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Luke 1: 39-56: The Magnificat
Sunday, March 14, 2021
In a still, quiet, starlit night, a baby stirs. He snuffles and whines and nearly cries, and his mother puts out a sleepy hand to soothe him. Very quietly, so as not to wake her husband, she starts to sing. ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour; for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his...
In a still, quiet, starlit night, a baby stirs. He snuffles and whines and nearly cries, and his mother puts out a sleepy hand to soothe him. Very quietly, so as not to wake her husband, she starts to sing. ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour; for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.’ The baby is six weeks old and his parents have taken him for the service of thanksgiving. He’s restive. His mother takes him into a corner and settles down to feed him, arranging her shawl carefully so as not to expose herself in the temple. As he sucks, she curls herself around his tiny, beloved body, and gently sings to him. ‘Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one has done great things for me and holy is his name.’ He’s a toddler now. Full of energy and silliness and independence. ‘Amma, Amma, can I help? Abba, Abba, let me do it!’ But at the end of the day, with his sticky face scrubbed clean, when they settle down for bed, he listens to his Amma telling the stories of Hashem, the Holy One, calling out in fire and cloud and darkness and bringing his people out of every danger. Of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. And then she sings him to sleep. ‘His mercy is for those who fear him, from generation to generation.’ When he’s twelve, he stays in the Temple. What else would he do, if not listen to the stories of Hashem, the promise that they are the chosen people, the treasured possession? What else would he do, if not ask the questions that bring to mind Hashem’s promises. That justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like streams; that the rich and corrupt will be swept away and those who have no power, be raised up; that light will come at last to all people. Someone had sung that to him in this temple once; his Amma had told him that. Nations will come to your light, and kings to your dawning brightness, he quotes. When she finds him, he looks at her reproachfully. Amma, have you not realised what you’ve been teaching me since the day I was born? ‘He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;’ he sings back to her, and runs to her with a smile. In their embrace she realises for the first time that he’s nearly as tall as her. His work will soon begin. These are her treasures when he does go. He comes back, from time to time. Sometimes he brings his friends: Peter, who hides his shyness in bluster, and Andrew, quiet and steely. James and John, whose mother she tries to like. Thomas, melancholy and utterly devoted. She welcomes them all, joins in their talk of God. He asks her to lead the prayers, sometimes. ‘He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.’ Sometimes she goes to see him. Sometimes she sits with the men, sometimes she stays with the women. Sometimes she just joins the crowd. She sees him heal. She sees him feed five thousand people. She laughs with delight when she hears him call out ‘blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.’ She’s close enough for him to hear her, so she whistles her song and catches his eye, and he smiles up at her. ‘He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.’ And she’s there on the day he dies. As close as she can get. Clutching at Mary, at John, at the others as they cry. Screaming. Curling herself around his broken, bloody, empty body. Dragged away at last, taken to John’s house, where she sits in the corner, hunched around herself. And all she has to hold on to is the words she mumbles again and again. ‘He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, Abraham and his seed forever.’ You were faithful once. Why can’t you be faithful now? Have you shut up your compassion from us? Have you utterly deserted us? Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, whether we want to praise you or not. But make this stop. Infinite days. Two endless nights. At dawn on the third day John picks her up as if she weighs nothing and takes her to the room where his friends are gathering. They are kind. They are ashamed of themselves and being kind to her salves their guilt. Until the door is flung open and in runs Mary Magdalene and the Light dawns. And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord,    and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.    Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me,    and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him    from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm;    he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,    and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things,    and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel,    in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors,    to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’   This is an edited sermon given by the Revd Philippa White in January 2021.
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Songs of the Spirit - The Song of Zechariah
Sunday, March 7, 2021
Songs of the Spirit: The Benedictus And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;     for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people     by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God,     the dawn...
Songs of the Spirit: The Benedictus And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;     for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people     by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God,     the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,     to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1. 76-79 One of the best things about living at Christ Church is being able to get up early in the morning and go for a walk in the meadows before it fills up with joggers, dog walkers and people taking their daily legally sanctioned strolls. It is gloriously peaceful and if I can get up early enough to see the sun rising I’m reminded of the promise in the Benedictus that ‘the dawn from on high will break upon us’. The Benedictus, the Song of Zechariah, has been said or sung in early morning worship since it was introduced by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century. It is a song of blessing (‘Benedictus’ means blessing in Latin) and hope. But it is a song that also speaks of times of hardship. It begins, ‘Blessed by the Lord the God of Israel; who has come to his people and set them free’ - we are reminded that God’s people were once enslaved, had enemies and longed to be able to worship God in freedom.  Zechariah’s song sprung out of a time of hopelessness. The Bible tells us that he was an elderly priest who, with his wife Elizabeth, was ‘getting on in years’. They had no children. The priests would take on a week’s duty in the temple where they officiated at services: a bit like being Canon-in-Residence in our Cathedral. One day whilst in the temple Zechariah encountered an angel who promised him a son, to be called John. He was told he would have ‘joy and gladness’, that the child ‘will be great in the sight of the Lord’. (Luke 1.14) But Zechariah didn’t believe the angel. “How will I know that this is so?” he asked. “For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” (Luke 1.18) From that moment he became mute, unable to speak at all. He remained silent throughout the entire pregnancy and didn’t speak until his baby was eight days old. It was only when he announced, ‘His name is John’ that his tongue was freed and he began to sing his song of blessing and hope. One reason the Benedictus is said every morning is that in monastic times there would be a time of ‘great silence’ between Compline and Matins. Saying the Benedictus is a reminder that we, like Zachariah can break our nightly silence with praise. Within the Benedictus there are great themes of hope and salvation. There is hope for the salvation of the people of Israel: ‘a mighty saviour’ is on his way. There is hope for Zechariah’s son John who will prepare the way for Jesus with his father’s prophetic blessing upon him. And there is hope for all people: for each one of us. ‘The dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ A few days ago a dense morning fog descended on Oxford. You could hardly see a thing. Just the vague outlines of people walking in meadows. It was one of those days when you could only just make out a few steps ahead. Yet later in the day the fog lifted, clear and beautifully bright. This seems an apt metaphor for our times. Perhaps we are deep in the fog, in the gloom, not knowing what the next steps are? Many people are struggling to keep going and to keep positive. The future seems unclear. What can we plan? When will be able to gather with our friends and family? We are still in uncertain times. The Benedictus reminds us that we can have hope and that the dawn shall break. The light shall shine in the darkness. Hope is different to optimism – which is about blindly believing things will be better. Emily Dickinson writes: “Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all." Often hope is delicate and very fragile, sometimes just a flickering candle, a clump of daffodils, a ‘thing with feathers’. Hope is rooted in trust. Trust that God has brought God’s people out of the shadows in the past, and will do so again.   A trust that the fog is not the only weather, and it shall lift. That the dawn from on high shall break upon us. This is an edited extract of a sermon given by Revd Clare Hayns on 7 February 2021.
