2009

The winners of the 2009 Christopher Tower Poetry Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for 16 to 18 year old aspiring poets, were announced on 23 April 2009, at a reception at Christ Church in Oxford.

Seventeen-year old Timothy Carson from Sullivan Upper School, Belfast was awarded the £3000 first prize for his poem, Is Life Likely?

Longhorn cattle are back on Christ Church Meadow! The Dean and the Treasurer of Christ Church attended the Longhorn Cattle Society's auction at Worcester on Saturday, 18 April 2009 and with the guidance of Mr Charlie Gee and the aid of Mr Crispin Mahony from Savills, they purchased a small herd of longhorn cattle, which will grace and graze Christ Church Meadow, as in former days.

During the Easter vacation Christ Church's College Chaplain, Revd Ralph Williamson, has been visiting a slum school in Delhi called Saakshar, which the Cathedral congregation and college members have supported over the last few years. To learn more about this wonderful school and Ralph's photographic project there go to http://saakshar.chch.ox.ac.uk

Recent graduate from Christ Church, David Livingston, has just published a book about the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

Between 25th and 27th September this year Christ Church is celebrating its famous founder on the 500th anniversary of his accession to the throne in 1509.

BBC Radio 3 broadcast Choral Evensong sung by the Cathedral Choir live from Christ Church at 4.00 pm this Wednesday, the 4th of March. The music was in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the birth of Henry Purcell. The recording is to be broadcast again on Radio 3 this Sunday (8 March) at 4.00 p.m.

The recording WAS available on the BBC iPlayer HERE

A recent graduate from Christ Church, Miles Latham, and his business partner Tim Cabrelli, have been chosen by Peter Jones of Dragon's Den fame and other judges as winners of the BT Essence of the Entrepreneur Awards. The twenty winning businesses were selected from five hundred others for their genuine entrepreneurial spirit and for making use of technology to forge a business in often saturated markets.

Last week's Torpids saw grreat success for Christ Church's rowers and ended on Saturday February the 28th with the Men's 1st Torpid going head of the river, bumping Pembroke right by Christ Church Boat  house in an excellent race. This was followed by a traditional boat burning ceremony down on the Broad Walk after Torpids Dinner, with the whole Boat Club jumping over the flames.

Christ Church has welcomed Chris Simms to the post of Executive Head Chef, in succession to Roland Dépit who retired at the end of January. Chris is renowned as one of Oxford's most talented and creative chefs and brings with him a range of experience gained at other Oxford colleges and in the commercial sector. Christ Church is delighted to welcome him to the House's professional hospitality team.

The Cathedral Choir have just returned from a triumphant tour to Bermuda.  The Choir gave two concerts as part of this year’s Bermuda International Festival of the Performing Arts.  This year’s Festival celebrates the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Bermuda.  One of the concerts involved a collaboration with a choir from the local school, The Bermuda Institute, and a review of the concert can be seen on the Choir website (www.chchchoir.org ).