#Je suis pretre. Like many priests, this phrase takes on a new meaning for me since yesterday; it brings the almost daily attacks across Europe very close to home. The “I am Priest” has become the latest of the “I am” hashtags that began when gunmen attacked the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. Soon after yesterday’s horrific murder of Fr Jacques Hamel, while he celebrated mass in Normandy, ‘Je suis pretre’ appeared on social media. Some have also used #JeSuisChretien and #JeSuisCatholique while others have been sharing Christian imagery in a show of support and sympathy.

Recently I said to a friend that there are moments when I stand behind the altar on a Sunday morning with one eye on the hymn book and the other on the High St door observing who is coming in. Any minister worth their salt will always have the safety of their congregation uppermost in their minds. Churches, like any public space, are vulnerable to the unknown even though according to Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner ‘there is no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK’. University Church is one of the most beautiful buildings in England yet perhaps one of its core beauties comes from it being a symbol of defiance against evil. It stands as a place where the narrative of perfect love overriding fear is conveyed each week.

This Sunday we have the first of our Summer Choral Evensongs at 5pm in the Chancel. These are often seen as picturesque occasions in a city and in a church like ours. Tourists leave their afternoon stroll in the meadow and drop in for a quintessential Oxford experience. But after a fortnight of relentless violence may this ancient service be a space to ponder a moment in the world where it feels like ‘there is no health in us.’ May it be a space to find calm, to pray for peace and to show our own solidarity for those who are closest to the suffering.

The Revd Alan Ramsey