Subject: News from the University Church

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Endings and Beginnings

As the final week of the academic year is upon us, the sight of finalists is a familiar one – that mix of exhaustion and elation at stepping out of the last exam, ready to be showered with cheap bubbly and silly string. It is a time of endings, which brings both a jubilation and a poignancy, and not infrequently a little stress about what the future may hold.

I have become rather too good at goodbyes over the years. I’ve moved house every three years for about fifteen years, but have grown to find that endings are always also beginnings, and so they move me on in life in a helpful way.

This sort of pattern of personal growth – of the chance to leave things behind, and to let new things shape us – is at the heart of the Christian experience of confession and forgiveness. Whether it’s the chance for corporate confession at the Eucharist each week, or a particular journey of forgiveness we find ourselves walking at a point in our lives, acknowledging and naming our past failings is a vital step to drawing a line under them. It enables us, we pray, to find a new beginning, one that takes the best of all we have been in the past, and can try to break free of the worst.

Much like many of our undergraduate finalists, we may not know where that new beginning will take us, or how hard ‘moving on’ will be. But we know we cannot go backwards and recycle the past, for the little goodbyes of life, whether to people and places or to sins and shames, are the deaths that give birth to new life.

So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still will lead me on
o’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till the night is gone,
and with the morn those angel faces smile,
which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
- John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

The Revd James Crockford
Assistant Priest
TONIGHT: Extreme Compline at Harris Manchester College Chapel

This Thursday, we will be going to Harris Manchester College for Compline at 9.00pm. Everyone is welcome to join us. Please arrive from 8.45pm onwards.
Sandals and Selfies: Exploring ideas of Pilgrimage

Our next reflection morning will take place at 10.30am on the 16th of June in the Old Library. Join us for a lively discussion of concepts surrounding pilgrimage, both sacred and secular, historical and modern, over coffee, tea, and pastries. 
The Week Ahead 

This Sunday

Sunday 10 June - Second Sunday after Trinity
10.30 Choral Eucharist
Preacher: The Revd Dr William Lamb
18.15 Choral Evensong - Pembroke College
Preacher: The Most Revd Metropolitan Kallistos Ware

Next Week

Monday Barnabas
09.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel
12.15 Eucharist - Chancel
18.30 PCC Meeting - Old Library

Tuesday 
09.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel
12.15 Eucharist - Chancel
18.00 Book Club - The Nosebag
21.00 Sung Compline - Corpus Christi College

Wednesday 
09.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel
12.15 Eucharist - Chancel
17.30 Poetry Workshop - Old Library
18.00 Choral Evensong - St John's College

Thursday Richard Baxter, 1691
09.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel
12.15 Eucharist - Chancel
12.45 Lunchtime Bible Study - Vestry
21.00 Sung Compline - St Cross Church

Friday Evelyn Underhill, 1941
09.00 Morning Prayer - Chancel
12.15 Eucharist - Chancel
18.15 Choral Evensong - Exeter College
 
Saturday Richard of Chichester, 1253
10.30 Reflection Morning - Old Library
18.00 Choral Evensong - Magdalen College

Next Sunday

Sunday 17 June - Third Sunday after Trinity
10.30 Sung Eucharist
Preacher: The Revd Charlotte Bannister - Parker
17.45 Choral Evensong - New College 
INTERFAITH FRIENDSHIP WALK

The annual interfaith friendship walk will take place on Thursday 28 June starting at the Synagogue in North Oxford at 6.15pm. 

There are prayers offered along the route at St Giles Church, and hospitality is offered at the University Church at 7.15pm before we head off to the Mosque on Cowley Road, where there is a reception (including a delicious curry). 

Everyone is welcome to attend.
St Mary's Church, High Street, OX1 4BJ, Oxford, United Kingdom
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