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Fifteen
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Day Fifteen 4:6. Mutually safeguard your purity, when you are together in church or wherever women are present. God, who dwells in you, will protect you in his way too by your mutual vigilance. 4:7. If you notice in any of your number this roving eye referred to above, immediately admonish the individual and correct the matter as soon as...
Day Fifteen 4:6. Mutually safeguard your purity, when you are together in church or wherever women are present. God, who dwells in you, will protect you in his way too by your mutual vigilance. 4:7. If you notice in any of your number this roving eye referred to above, immediately admonish the individual and correct the matter as soon as possible, in order to curb its progress. 4:8. If, after this warning, you observe him doing the same thing again or at any other time, whoever happens to discover this must report the offender, as if he were now a wounded person in need of healing. But first, one or two others should be told so that the witness of two or three may lend greater weight and the delinquent thus be convicted and punished with appropriate severity. Do not consider yourselves unkind when you point out such faults. Quite the contrary, are not without fault yourselves when you permit your brothers to perish because of your silence. Were you to point out their misdeeds, correction would at least be possible. If your brother had a bodily wound which he wished to conceal for fear of surgery, would not your silence be cruel and your disclosure merciful? Your obligation to reveal the matter is, therefore, all the greater in order to stem the more harmful infection in the heart. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   Although these passages might well be used in building a case against Augustine, criticising him as being against sex and pleasure, I find that there is a helpful humanity here. He never pretends that sex and sexuality doesn’t exist. There is no false angelism as if we were dis-incarnate being; spiritual entities. Augustine writes about sex because chastity is a struggle for him. Just as it is a struggle for every human being, certainly for every human being who has sought to live a celibate life. In a life of celibacy there are many moments of crisis. Falling in love with someone. Agonising loneliness. Mourning the children never conceived. Simple desire for the warmth of another body. And one of the vocations of the celibate and single life in the church is to warn married people to be honest about these failings too. It is a rare marriage in which there are never any issues, in which a partner does not feel attracted to, or even act on attraction to another person. There will be times when sex is rare and intimacy difficult. Augustine writes openly about his difficulties with memories of past sexual pleasure in his Confessions: “There yet live in my memory the images of such things as my ill custom there fixed; which haunt me, strengthless when I am awake; but in sleep, not only so as to give pleasure, but even to attain assent, and what is very like reality.” (X, 41) The Roman poet Ternce famously wrote: "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto”. I am human, and nothing human is alien to me. We are unwise if we judge others too harshly for their sexual offences and do well to remember that there but for the grace of God … We are unwise if we deal harshly with Augustine’s difficulties around sex. Rather we would do better to admire his honesty and be more honest with ourselves about which of our desires binds us and draws us away from God. It will almost certainly have something to do with Money, Sex, Food or Power.   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Twelve
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Day Twelve 3:5. Sick people necessarily take less food so as not to aggravate their condition. During convalescence they are to receive such care as will quickly restore their health, even if they come from the lowest level of poverty in the world. Recent illness has afflicted them with the same frailty which the wealthy possess from their...
Day Twelve 3:5. Sick people necessarily take less food so as not to aggravate their condition. During convalescence they are to receive such care as will quickly restore their health, even if they come from the lowest level of poverty in the world. Recent illness has afflicted them with the same frailty which the wealthy possess from their previous manner of life. When sick people have fully recovered, they should return to their happier ways, which are all the more fitting for God’s servants to the extent that they have fewer needs. Food formerly necessary to remedy their illness should not become a pleasure which enslaves them. They should consider themselves richer since they are now more robust in putting up with privations. For it is better to need less than to have more. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   “There is nothing I shall want.” We looked at the second line of Psalm 23 right at the start of our reflection on Augustine’s Rule in the context of the pooling of goods that is the common life. The final sentence of this section also reflects the biblical injunction to cease desiring possessions. This section on illness is not actually very much about being ill but more about the fundamental attitudes of the members of the community. Once again the difference between those who were rich and those who were poor before they entered the community is referred to. It might seem that Augustine goes on about these differences in previous social status rather too much but in fact this is the final reference to them in the Rule.  Augustine’s understanding of human nature as in some way mis-aligned is apparent in this short passage “a pleasure which enslaves them” is typical of his view of life and our attachments. He is often portrayed as being against pleasure, certainly against sex, and we will see some of his thoughts on that later in the Rule. However, his real concern is freedom, the freedom that comes from grace. Clearly here he is not against the pleasure of slightly better food and is recommending it to enable those who are ill to recover. he just want it not to be something that imprisons them. This freedom he describes with string terms ‘happier’ and ‘richer’.   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Ten
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Day Ten 3:3. No one is to be annoyed, nor should it seem to be unjust, when a special diet is provided for brothers whose health has been adversely affected by their former status in life. A different background endows some people with greater physical strength. These should not consider others fortunate because they see concessions granted to...
