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Thursday 5th October is an important anniversary in the history of St Mary’s. It marks the 75th anniversary of the first meeting of the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, which took place in the Old Library, under the chairmanship of Canon Dick Milford, the Vicar of St Mary’s. The people who gathered there came from a variety of different backgrounds. There were Anglicans, Quakers, social activists, and academics. The reason for gathering in 1942 at the height of the Second World War was simple: to persuade the British government to allow food relief through the Allied blockade for the starving citizens of occupied Greece. From the beginning, the Oxford Committee was motivated by humanitarian concern, a concern which transcended national interests.
I suspect that no-one sitting around the table on that autumn day had any inkling of the impact of the organisation which became known as OXFAM in 1958. One of the distinctive features of the Oxford Committee was the fact that it continued after the Second World War (while similar committees in other major cities were disbanded after the war). The secretary of the committee, Cecil Jackson-Cole, was adamant that the work of famine relief would need to continue. One of the significant innovations was the creation of the OXFAM shop on Broad Street in 1949 - indeed, under the guidance of Joe Mitty, its manager, this was the first charity shop of its kind.
Since 1942, OXFAM has developed a reputation for bringing famine relief and assistance to people across the world. At the same time, it has campaigned to promote awareness and understanding of the structural causes of poverty and related injustice. It has become a doughty defender of human rights: a right to a sustainable livelihood, a right to basic social services, a right to life, a right to security, and right to be heard. Its work has been sustained by an international vision. At the same time, it is worth reflecting on the fact that it emerged out of a partnership between people from different walks of life, and people of different social and religious perspectives. These partnerships are important. We can achieve far more by working together than by working alone. I hope that one of the characteristics of our life together at the University Church is that this story will inspire us to continue to promote partnership and to work with others in love and service.
Blessed are the poor…
not the penniless but those whose heart is free.
Blessed are those who mourn…
not those who whimper but those who raise their voices.
Blessed are the meek…
not the soft but those who are patient and tolerant.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice…
not those who whine but those who struggle.
Blessed are the merciful….
not those who forget but those who forgive.
Blessed are the pure in heart….
not those who act like angels but those whose life is transparent.
Blessed are the peacemakers…
not those who shun conflict but those who face it squarely.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice….
not because they suffer but because they love.
(A prayer based on Matthew 5.3-12 from Santiago, Chile).
The Revd Dr William Lamb Vicar |
| | | | The Week Ahead:
—This Sunday
Sunday 8th October The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
10.30 Choral Eucharist
Preacher: The Revd Dr William Lamb
12.00 Michaelmas Parish Lunch, The Old Library
This Week
Monday Denys and Companions, c.250
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.30 Evening Prayer Oriel College
Tuesday Paulinus, 644
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.00 Book Club (Welcome Drinks) Jam Factory
18.00 Court Sermon, Morag Ellis QC Christ Church
Wednesday James the Deacon, c.671
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.30 Choral Evensong Queen’s College
Thursday Elizabeth Fry, 1845
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist, followed by Bible Study Chancel
18.15 Choral Evensong Exeter College
Friday Edward Confessor, 1066
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.00 Choral Evening Prayer Magdalen College
Saturday Callistus I, c.223
18.15 Choral Evensong New College
Next Sunday
Sunday 15th October The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
10.30 Choral Eucharist with University Sermon Preacher: The Revd Canon Prof Sarah Foot
18.00 Choral Evensong at Trinity College Chapel
Preacher: The Revd Dr William Lamb
For full listings of daily evening services within the parish, see website.
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| | Virgin Sport Oxford Half MarathonThis event takes place this Sunday and there will be a number of road closures in the centre of Oxford and to the north of the city. Please check their website to learn more: https://uk.virginsport.com/event/oxford-2017 |
| | Michaelmas Termcard
You can view our Michaelmas Termcard now on our website and at this link: http://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Michaelmas_2017.pdf
The termcard contains lots of information about our programme over the next few month and includes our Advent and Christmas services. |
| | A Time to think: Bible Study
The Eucharist is celebrated daily in the Chancel (Monday – Friday) at 12.15pm. On Thursdays this term, immediately after the Eucharist, there will be a Bible Study in the Vestry (from 12.45-1.30pm). We will be exploring St Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. Please bring your lunch (e.g. sandwiches) with you. Hot drinks will be provided.
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| | Newman Walk
Newman Walk
On Sunday 1 October at 12noon, we went on a little pilgrimage to Littlemore, which was established by Blessed John Henry Newman, who was Vicar of St Mary (1828 - 1843). Here is a picture of the walkers in front of the church.
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| | Book Club
We are starting a book club on Tuesday evenings at 6.00pm. We will be meeting at the Jam Factory (Hollybush Row, OX1 1HU) and discussing Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Canongate, 2017). To find out more, please contact esther.brazil@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk.
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| | Moot
The Revd Alan Ramsey will be leading a discussion on ‘Work: Identity, Ambition and Fulfilment’ on Monday 16 October from 19:45-21:00 in the Old Library. We spend the bulk of our lives at work, and the experience provokes all sorts of challenges. In all of this there is often an absence of specific
work-related theology to help steer us through a whole range of complex decisions and feelings. This Moot session will be an informal discussion on work around three broad themes of identity, ambition and fulfilment.
Everyone is welcome.
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| | | Poetry Corner
from The Shield of Achilles
A plain without a feature, bare and brown,
No blade of grass, no sign of neighbourhood,
Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down,
Yet, congregated on its blankness, stood
An unintelligible multitude,
A million eyes, a million boots in line,
Without expression, waiting for a sign.
WH Auden
This extract from ‘The Shield of Achilles’, written in 1952, depicts a colourless world devoid of hope. Auden’s poem, which details the construction of the shield in the Iliad, sees humanity and dignity erased; the poem was written at a time of uncertainty and worry about the Cold War, and of course with the Second World War in recent memory. Thetis, the mother of the warrior Achilles, looks over the shoulder of Hephaestos, the smith, to see his progress on the shield; each time she looks, she is disappointed by what she sees – a subversion of an ideal society. However, Auden, interestingly, said: “A society which was really like a good poem, embodying the virtues of beauty, order, economy, and subordination of detail to the whole, would be a horror.” What is lost in this perfect society is the sense of the individual and of compassion. It closes with Thetis crying in ‘dismay’
At what the god had wrought
To please her son, the strong
Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles
Who would not live long.
So, Auden argues, our duty is to each living other – charity towards society with a small ‘s’.
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