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I know it’s a cliché to talk about the weather (even with our bizarre spring). But as we walk around four colleges tomorrow morning at our annual Beating of the Bounds I’m genuinely delighted that the sun will be on us. Last year it was a parade of umbrellas and damp hymn sheets with only the tea and cherry cake at All Souls to warm us up. If you haven’t been to a Beating of the Bounds before come along. It’s an ancient ceremony where parish boundaries are marked by beating the boundary stones with willow sticks. The tradition dates back to the 15th Century, and possibly Saxon times. Local press often describe it as ‘weird and wonderful’. And indeed it is. Our Ascension Day service will be held in the Chancel at 8.30am and then we depart for our first stop at Brasenose College around 9.15.
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| | Services
—Tuesdays & Thursdays at 12.15pm
Lunchtime Eucharists
— Thursday 5th May
Ascension Day- Eucharist and Beating of the Bounds
8.30am: Holy Eucharist
9–11am: Beating of the Bounds. This ancient ceremony, particularly enjoyed by children,
involves tracing the parish boundaries through Brasenose, All Souls, University College, and Oriel.
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Sunday 8th May 10.30am - Choral Eucharist Preacher - The Revd Professor Morwenna Ludlow Music: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Missa Viri Galilaei
Gerald Finzi, God is gone up
5.45pm: Corpus Christi College Evensong Preacher: Avril Baigent |
| | In other words
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What is it about a great poem that resonates with us? Why do we feel a sense of the ‘other’ when we read a novel? This series explores the links between literature and theology.
Events take place on Wednesday evenings in the Old Library (above the Vaults and Gardens Café) at 6.45pm.
4 May – Mystery, revelation and imagination
Whereas the creative imagination in story, poetry and drama reaches out to a mystery at the heart of life, theology works on the basis that the Supreme Mystery, God, has opened God’s self to us. Theology can thus provide a perspective from which to read literature.
Paul S. Fiddes is Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford.
11 May – Moments of creation: the spiritual ‘fancies’ of John Milton and Hester Pulter
Poets are creators who use their ‘fancy’ to make whatever worlds they choose but if those worlds deal with ineffable truths then the act of poetic creation might be considered dangerous. This lecture will examine two such moments of visionary risk-taking.
Lynn Robson is Tutor in English Literature at Regent’s Park College.
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| | Forthcoming Concerts & Other Events
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Saturday 7th May 7.30pm Intermezzo Chamber Choir
It will include music with an English connection including Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb and music by Jackson, Dove, Whitacre, Gjeilo, and others.
For ticket reservations please email tickets@oxfordintermezzo.co.uk with the number of adult (£9) and concessionary (£6) tickets you would like to reserve. Ticket reservations will close at 7:30pm on Friday 6th May, after which any remaining tickets will be available on the door.
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Friday 13th May 7.30pm Handel: Israel in Egypt
Tickets: £25 / £18 (u.18s free) from www.ticketsoxford.com / 01865 305305
The Oxford Early Music Festival (10th-15th May) present Handel’s epic and virtuosic oratorio Israel in Egypt at the University Church on Friday 13th May. Telling the story of the flight of the Israelites, including the parting of the Red Sea and the joyful ending to the journey, Handel’s dramatic oratorio will be brought to life by Ensemble 45 (featuring members of the Church Choir), the International Baroque Players and a superlative team of soloists, headed by early music superstars, soprano Emma Kirkby and countertenor Robin Blaze. More details at www.oemf.co.uk.
Check out our website and Facebook pages.
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| | Poetry corner —
Prayer (I)
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
- George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633)
It is the last phrase of this poem which I’d like to consider this week. On Wednesday we see the first of our series on literature and theology, In Other Words, which is opened by Professor Paul S. Fiddes. How, exactly, do these two disciplines relate to each other? Is it right to consider them separate disciplines at all? Can a secular work produce an effect assimilating, or enabling, prayer? What is a secular prayer, and can it be achieved through writing? The idea of a community of readers – a congregation, as it were – receiving and responding to a poem is a very interesting one, and something which will be explored in the coming weeks. Poetry allows ‘something [to be] understood’ across boundaries, and the transfer of knowledge – from poem to reader and vice versa – enriches both. Come along on Wednesday and discover more about this huge and fascinating topic.
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