Day Ten 3:3. No one is to be annoyed, nor should it seem to be unjust, when a special diet is provided for brothers whose health has been adversely affected by their former status in life. A different background endows some people with greater physical strength. These should not consider others fortunate because they see concessions granted to their brothers and not to themselves. Let them be thankful rather that they have the strength to endure what others cannot. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   Augustine’s letters are another place (in addition to his wonderful expositions on the psalms) where his deeply attractive personality is so evident. One of many readers’ favourite letters is Letter 130. It is written to a wealthy widow Anicia Faltonia Proba and is a letter about prayer, there are some very beautiful passages on the Lord’s Prayer. It is the following section that relates to this passage from the Rule: Letter 130 (to Proba 130,16, 31) “Let each one do what she can; what one cannot herself do, she does by another who can do it, if she loves in another that which personal inability alone hinders her from doing; wherefore let her who can do less not keep back the one who can do more, and let her who can do more not urge unduly her who can do less. For your conscience is responsible to God; to each other owe nothing but mutual love.  May the Lord, who is able to do above what we ask or think, give ear to your prayers."(Ephesians 3:20) This section of the Rule relates precisely to the aims of the community expressed in 1:2. It is an injunction against envy and jealousy, and that great poison of community life resentment. But it is above all an encouragement to love. This is the same point that Augustine makes to Proba. If we owe no one anything other than love equally we are owed nothing but love and ought not be resentful or jealous if we get less or more than anyone else.    May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Nine
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Day One Chapter Three 3:1. To the extent that your health allows, subdue your flesh by fasting and abstinence from food and drink. If anyone is unable to fast, let him at least take no food between meals, unless he is sick. 3:2. Listen to the customary reading from the beginning to the end of the meal without commotion or arguments....
Day One Chapter Three 3:1. To the extent that your health allows, subdue your flesh by fasting and abstinence from food and drink. If anyone is unable to fast, let him at least take no food between meals, unless he is sick. 3:2. Listen to the customary reading from the beginning to the end of the meal without commotion or arguments. Food is not for the mouth alone; your ears also should hunger for the Word of God. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   Fasting has strong biblical support where prayer os often mentioned in connection with fasting (Acts 13:3 for example). we often associate monastic life with strict asceticism but in fact Augustine’ prescriptions on fasting are very moderate and allow for many exception, for health reasons, or even just an inability to fast. Fasting is good if it has the outcome of subduing the flesh but it is not an end in itself. Augustine’s biography was written by his friends Possidius in that he states: “At table Augustine had a greater liking for the reading and the conversation that for food and drink.” (Life of Augustine, 22). This illustrates that there was reading at meal times but it also suggests that time was allowed for conversation as well.  In Benedictine monasteries now that reading may be some Scripture but is also likely to be history, current affairs, travel or biography. The Anglican Benedictine monastery at Mucknell publish their recent reading on their website. For Augustine’s community it is certain that the reading he refers to is the reading of Scripture he references Matthew 4:4 and Amos 8:11: “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,     “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water,     but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” We have been reading Augustine’s Rule for just over a week. The reference to Benedictine monasticism suggests a good point to think about the use of Augustine’s Rule in the following centuries. For this I am indebted to  Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopaedia ed. Allan D Fitzgerald, Eerdmans1999. Western, Latin monasticism has been massively dominated by the Rule of St Benedict. Benedict was born in 480, fifty years after Augustine died. In that intervening period the Rule of The Master was written, a monastic Rule which was much used by Benedict. The Rule of the Master knows Augustine but the possible references are scant. the Rule of St Benedict has at least a dozen references to Augustine Rule. But it was the Rule of St Benedict that became massively influential. It was only in the eleventh century that there is evidence of the Rule of St Augustine being used by communities.  Pope Gregory VII set about a reform of the church. Groups of clergy began to live communal lives at cathedrals and other churches, becoming ‘canons regular’, looking around for a suitable rule to follow it was to St Augustine that they turned.Over the next two centuries new communities began to emerge, best known the Franciscans and Dominicans. It was the Dominicans who also turned to Augustine and alongside them less well know orders such as the Servites. For communities that led mendicant lives and tended not to live in large monasteries, the lack of detail in the Rule of Augustine was a definite advantage over the Rule of St Benedict. Many groups of women also adopted the Rule, the Bridgettines, Ursulines and Visitation nuns among them as did some of the mixed communities of men and women, most notably the English Gilbertines. Kevin Madigan in the Encyclopaedia’s entry on the Rule states: “It is … hard to disagree with the judgement of R.W. Southern, who pronounced it “the most prolific of all medieval religious Rules”. Given the abiding influence and size of the medieval orders who observed it, and of the congregations who adopted it in the early modern period, it may well be the most widely observed rule in the history of the church.” For Anglicans the Rule of St Augustine is important  as the Rule adopted by many of the newly emerging communities in the nineteenth century Anglo Catholic revival. The Society of the Precious Blood at Burnham Abbey near Windsor following this Rule and living at the site of a medieval Augustinian House. Even closer to us at Christ Church the Community of St Mary the Virgin at Wantage live the Augustinian rule. Wikipedia lists the following Anglican communities as keeping the Rule: Community of All Hallows (CAH) at Ditchingham in England Community of the Good Shepherd (CGS) at Sabah in Malaysia Community of the Holy Spirit (CHS) at New York City in the United States Community of St John Baptist (CSJB) at Cuddesdon in England and Mendham in the United States Community of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) at Wantage in England and various daughter priories also in England Community of the Servants of the Cross (CSC) at Chichester in England Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity (SHN) at Ripon, Wisconsin, in the United States Society of the Holy Cross (Korea) (SHC) at Seoul in Korea (Augustinian Rule modified with elements of the Benedictine Rule) Society of the Precious Blood (SPB) at Burnham Abbey near Maidenhead in England and Maseru in Lesotho Society of the Sisters of Bethany (SSB) at Southsea in England (a modified version of the Augustinian Rule)   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Eight
Friday, November 13, 2020
Day Eight 2:4. Keep to the prescribed text when you sing; avoid texts which are not suited for singing. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   From the...
