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LentIt’s been said before: you get the best music in Lent. It’s not that I like to wallow in misery; quite the opposite. Tallis’s Miserere Nostri is the perfect example of a penitential anthem that expresses the beauty of God’s love in its ingenious canon: “Have mercy upon us, Lord.” When you speak it out loud it seems humdrum and sad - but when it is sung over and over, each cascading iteration takes on a subtly different meaning, increasingly optimistic. By the end I find myself lifted up by the sure knowledge that I can be transformed through the love of God. At the 8pm Choral Eucharist on Ash Wednesday we will hear an even more magnificent setting of this text, Allegri’s “Miserere”, sung by the combined choirs of University College, Wadham, and St Edmund Hall. At both this service and the 12.15 Eucharist, the burnt remains of last year’s palm crosses will be made into a paste and smudged across foreheads in the sign of the cross, reminding us that we are mortal. The ashes are the beginning of the story; but the cross, of course, is the end. We look towards Good Friday as the culmination of it all - but we have to get through Lent first. It’s useful to have a travelling companion through those forty days. The podcast series from the Society of St John the Evangelist is worth subscribing to; search “SSJE sermons” in your podcast app of choice, or visit their website: https://www.ssje.org/category/sermon/. Another resource that is useful for families and children is the excellent “Love Life Live Lent”, a book that is widely available. Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Esther Brazil Ministerial Assistant |
| | | Julitha Moffatt
Julitha Moffatt, a long standing member of the congregation and a former volunteer at St Mary’s, has died in late January. There will be a funeral tomorrow, Friday 9th February, at 10am at the Oxford Crematorium.
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| | The Week Ahead:
—This Sunday
Sunday 11th February Sunday next before Lent
10.30 Choral Eucharist Nave
Preacher: The Revd Dr William Lamb
12.00 A Life Worth Living (‘Desire’) in the Old Library
18.00 Choral Evensong at Balliol College
University Preacher: Professor Judith Champ
This Week
Monday 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.15 Choral Evening Prayer Worcester College
18.30 PCC Meeting Old Library
Tuesday 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.00 Book Club Nosebag (Bar)
19.30 Mardi Gras Open Mic Night Vaults Café
Ash Wednesday 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
20.00 Choral Eucharist Chancel
Thursday Thomas Bray, 1730 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
12.45 Lunchtime Bible Study Vestry
20.00 Singing the Word (2) Old Library
21.00 Sung Compline Chancel
Friday 9.00 Morning Prayer Chancel
12.15 Eucharist Chancel
18.15 Choral Evensong Exeter College
Saturday Janani Luwum, 1977 18.15 Choral Evensong New College
For full listings of weekly evening services across the University, see our website.
Next Sunday
Sunday 18th February The First Sunday of Lent
10.30 Choral Eucharist
Preacher: The Revd Dr Malcolm Guite
12.00 A Life Worth Living: ‘Forgiveness’ in the Old Library
18.00 Choral Evensong at Trinity College
Preacher: Tracey Byrne, One Body One Faith, CEO
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| | Fiction & Gospel Truth
Join us in the Vaults and Garden Café on Friday 9th February at 7.30pm for a conversation between three novelists, the Revd George Pitcher, Iain Pears and Sarah Meyrick, exploring whether novels can tell ‘godly stories’.
You can book a free ticket by clicking here.
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| | A Life worth Living
‘The glory of God is a human being fully alive’ (St Irenaeus of Lyons). How can the wisdom of the Christian tradition help us to live well? Christian humanism is animated by the idea that human beings are created in the image of God. Indeed, secular humanism finds many of its antecedents in religious ideas about human dignity and human rights. The term ‘humanism’ embraces many significant intellectual currents in Western culture but it may require further interrogation if it is to help us articulate a renewed vision of human flourishing.
Each session starts with coffee and bagels in the Old Library at the University Church. Our discussions will be open and free-ranging as we explore what it means to be human and what ‘a life worth living’ might look like.
11 Feb 12:00-13:00 Desire
The Revd Dr Erica Longfellow, New College, and the Revd Alan Ramsey, University Church
There is a popular caricature of Christianity as a strict moral code that tells us what we can and cannot do, with many of life’s pleasures among the ‘don’ts’. But it is Christian tradition that has given shape to the way we understand desire and longing in the western world. The Cloud of Unknowing speaks of a God to whom desire is eloquent: if God knows us intimately, to desire something is already to have shared it with God, to have prayed. But we are also all familiar with the muddle of needs and impulses that can seem to drive our lives and yet leave us feeling unfulfilled. When is pleasure
life-giving, and God-given, and when is it a distraction from what really satisfies?
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| | | | 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.
21 Feb Listening Well: Managing Modern Life with Music – Dr Gulliver Ralston
How do we rearticulate musical meaning in the contemporary world? Recent work in music psychology has explained away much of the mystery of music, and the academy’s revision of the canon of great composers and ‘monumental works’ makes any such reverence problematic. However, ethics and aesthetics are linked in that they both ask questions about value, and when our listening is informed by values, we have a conscious role in determining how music affects our identities. This talk examines our listening choices and looks at the responsibilities which come with them.`
Gulliver Ralston studied music at Oxford as a choral scholar at New College, completing a doctorate at St. Peter’s College with philosopher Sir Roger Scruton. He has lectured for the Royal Academy of Arts and is currently Director of Music both at Oxford’s University Church and at the University of Roehampton in London.
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| | Mardi Gras Open Mic Evening
Join us for the traditional pre-Lenten party of Mardi Gras, with freshly made crêpes, music, poetry, and jollity. Tickets £3 available in advance by clicking here.
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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) - Access through Cafe door in Radcliffe Square from 7.45pm
9.00pm Compline by Candlelight (Chancel) - Access through the High St Door from 8.45pm
15 Feb Hildegard von Bingen – Esther Brazil
1 Mar Singing the Word – Fr Peter Allan CR (Mirfield)
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| | Culture Corner
This Thursday, 15 February at 8pm, we will have the second in our series “Singing the Word”. This session will focus on the life and music of Hildegard von Bingen, a twelfth-century abbess who was also a composer, visionary, and mystic. Hildegard began life as a child anchoress, secluded from the world, literally bricked into her cell in the monastery at Disibodenberg, only to emerge in her early forties as abbess, and enter into a second phase of life in which her compositions, visions, prophecy, and political influence would bring her enormous fame and establish her cult for the next millennium.
To listen to her music in recording,we would recommend a disc by Jeremy Summerly and the Oxford Camerata. “Heavenly Revelations” will provide a rich resource to spark meditation and prayer as we begin the season of Lent. I particularly love “Ave generosa”, a hymn to the Blessed Virgin. The imagery is sharply vivid, almost cinematic:
Viscera tua gaudium habuerunt
sicut gramen super quod ros cadit
cum ei viriditatem infundit, ut et in te factum est,
O mater omnis gaudii.
Your flesh rejoiced
just as a blade of grass on which the dew has fall’n,
viridity within it to infuse—just so it happened unto you,
O mother of all joy!
All levels of plainchant expertise are welcome, whether you’re a total beginner or an old hand.
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| | 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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