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Yesterday was the beginning of Lent, ushered in by the wonderful – if sobering – Ash Wednesday Service. It calls us all to a time of 40 days of prayer, meditation and contemplation. Some of us will also have been considering what to ‘give up’. Having recently read a book called Unplugged: How to Live Mindfully in a Digital World (Orianna Fielding: Carlton Books), I now feel challenged to think about a digital detox.
For many of us, just as addictive as the daily coffee or glass of wine is the need to be plugged in all the time. Sometimes it feels as if we are drowning in digital information, constantly checking our phones for messages, computers for emails, spending hours surfing online. According to my children I am really a digital dinosaur as I don’t even do Facebook, Twitter or Instagram… But one can still feel panicky if you don’t have the phone on beside you at all times of day and night, and have access to email every couple of hours. It’s an incessant distraction; and this dependency on being online does seem to dominate our lives. In some cases digital addiction can cause depression. (The brilliant Rachel Kelly will be touching on this topic in this evening’s talk at St Mary’s at 7.30pm and giving us helpful hints for happiness!)
So this Lent I am going to ‘unplug’ for one day a week, hoping that it will enhance all wellbeing and joy of life and create a space to really be with my family and friends. If any others follow, perhaps we will be reminded of the original meaning of ‘like’ and ‘share’: knowing that the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. (However, for church emergencies I can of course still be contacted – day or night!)
The Revd Charlotte Bannister-Parker
Acting Priest-in-charge
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| | Roy Foster
Roy Foster’s funeral will be held at the University Church St Mary the Virgin on Monday 13th of March at 12.00pm.
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| | Services
—Tuesdays & Thursdays at 12.15pm
Lunchtime Eucharist —
Sunday 26th February Sunday next before Lent 9.30am -Family Services 10.30am - Choral Eucharist
Preacher - The Revd Dr Erica Longfellow, Chaplain of New College Music: Missa Ottavi Toni, Antonio Lotti In jejunio et fletu, Thomas Tallis
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| | | A Chance to Think: an open study group to meet at 12.45 - 13.30 each Thursday of Lent, following on from the 12.15 Eucharist. We shall be studying the Gospel of Mark in the light of Rowan Williams' book 'Meeting God in Mark'. The second meeting is on March 9th and will focus on Chapters 2.18 - 4.41. Bring your own sandwiches. Tea and coffee provided.
Reflection Morning
Saturday 11th March, 10.30am- 12 noon in the Old Library. The second in a pair of mornings discussing the Bible. During this session we’ll consider how we might develop our use of scripture. All welcome. Coffee and pastries.
Moot, 6th March, 7.45pm in the Lee Building, Christ Church
We are very pleased that Dr Iain McGilchrist is going to be joining us. Iain is a psychiatrist and a writer who was previously a fellow at All Souls College. He is especially famous for his book 'The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World'. You can read the introduction to the book on his website
(http://iainmcgilchrist.com/). He has also written a shortened, Kindle version of the book called 'The Divided Brain and the Search for Meaning'.
Iain will be speaking to the title 'What Happened to the Soul?'. He writes, 'It seems obvious to many people that the soul is an outmoded superstition. I will argue that, though the idea suffers from unhelpful associations and accretions, it was never more urgently in need of rediscovery than now, and that it is not a narrow issue that concerns only those people who think of themselves as religious, but each and every one of us.'
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| | | Rachel Kelly in conversation with Charlotte Bannister-Parker Tonight, 7.30pm in the Old Library.
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| | | | 'Understanding'
A new 5-part course for those interested in learning more about Christianity.
Aimed at those preparing for Confirmation, but open to all. Please join us in the Old Library at 12 noon.
Sunday 12th March: Bible
Sunday 19th March: Eucharist
Sunday 26th March: Church of England Sunday 2nd April: Prayer |
| | Date for your diary: Installation of Revd Dr Will Lamb as Vicar
Advanced notice of the date of the installation, induction and institution of Revd Dr Will Lamb as our new Vicar by the Bishop and Archdeacon of Oxford. The service will be on 2nd May at 7.30pm followed by drinks in the church.
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| | | Forthcoming Concerts & Other Events
7th March, 7.30pm: Hertford College Music Society Works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Mozart
8th March, 1pm: Free guitar concert
9th March, 8pm: University Chorus Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle
11th March, 7.30pm: Jubilate Chamber Choir Works by Vaughn Williams, Elgar, Gabriel Jackson
Check our website and Facebook pages for more events.
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| | | Poetry Corner
from ‘Ash Wednesday’
Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?
Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again
TS Eliot
I won’t attempt to summarise the long poem ‘Ash Wednesday’ in its entirety – it is available online – but the opening stanzas to Eliot’s poem of redemption provide a compacted mantra for the speaker turning from a lack of faith towards belief. The repetition in the first three lines, morphing with each iteration, evokes a wish for clarity rather than uncertainty; the speaker moves away from the vanity of competition (‘desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope’, which is itself a rendering of Shakespeare – as though, ironically, the speaker can’t resist appropriating an example of the bard’s ‘gift’ and ‘scope’) to a place where he is taught ‘to care and not to care’, later in the poem. It is a poem of rebirth and regeneration, of acceptance and a kind of happy resignation. Its challenge and obscurity is part of the point: this turning, this knowing, isn’t easy, Eliot suggests.
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| | Community Notices
St Michael and All Angels, New Marston are hosting a Spring Fayre on Saturday 25th March in aid of St Mary and St Nicholas Littlemore, 10-3pm. All Welcome. |
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