the theme of death. Each
evening will include a talk, Q&A, and discussion over cheese and
wine.
TONIGHT What's next for me? Dr Jonathan Jong
Since the first Death Café was held in Hackney in 2011 the concept has spread right across the world. At a Death Café people gather to eat cake, drink wine and discuss our mortality (or the idea of an afterlife) from every possible angle. Join our one-off Death Café with Revd Dr Jonathan Jong, an experimental social psychologist and an experienced Death Café host.
Revd Dr Jonathan Jong is Research Fellow Coventry University, and Research Associate at the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford. He is also Assistant Curate at St Mary Magdalen, Oxford.
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| | Fireside Tales series
A six-part series combining creative workshops, talks and performances, looking at the tradition of storytelling throughout the timespan of University Church. From the earliest Christian verse, relayed by Old English bards; by way of the familiar essay, unlocking complexities of thought on religion and philosophy; to the early modern puppetry designed for an illiterate congregation – this series gets to the very heart of storytelling.
Each session will be preceded by a one-hour creative writing workshop, 5.30–6.30pm, to which all are welcome. The talks and performances begin at 6.45pm and last approximately 45 minutes. Events take place in the Old Library unless otherwise stated.
Wednesday 11th November Dr David Crystal, leading authority on linguistics, dialect and Shakespeare, will speak on the fascinating
subject of Original Pronunciation in Elizabethan England, as performed at the Globe Theatre.
Full details here.
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| | Forthcoming Events
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Saturday 7th November 8pm
Oxford Chamber Orchestra
Mozart: Overture to Don Giovanni
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor
Beethoven: Symphony no 6 (Pastoral)
Tickets £15 (£10) from Tickets Oxford
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| | Poetry corner — Next Wednesday, 11th November, we have a very special speaker for 'Fireside Tales'. Dr David Crystal is an expert in Tudor English pronunciation. His talk will challenge the way we look at the language in poetry, theatre and sermons from the period.
Dr Crystal will explain how Shakespeare's puns are lost in our modern RP, and the subtle differences of rhyme which are now 'invisible' to the modern speaker. For example: "‘One' had three pronunciations: rhyming with ‘alone, throne’ etc, rhyming with ‘on’ (as in modern English), and an unstressed ‘un’ (as in modern ‘good ‘un’)." With Dr Crystal we'll explore the fluidity of language and dialect, and how each era takes ownership of a particular text.
Dr Crystal's talk begins at 6.45, having been preceded by an optional creative writing session on dialect poetry (5.30-6.30, in the Old Library). Either or both parts may be attended. As usual, they are free and open to all.
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