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Gandhi is known to have said, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ And last night, as over 400 people walked through the streets of Oxford in the name of peace and friendship, one could see an expression of that change in the hearts and minds of those who participated in the annual Interfaith Friendship Walk. Once again, it was incredibly moving to see the walk bringing together people of so many different faiths, and none, to celebrate in our common humanity and common desire for peace and understanding, despite having different religious traditions and practices. In light of Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park, there now can no longer be any other way forward but this to express our spiritual commitment to one another – and hopefully be role models for other cities to take up similar activities to produce honest and real social cohesion.
One of the walkers, Patricia, said, ‘Most of us agree on humanity, peace, justice and integrity of creation. Knowing and recognising this we all can stand together despite our (religious) background and upbringing. What a wonderful celebration of understanding, respect and friendship we again experienced last night.’
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God.’ May we always continue to be young in heart and open to friendships.
Revd Charlotte Bannister-Parker Associate Priest |
| | Services
—Monday - Friday at 9am Morning Prayer (Chancel)
Tuesdays & Thursdays at 12.15pm
Lunchtime Eucharist (Chancel) —
Sunday 2nd July: Trinity 3 10.30am - Sung Eucharist
Preacher: The Revd Alan Ramsey 5.00pm - Choral Evensong (Chancel)
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| | | Choral Evensong
Sundays 5.00pm in the Chancel 2nd July, 9th July, 16th July
This Week Responses: Ayleward
Canticles: William Byrd, The short service
Anthem: John Shepherd, In Pace
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| | | 23rd July: All-Age Service and Sunday School Picnic
There will be an all-age service on the 23rd July at 10.30am followed by the annual Sunday School picnic. Please bring along a picnic and something to share. This will be Claire's leaving service.
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| | Forthcoming Concerts
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Saturday, 8th July, 8pm : Oxford Sinfonia
David Crown conductor
Mahler symphony no 1
Mozart clarinet concerto
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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
Kneeling
Moments of great calm,
Kneeling before an altar
Of wood in a stone church
In summer, waiting for the God
To speak; the air a staircase
For silence; the sun’s light
Ringing me, as though I acted
A great role. And the audiences
Still; all that close throng
Of spirits waiting, as I,
For the message.
Prompt me, God;
But not yet. When I speak,
Though it be you who speak
Through me, something is lost.
The meaning is in the waiting.
R. S. Thomas
The final line of this poem – and that important last word ‘waiting’ – is pre-empted by the caesurae found, mid-line, in most of those preceding it. They begin in line four, the enforced stoppages throwing extra weight on ‘summer’, ‘speak’, ‘silence’; the sibilance creates an extra slowing effect of its own. As we read we are particularly aware of these pauses, of spaces, the short lines highlighting the unused whiteness at the edge of the page. Most of this poem, in fact, is ‘waiting’ (if the words themselves can be seen as ‘action’) – the gaps between words, which we fill up with meaning.
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