Day Eight 2:4. Keep to the prescribed text when you sing; avoid texts which are not suited for singing. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   From the sixteenth century until relatively recently English speakers used pretty much one translation of the Bible, the Authorised Version. Over the last 50 - 60 years translations have proliferated with ‘revised’ and ‘new’ versions of some of those versions appearing with alarming frequency. Amidst such a plethora of versions it is easy to look back nostalgically to a time when it was easy to memorise texts of Scripture because only one, familiar version was used. However, our current situation is much closer to that of Augustine’s time than the heyday of the Authorised Version. In North Africa in the fourth century. Numerous Latin versions of the Bible existed. It may be that it is for this reason that Augustine was so keen to stress that worshippers should use the ‘prescribed text’. Augustine is often claimed to have said that ‘he who sings, prays twice’ although there appears to be no source for this. However, in his Confessions (10, 33, 50) Augustine sheds some light on his view of singing in church which is not nearly so unequivocal: “Sometimes, again, avoiding very earnestly this same deception, I err out of too great preciseness; and sometimes so much as to desire that every air of the pleasant songs to which David's Psalter is often used, be banished both from my ears and those of the Church itself; and that way seemed unto me safer which I remembered to have been often related to me of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, who obliged the reader of the psalm to give utterance to it with so slight an inflection of voice, that it was more like speaking than singing. Notwithstanding, when I call to mind the tears I shed at the songs of Your Church, at the outset of my recovered faith, and how even now I am moved not by the singing but by what is sung, when they are sung with a clear and skilfully modulated voice, I then acknowledge the great utility of this custom. Thus vacillate I between dangerous pleasure and tried soundness; being inclined rather (though I pronounce no irrevocable opinion upon the subject) to approve of the use of singing in the church, that so by the delights of the ear the weaker minds may be stimulated to a devotional frame. Yet when it happens to me to be more moved by the singing than by what is sung, I confess myself to have sinned criminally, and then I would rather not have heard the singing. See now the condition I am in! Weep with me, and weep for me, you who so control your inward feelings as that good results ensue. As for you who do not thus act, these things concern you not. But You, O Lord my God, give ear, behold and see, and have mercy upon me, and heal me, — Thou, in whose sight I have become a puzzle to myself; and “this is my infirmity.”   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Seven
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Day Seven 2:3. When you pray to God in psalms and hymns, the words you speak should be alive in your hearts. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   People...
Day Seven 2:3. When you pray to God in psalms and hymns, the words you speak should be alive in your hearts. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   People often worry about praying. I often meet people who tell me that prayer is ‘difficult’.  This seems to a modern problem, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence in the New Testament that Christians found praying difficult. This is the fundamental teaching of Augustine’s rule on prayer, and there isn’t much of it. I have come to the view over the decades of praying myself and working with other people on their spiritual and prayer lives that only two things are necessary: Eucharist and psalms. This is clearly Augustine’s experience too. The daily prayer in our Anglican Book of Common Prayer is probably the most successful and widely practised forms of daily prayer in Christian history. There is a simplicity about the monthly cycle of psalms, and their frequent use that is very easy to use. Learning psalms off by heart, repeating them, is the foundation of a strong prayer life. The psalms are of utmost importance to Augustine. He preached on all of the psalms and these sermons are available in good modern translations (in six volumes) by Maria Boulding. I read parts of one of these sermons every day. They are Augustine at his best. I recommend the sermons (or Expositions) on the psalms as the best place to begin reading Augustine. His attractive character and deep personal faith are profoundly evident in them.  Rowan Williams has written an excellent book On Augustine, Chapter two of that book is all about Augustine’s use and understanding of the psalms. Williams writes: “The church’s worship, then, is not accidental or marginal to the church’s very being. Obviously Augustine has much to say about the Eucharist as the prime locus for discovering ourselves as the Body; nevertheless, the singing of the Psalms becomes the most immediate routine means of identifying with the voice of Christ.” If you don’t have a daily practice of praying psalms, if you think that praying is difficult, now is a good day to begin reading a psalm out loud and as Augustine tells us making sure that the words live deeply in our hearts. The word used in the Latin ‘versor’ is perhaps best translated as ‘meditate’ (rather than ‘alive in your hearts’). Like the good person in the first psalm we flourish, we find happiness, we are truly alive, we are blessed when we meditate on the psalms, when we ponder them day and night: 1 Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked, nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners, 2 but whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night. 3 He is like a tree that is planted beside the flowing waters, that yields its fruit in due season and whose leaves shall never fade; and all that he does shall prosper. 4 Not so are the wicked, not so! For they like winnowed chaff shall be driven away by the wind. 5 When the wicked are judged they shall not stand, nor find room among those who are just; 6 for the Lord guards the way of the just but the way of the wicked leads to doom. Psalm 1 Grail translation “Any reader of the Confessions will be aware that, for Augustine, the reading of the Psalms was more than simply a ‘devotional’ reading of a holy text, let alone reading to inform or instruct. The psalmist’s voice is what releases two fundamentally significant things for the Augustinian believer. It unseals deep places, emotions otherwise buried, and it provides an analogy for the unity or intelligibility of a human life lived in faith. Here is a conversation with God that has a beginning, a middle and an end. And in the course of that conversation, the human speaker is radically changed and enabled to express what is otherwise hidden from him or her. Augustine speaks of what the Psalm he is discussing (Psalm 4, Cum invocarem) ‘makes of him’: the act of recitation becomes an opening to the transforming action of grace (conf. IX. 4.8).”   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Six
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Day Six Chapter Two 2:1. Be assiduous in prayer at the scheduled hours and times. 2:2. No one has any business in the prayer-room apart from the particular purpose which it serves; that is why it is called the oratory. Consequently, if some wish to pray even outside the scheduled periods, during their free time, they should not be deterred...
