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So here we are again, not only at the start of another new term, but at the beginning of a new year, too. The Book Club will reconvene at 6pm next Tuesday (the 16th of Januar) at the less noisy location of The Nosebag on St Michael’s Street, and I look forward to seeing plenty of students and young people there.
In anticipation of this, I’ve been revisiting Francis Spufford’s book Unapologetic, our selection for this term. I first “read” it in the audio version, furtively and at low volume, trying not to wake the baby as I got ready for work every morning. That was three months ago, but it’s still pricking away at me, because it was a highly emotional experience to inhabit a truly fresh retelling of Jesus’s life and death. Spufford goes into near-cinematic detail -- by turns squalid and transcendent -- and then he spends time working out why it’s important, what Christ did for the world. He thinks deeply about guilt, forgiveness, the risk of faith.
Here’s an excerpt from chapter 5:
Into this setting comes Yeshua, with the love song to all that is ringing continually in him, and he says: don’t be careful. He certainly isn’t careful himself… he says: behave as if you never had to be afraid of consequences. Behave as if nothing you gave away could ever make you poorer; because you can never run out of what you give… God doesn’t want your careful virtue, He wants your reckless generosity.
See you next Tuesday at the Nosebag. Bring open hearts and thinking caps.
Esther Brazil
Ministerial Assistant |
| | The Week Ahead:
—This Sunday
Sunday 14th January The Second Sunday of Epiphany
9.30 Latin Litany with University Sermon
University Preacher: Fra’ John Eidinow
10.30 Choral Eucharist
Preacher: The Revd Dr William Lamb
This Week
Monday 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.30 Choral Evensong New College
Tuesday 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.00 Book Club Nosebag (Bar)
22.00 Compline Hertford College
Wednesday Antony of Egypt, 356
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.30 Choral Evensong Queen’s College
Thursday 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
12.45 Lunchtime Bible Study Vestry
18.15 Choral Evensong Merton College
Friday Wulstan, 1095
9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.15 Choral Evensong Exeter College
Saturday Richard Rolle, 1349
18.00 Choral Evensong Magdalen College
From 18th to 25th January the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is observed
Next Sunday
Sunday 21st January The Third Sunday of Epiphany
10.30 Choral Eucharist
Preacher: Brother James Koester SSJE
12.00 Parish Lunch in the Old Library
18.00 Choral Evensong at Wadham College
Preacher: The Revd James Crockford
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| | Hilary Termcard
Our termcard for Hilary will be out next week. In the meantime, you can access the online version by clicking here or by visiting our website (http://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/). |
| | Music and Mind
A three-part series on Wednesday nights in 2nd, 4th and 6th week, exploring concepts of music, transcendence, and psychology. Old Library, 19:30-21:00.
24 Jan Mellifluous Music in Early Western Christianity – Canon Prof Carol Harrison
Although we have no music from the early Church, this talk will examine the work of some early Christian theologians in the West who were prompted to reflect on the nature, role and effect of music while hearing and performing it in various contexts. The ‘sweetness’ of music was one of the most common ways in which they articulated these reflections. We will explore what this idea of sweetness reveals about some of the theological, practical and affective qualities attributed to music in this early period.
Carol Harrison is the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. Her research focusses on early Christianity, especially Augustine of Hippo, and her publications include: Revelation and Beauty in the Thought of Saint Augustine, Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured Humanity, and the forthcoming volume Reading Augustine on Music: Sense, Affect, Voice.
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| | Singing the word
Delve into the rich and beautiful world of plainchant, monasticism, and the medieval musical landscape with this workshop series. The evening will start in the Old Library with a glass of wine and a short talk, followed by singing practice, during which participants will learn to tackle a difficult piece of chant. At 9pm, we will move to the chancel to sing compline together.
8.00pm Talk and Singing Workshop (Old Library)
9.00pm Compline by Candlelight (Chancel)
1 Feb Why Compline? – Wilf Jones
15 Feb Hildegard von Bingen – Esther Brazil
1 Mar Singing the Word – Fr Peter Allan CR (Mirfield)
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| | Culture Corner
The current exhibit at the Weston Library, Designing English, is well worth a visit -- and only a stone’s throw from the University Church. If you are a fan of the Alfred Jewel, normally held in the Ashmolean, you’ll be able to see it in a new context in its temporary home, where it forms the centrepiece of one of the displays. The exhibition illustrates the graphic design of handwritten manuscripts and inscriptions for the first thousand years of English, across the Middle Ages, covering the experiences of both the makers and the users of writing. It runs concurrently with “Redesigning the medieval book”, a display in Blackwell Hall (also in the Weston Library) of contemporary book arts.
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| | | Book Launch
The Canon Brian Mountford is launching his new book ‘Friday’s Child’ Poems of suffering and redemption on Friday 26th January 2018. If you would like a ticket, please email Ana-Maria at universitychurch@ox.ac.uk. |
| | Call for donations of books and toys
Do you have any unused children’s books or soft toys you would like to donate to the church? We are creating a Children’s Corner for babies and preschool-aged children who are too small to go to Sunday School during the Eucharist. The aim is to collect enough quiet toys and books to fill a chest that will be kept at the back of the church (no rattles or battery-operated toys, please). Drop off donations in the church office between 9.30am and 5pm, Monday-Friday, or email esther.brazil@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk for more details.
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