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This Sunday marks the beginning of our Summer Series of Choral Evensong. For the next four Sundays, the University Church Choir will be singing Choral Evensong at St Mary’s. The service starts at 5.00pm and will last for 45-50 minutes.
Choral Evensong is one of the real gems of the Anglican tradition. It bears witness to a tradition which is both catholic and reformed. The original services of Morning and Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer were devised by Thomas Cranmer to replace the monastic hours of Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline. At the same time, they drew on a number of features which characterised the monastic hours. There was a heavy emphasis on the saying or singing of the psalms, and extended passages of scripture. Moreover, one can see in Evening Prayer elements which combine the ancient offices of Vespers and Compline. The singing of the Magnificat was at the heart of Vespers, and the singing of the Nunc Dimittis was the central component of Compline. Evensong combined both canticles. Very quickly this material was set to music. The compilers of the Prayer Book appear to have encouraged this. The rubrics make mention of the fact that immediately after the Collects or set Prayers, ‘In Quires and Places where they sing, here followeth the Anthem’.
We are fortunate to have so many opportunities to attend Choral Evensong in Oxford: at the Colleges, at the Cathedral, and at St Mary’s. Attending Choral Evensong does not make huge demands of those who attend. You don’t need to be familiar with the Order of Service, or be anxious about what you are supposed to say or do. You can simply be and listen. Evensong offers space for a more reflective and contemplative mode. The words and the music offer a moment to reflect on the day which has past, to reflect on our hopes and fears, our desires and needs, as well as our thanksgiving and gratitude. Evensong punctuates the busyness of our lives with a point of stillness and calm to attend to the soul:
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by they great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Revd Dr William Lamb Vicar |
| | Services
—Monday - Friday at 9am Morning Prayer (Chancel)
Tuesdays & Thursdays at 12.15pm
Lunchtime Eucharist (Chancel) —
Sunday 25th June: Trinity 2
10.30am - Sung Eucharist
Preacher: The Revd Bruce Kinsey, Chaplain, Balliol College 5.00pm - Choral Evensong (Chancel)
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| | | Choral Evensong
Sundays 5.00pm in the Chancel 25th June, 2nd July, 9th July, 16th July
This Week Responses: Ayleward
Canticles: Tallis, Short Service
Anthem: Gibbons, Almighty and Everlasting God
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| | The Vicar and Churchwardens of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin are delighted to announce the appointment of the Revd James Crockford as the new Assistant Priest at the University Church. James will take up his appointment from 1st September 2017, with his licensing taking place at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 5th September. Read the press release here.
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| | Reflection Morning, Saturday
Exploring the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, in the Old Library, 10.30-12 noon. |
| | | Interfaith Friendship Walk An interfaith walk from the Synagogue (gather from 6.15pm), stopping at St Mary’s at 7.15pm and arriving at the Central Mosque at 8.00pm.
We are looking for volunteers to help with stewarding the walk on 29th June. If you might be able to help please email: mary.lean@iofc.org
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| | | | Mystery Plays
Sian Witherden (DPhil English, Balliol) and Penny Boxall (Education Officer, University Church), with the support of TORCH, have orchestrated the updating of 8 key plays from the York Mystery Cycle. The plays have been rewritten by local groups, standing in for the guilds of medieval York.
The plays will be presented in a staged reading on Saturday 29th July, performed by members of the local groups, at the University Church. The new mystery plays include writing by (among others) Bodleian Library Staff, Frideswide Voices, Brookes Creative Writing MA and Thames Valley Police, as well as a group from St Mary's.
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| | Poetry Corner
from 'Midsummer'
…The summer night glowed; in the field, fireflies were glinting.
And for those who understood such things, the stars were sending messages:
You will leave the village where you were born
and in another country you’ll become very rich, very powerful,
but always you will mourn something you left behind, even though
you can’t say what it was,
and eventually you will return to seek it.
Louise Glück (born 1943)
Midsummer's Day was Wednesday; and the poem ‘Midsummer’ by Louise Glück evokes a particular quality of light and a sense of offstage drama. Signals are being received from far-off, but they are conflicting and focus-less. The stars (ancient, distant) are mimicked by the fireflies (short-lived, local) so that one is unsure which is the lead to follow. The two lights shining in the summer’s night invite one to adventure, at the same time as provoking love for the familiar.
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