Day Six Chapter Two 2:1. Be assiduous in prayer at the scheduled hours and times. 2:2. No one has any business in the prayer-room apart from the particular purpose which it serves; that is why it is called the oratory. Consequently, if some wish to pray even outside the scheduled periods, during their free time, they should not be deterred by people who think they have some other task there. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   With romantic images of medieval monasteries in our heads with their great Abbey churches - like the ruins many of us love visiting at Fountains or Rievaulx -  it’s hard to picture what Augustine’s monastery looked like. Indeed our cathedral church and the buildings here a Christ Church are a very long way from anything Augustine could have imagined. We know that the first monastery founded (in 388) at Tagaste was in Augustine’s family home. No doubt this was a substantial dwelling, probably designed ti accommodate servants as well as the family. Nevertheless with several people living in the community it may not have been very spacious. Bavel (Image Books 1986) suggests that if space and rooms were at a premium there may have been a temptation to use the room set aside for prayer for other purposes. Hence the second part of the section of the Rule we are looking at today. Having a place for prayer is in my view of utmost importance. It indicates the value we put on prayer and can help us fulfil the first part of this short chapter encouraging us to be regular and frequent in our prayers and not to rely on spontaneity which is the enemy of forming habits of prayer. A prayer space doesn't have to be grand. A spare box room, corner of a conservatory or a lean to will do. Here at Christ Church I am using part of the cellar under the sub Deanery. You may want to have a candle to light, incense sticks or other things that will trigger a sense of prayer. A prayer stool can help us have a good posture for prayer. Most people find an armchair is not helpful and it is hard to be still for very long when sat in an arm chair. A bible and prayer books of course, some spiritual reading, a cross or icons can also help. Many people like to keep pebbles, leaves or things found on prayerful walks in their prayer corners. It is said to take up to 90 days to establish new habits in life. people often start a new pattern of prayer with good intentions but soon give up. Having regular times for prayer in the morning and evening is essential to developing a solid prayer life, but don’t give up after a week or even a month. Press on when it seems difficult and if you fail for a few days don’t worry. start again. I’ve always found the morning is the best time to pray. Early evening works, but just before bed is the hardest. It’s a time when many couples chat to each other and reflect on the day and that’s important. No matter when you pray the significance is to ‘schedule hours and times’. Put it in the diary. Prioritise prayer above everything except real emergencies, it’s the only way it will happen. When I was Head of a London comprehensive school I had my times of prayer including 15 minutes before lunch break, in the diary. It was what helped keep me sane.   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Five
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Day Five 1:8. Live then, all of you, in harmony and concord; honour God mutually in each other; you have become His temples. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia]. ...
Day Five 1:8. Live then, all of you, in harmony and concord; honour God mutually in each other; you have become His temples. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   There is a wonderful inclusio here, at the end of the first Chapter, with the very beginning of the Rule. But it is an inclusio in which Augustine doesn’t just repeat the ‘love God and neighbour’ of the opening section but he intensifies that, we love God in each other. Even more strongly than that he uses the word honour for this love. The honour we pay God in our worship, liturgy and sacraments is the same honour we offer him in our love and care for each other. As Bavel puts it “For Augustine the first form of divine worship is to be found in a good community life.”  Prayer and worship come second to mutual love. The image of the temple is a powerful and significant one and references three passages in St Paul: Romans 15: 5-6: “5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   1 Corinthians 3: 16-17: “16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.”   2 Corinthians 6: 16-17: “16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them     and walk among them, and I will be their God,     and they will be my people.”[a] 17 Therefore, “Come out from them     and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing,     and I will receive you.””   The biblical image of the dwelling of God, the Tabernacle, the pitching of the tent, resonates throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. That dwelling is never a place for the individual alone but for the whole community. The ideal of ‘brothers living in unity’ (Psalm 133) is an important one but biblical history and the realities of Christian history show that the reality is very mixed, as no doubt it was for the Augustinian canons who lived here at what is now Christ Church, and is it is for us. Jim Godfrey our verger and guide to the Cathedral reflects on the history of those canons in this film: Christ Church, Oxford · The Augustinian Order     May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Four
Monday, November 9, 2020
Day Four 1:6. Nor should they put their nose in the air because they associate with people they did not dare approach in the world. Instead they should lift up their heart, and not pursue hollow worldly concerns. Monasteries should not provide advantage for the rich to the disadvantage of the poor. Such would be the case if the rich become...
Day Four 1:6. Nor should they put their nose in the air because they associate with people they did not dare approach in the world. Instead they should lift up their heart, and not pursue hollow worldly concerns. Monasteries should not provide advantage for the rich to the disadvantage of the poor. Such would be the case if the rich become humble and the poor become proud. 1:7. But on the other hand, those who enjoyed some measure of worldly success ought not to belittle their brothers who come to this holy society from a condition of poverty. They should endeavour to boast about the fellowship of poor brothers, rather than the social standing of rich relations. They are not to think well of themselves if they have contributed to the common life from their wealth. Sharing their possessions with the monastery ought not to become a greater source of pride than if they enjoyed these goods in the world. As a matter of fact, every other vice produces evil deeds with a view to doing evil, but pride sets a trap for good deeds as well with a view to destroying them. What benefit is there in giving generously to the poor and becoming poor oneself, if the pitiful soul is more inclined to pride by rejecting riches than by possessing them? V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   Augustine is carefully laying out the foundations for community living, being clear about purpose, the sharing of goods, valuing difference, meeting of needs. So it is interesting that he turns next to humility. Clearly for Augustine humility is one of the key fundamentals of being able to be in community with other human beings. the clue as to why humility is so important comes in 1:7. While other vices straightforwardly produce ‘evil deeds’ pride (the opposite of humility) doesn't simply produce evil deeds but can set a trap for us when we perform good deeds. As we saw at the very start of the Rule Augustine sees love as the foundation and goal of community living. Tarsicius Bavel in his commentary on the Rule ( Image Books, 1986) shows how humility and love are linked in Augustine’s mind, he quotes his work On the Trinity (*,8,12), where St Augustine writes: “To the extent that we are freed from the malignant swelling which is called pride, we are filled with love.” This is typically strong imagery for Augustine. Pride gets in the way of love, only to the extent that pride diminishes is there any possibility of love. Bavel also quotes one of Augustine letters (118, 3, 22), that makes the point just as strongly: “I would wish that you place yourself with all your love under Christ, and that you pave no other way in order to reach and to attain the truth that has already been paved by him who, as God, knows the weakness of our steps. this is in the first place, humility; in the second place, humility; in the third place, humility … As often as you ask me about the Christian religion’s norms of conduct, I choose to give no other answer than: humility.”’ To the modern reader it might seem that Augustine is overly concerned with material wealth here. there are, after all, plenty of grounds for pride other than wealth. Augustine is perhaps best known for strong attitudes about sin and specifically sex. I would rather see him simply as someone who understands the vulnerability of human nature particular in the areas of money, sex, food and power. Money takes its place alongside these other areas in which we so easily find ourselves out of balance.   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Three
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Day Three 1:4. Those who owned anything in the world should freely consent to possess everything in common in the monastery. 1:5. Those who had nothing should not seek in the monastery possessions which were beyond their reach outside. Allowance should be made for their frailty, however, on the basis of individual need, even if previous...
Day Three 1:4. Those who owned anything in the world should freely consent to possess everything in common in the monastery. 1:5. Those who had nothing should not seek in the monastery possessions which were beyond their reach outside. Allowance should be made for their frailty, however, on the basis of individual need, even if previous poverty never permitted them to satisfy those needs. But they should not consider their present good fortune to consist in the possession of food and clothing which were beyond their means elsewhere. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   We are only a few paragraphs into the Rule and already, once again, we are seeing Augustine’s respect for difference. The fact that he included these paragraphs tells us something very significant about the nature of his community, and therefore of the wider Christian community from which its members came. members came from many sections of society included the richest and the poorest. Augustine is showing that the Christian life involves being in community not just with the like-minded, those similar to us, but also those opposite in every way to us. Another striking feature of 1:4 is the use of the phrase “in the world”. In Augustine’s Latin “in saeculo” from which we get our word secular.  It is a word Augustine uses frequently in his more famous book the Confessions (well worth reading if you haven’t read it previously). Scholars believe that the Confessions was written at the same time as the Rule in either 397 or 399. The use of the term world has its origins in the New testament and in his Confessions Augustine comments on three places where it is used: John16:33, Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 2:2.  John 16: 33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Romans 12:2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Ephesians 2:1-2: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. In recent decades this division of the church from the world, and even St Paul’s separation of flesh and Spirit, have been unfashionable as if they were somehow world- or body-hating. Sister Agatha Mary of the Society of the Precious Blood at Burnham Abbey in the Diocese of Oxford wrote a powerful commentary on the Rule of Saint Augustine and reminds the reader that ‘world’ can stand for all that wearies us, she quotes Wordsworth’s Sonnet XXXIII: The world is too much with us; late and soon getting and spending we lay waste our powers. Other important words in the first of the sections we are looking are willingly (translated in our translation as consent) and freely (Latin: libenter … velint). There can be no element of compulsion in the giving up of goods. This is true of the whole of the Christian life. we give ourselves as a free gift. We know that we often do things with mixed motives, we volunteer to do something and then feel resentful when nobody thanks us. We believe we are offering to serve but hope to get attention by doing so. Augustine is a wise soul he recognises that mixed motives can work in many directions. Joining a monastery might be for selfish reasons, seeking levels of comfort and stability not otherwise available to the poor. But rich and poor are equally welcome, and mixed motives are not going to go away, we have to work with them.   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day Two
Saturday, November 7, 2020
Day Two 1:3. Do not call anything your own; possess everything in common. Your superior ought to provide each of you with food and clothing, not on an equal basis to all, because all do not enjoy the same health, but to each one in proportion to his need. For you read in the Acts of the Apostles: ‘They possessed everything in common’, and...
Day Two 1:3. Do not call anything your own; possess everything in common. Your superior ought to provide each of you with food and clothing, not on an equal basis to all, because all do not enjoy the same health, but to each one in proportion to his need. For you read in the Acts of the Apostles: ‘They possessed everything in common’, and ‘distribution was made to each in proportion to each one’s need.’ V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   It might appear that Augustine has changed the subject here, moving abruptly from the spiritual, talk of love and harmony to the physical. Looking at John 17 will help us realise that in fact this is the natural place to go next. In John 17 Jesus prays “all mine are thine, and thine are mine” (the archaic language of the RSV produces a powerful effect here which is lost in more contemporary translations). Jesus is talking to God about the disciples but it is a powerful reminder that Jesus is constantly non-possessive, kenotic (self-emptying) he is always letting go.  The pooling of goods has always been a feature of monastic communities, looking back to that life of the Jerusalem church which Augustine refers to, but it is also, of course a feature of married life, “With all my worldly goods I thee endow” (BCP Marriage service). Traditionally monks and nuns did not take a vow of poverty (the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are a later development associated with Franciscan friars). Augustine is not concerned with poverty, for him the pooling of goods is an outpouring of love. It is just what we want to do with those we love and it includes the spiritual and the material.  “to each one in proportion to his need” also probably needs some thought. It is not that everyone received the same. This can easily lead to resentment and envy. However, it is characteristic of Augustine, as we shall see later that he respects difference. he recognises that human beings are diverse, and this is important, the Christian life never imposes uniformity, it does not destroy personality. When we love someone we want them to flourish as themselves.  Probably the best known Psalm is the shepherd psalm The Lord is my Shepherd (Psalm 23) and it is much loved for its pastoral imagery and the recognition that life contains dark valleys through which we will pass. However, the second line contains a strong challenge to human acquisitiveness: “There is nothing I shall want.” Perhaps more than any other of the great theologians of the church Augustine is aware of desire. We want, we desire things, experiences all the time. But if our restless hearts are fully satisfied, find their rest, in God that need to acquire will be satisfied too.  This pooling of possessions is one of the toughest challenges facing us in our society and in any community. Perhaps a start can be made in looking at the language Augustine uses “Do not call anything your own.” Whether it is physical goods, spiritual experience, time or talents they are gifted to us for a season, our ownership is transient.   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots - the Rule of Saint Augustine: Day One
Friday, November 6, 2020
Day One Chapter One Before all things, dearly beloved brothers, love God and then your neighbour, because these were the first commandments given to us. 1:1. Here are the rules we lay down for your observance, once you have been admitted to the monastery. 1:2. The chief motivation for your sharing life together is to live...
Day One Chapter One Before all things, dearly beloved brothers, love God and then your neighbour, because these were the first commandments given to us. 1:1. Here are the rules we lay down for your observance, once you have been admitted to the monastery. 1:2. The chief motivation for your sharing life together is to live harmoniously in the house and to have one heart and one soul seeking God. V.       You have made us for yourself, O Lord. [Alleluia]. R.       Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.  [Alleluia].   At sixty-four words this is sparse language indeed. But it’s a rich diet. It would be tempting to skip over these as all very obvious. But there is a lot here. Christians have often looked back at the first Christian communities and tried to emulate them.  Acts 4:32 tells us that the believers were ‘one in heart and mind’. This has always been the Christian ideal, Jesus even prayed ‘That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you” in John 17.  Augustine, rather characteristically adds ‘on the way to God’ or ‘seeking God’. he is gathering a community of those with restless hearts which will only rest when they find God in community. This one-ness of heart and mind-soul anima una et cor unum must be about something other than agreement. It is a company walking in the same direction. And that direction is given in 1:2 here, the desire to live harmoniously. That is quite interesting in itself, that harmony or unity is the goal of the community. There is no individualistic living together so that each person will be holy but so that the whole community can be holy. This is not about having spiritual experiences. We are reading this section backwards but if we return to the first sentence that unity-harmony is given its place. It is love. Love of God and love of neighbour. For Augustine love is not an emotion, it is an act of the will.  A decision, a choice. For him the human psyche consists of memory, understanding and will. When rules seem stifling or un-spontaneous we need to remind ourselves that we are free; gree to choose. So in these three short statement we have a summary of the whole. Harmony is the goal. Love is the motivation and in the middle statement the ‘rules’ are the way. But all are to satisfy the soul seeking God. Actually ‘precepts’ is better than rules. This is a life-giving way not a series of tick boxes. the precepts are the tora of the Hebrew Scriptures, the ‘law’ of Psalm 119, that is the way, the truth, the life. Jesus himself.   May the Lord grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.  Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of saint Augustine by clicking here
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Nourished by Our Roots – the Rule of Saint Augustine: Introduction
Thursday, November 5, 2020
It was our indefatigable verger and unofficial guide and historian Jim Godfrey who introduced me to my favourite view of Christ Church Cathedral. It’s a spot I always take visitors to. Southeast of the cathedral in the Pocock garden just by the gate. Looking up towards the cathedral a tree blocks the view of the Victorian bell tower. Everything...
It was our indefatigable verger and unofficial guide and historian Jim Godfrey who introduced me to my favourite view of Christ Church Cathedral. It’s a spot I always take visitors to. Southeast of the cathedral in the Pocock garden just by the gate. Looking up towards the cathedral a tree blocks the view of the Victorian bell tower. Everything else visible is part of the Augustinian house that was here from early in the twelfth century. To the south the Prior’s house, next to it the Chapter house with dormitory above and then the church. Gilbert Scott's 1870 re-ordering of the Cathedral's east end may be somewhat different to the view seen by an Augustinian canon but otherwise it is not very different. Even the sense of being on the edge of the settlement with the country behind you remains. The continuity of prayer in this place is a part of who we are. I have found the cathedral one of the easiest places to pray in I know.  It is thick with the prayers of the thirteen centuries since Frideswide established her community here and thick with the presence of the saints, past, present  and future. This cathedral and the communities - monks, nuns, canons, college, Cathedral - that form it has seen plagues come and go. It is a valuable reminder to us that ‘this too shall pass’. It is also a reminder that we are called to live in community. No Christian is a Christian alone. St Paul’s vivid image of the body with Christ as its Head is fundamental to who we are. Redemption, Jesus’ work of saving us is only possible because we are part of each other and part of Him. How Christians, human beings live in community is part of our ongoing journey, we fall out, we irritate each other, we even sometimes fight, but we also reconcile, we restore relationships, we make peace. One way of living in community is demonstrated by those Augustinian canons. The rule that formed their life was written in North Africa in the fourth century by St Augustine. He is one of my favourite people, saints of the church. He must have been a very attractive person because throughout his life he attracted a community of people around him, before he became a Christian and afterwards. In this period of lockdown I am going to blog about the Rule that he wrote. I have arranged it so that it can be read, just a very short section a day, over thirty days. I hope that all of us at Christ Church will join in praying the Rule together. I suggest a simple form of prayer for doing this beginning with the Beatitudes, reading the section of the Rule for the day and then the prayer by St Augustine that I have taken from Chapter 8 of his Rule. Some days the reflection will be a link to an outside source. If you have any suggestions for these please let me know.  Not every section of the Rule will seem relevant to us but I think we can learn from every section as we seek to form our own lives. By reflecting on our history and where we have come from as a Christ Church community we can also nourish not just the present, but the future. What kind of community are we going to be? Here are the prayers I suggest for each day. The Beatitudes are themselves a distilled form of the Gospel, a summary of evangelical living and a Rule of Life (I said more about this in my sermon on All Saints Day)   The Beatitudes Blessed are the poor in spirit,  for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,  for they shall be comforted! Blessed are the meek,  for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger            and thirst for righteousness,  for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful,  for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,  for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,  for they shall be called children of God.  Blessed are those who are persecuted              for righteousness’ sake,  for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.   V.         You have made us for yourself, O Lord. R.         Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.   May the Lord  grant that we may observe all these things with love, as lovers of spiritual beauty, radiating by our lives the sweet fragrance of Christ, not like slaves under the law but as free persons established in grace. Through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord.   Amen.   You can find the full text of the Rule of Saint Augustine by clicking here
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Christ Church Cathedral in 25 Objects: The Organ Case
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
They say never judge a book by its cover. It might be wise to say never judge an organ by its case. And yet, of course, I do. In January 2020 we in the Cathedral Office gleefully followed the World Cup of Cathedral Organ Cases on Twitter, willing on Christ Church for the win. Sadly, Christ Church didn’t make it out of the group stages, but the...
They say never judge a book by its cover. It might be wise to say never judge an organ by its case. And yet, of course, I do. In January 2020 we in the Cathedral Office gleefully followed the World Cup of Cathedral Organ Cases on Twitter, willing on Christ Church for the win. Sadly, Christ Church didn’t make it out of the group stages, but the victor was never in doubt. Rochester Cathedral organ case is a thing of unusual beauty. Look closely, and the intricate paintwork means you’ll be there a long time (although it’s hard to see any of it from the floor!) The golden lustre peeking through the stars and geometric pattern, means you don’t need to look long to be dazzled. Combine this with its height and imposing wings, and you’d think you were cowering at the gates of another world. And maybe you are. Likewise, the organ case at Harris Manchester College in Oxford is worth a look. It sits at one side of the chapel, encasing a fan of pipes, which are painted with Arts and Crafts foliage and organic motifs, in soft, pastel colours. Modest? Yes. Different? Yes. Lovely? Unequivocally, yes. So, on that basis, imposing and ornate cases, like book covers, will always win the day? Well, I’m not sure that they do, or should. The Rieger organ case at Christ Church Cathedral sits confidently and calmly at the West End, nestled above the congregation, the processions and clergy, surveying all that happens. Unlike Rochester, the Rieger case ensures the organ and its 3300 pipes do not overpower or distract from the building or worship. Rather they fit the space perfectly. From the front, the back, the side (if you can crane your neck round a pillar!) it sits in total and complete balance with its environment. Welsh writer Ken Follett once said, “proportion is the heart of beauty”. And that’s the Reiger’s secret. It’s not too tall, too wide, too modest, too plain, too ornate; it is not “too” anything. The two tiers of pipes connect the Nave with the roof, guiding the eye upward; the same direction in which worship travels. And atop it all, sits the Christ Church crest, rooted between the two sets of longest pipes. And yet this is not overpowering; it is discreetly present, not lording its position. There is space above and around the case to allow the music to flow, to swell and fill the Cathedral. The organ case does not impede or block the space, but rather inhabits and enhances it simply.   The case was remodelled in 1979 and is based upon the Father Smith style (Bernard Schmidt 1630 -1708, from Halle, Germany), recycling and improving his original Christ Church organ case design, dating from 1685. It is wonderful that parts of this original case still exist; that they sit there in spirit (and literally) to cradle and uphold the music and worship as they have always has done. The dark wood casing is quite unfashionable these days, but the wood compliments the warm stone on either side and roof above. A sense of equilibrium permeates all the facets of the case. The silver pipes provide a pleasing contrast to the wooden surround and are grouped regularly and concisely. Thankfully, the pipes are simple and strong, not golden or ornately painted. This would have been gaudy and totally unnecessary. There is some intricate carving and fluting but it is held in tension between the clusters of the clean lines of pipes. (Dare I say balanced again) In line with true German engineering, Casper, Raimund, Christoph and ‘Father’ Glatter created a perfectly balanced case for the West End of Christ Church Cathedral. It is reassuringly and cleanly beautiful. Some may say, surely organ cases are of little importance; it is the instrument itself that matters? Yes, an organ is mute without supremely talented musicians to write music for it and to play it. When played poorly, it is undoubtedly a strain upon the ear! But organ cases hint at the music and worship within. The exterior reflects the organ’s purpose and inner life: its theatre, its glory, its skill; indeed, a beautifully and thoughtfully designed organ appeals to the senses and is a physical reminder of the beauty and enjoyment within. So, judge the organ at Christ Church by its case. It is a beauty.  
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Christ Church Cathedral in 25 Objects: 14th Century Monkeys
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Almost hidden from view, but visible once you know where to look, are two little monkeys in the 14th C stained glass in what we all the Latin Chapel. They are one of my favorite images in the Cathedral, part of a whole host of other animal and odd grotesque figures carved into the stonework or found in our medieval stained glass. What are they...
Almost hidden from view, but visible once you know where to look, are two little monkeys in the 14th C stained glass in what we all the Latin Chapel. They are one of my favorite images in the Cathedral, part of a whole host of other animal and odd grotesque figures carved into the stonework or found in our medieval stained glass. What are they and why are they there? You will find them in the margins of the stained glass, playing in the wonderful patterns of flowers and foliage we see there. Our two monkeys face each other across the glass, mirror images of each other, I like to think of them as members of the same family, for they look very alike. You might wonder why are ‘non-religious figures’ appearing in windows that surround the walls of a chapel dedicated to Saint Catherine and where Saint Frideswide’s Shrine was kept, one of the specifically holy places of the Priory Church?  The answer isn’t too difficult to find. In the 14th Century there was a flowering of animal and grotesques in art. In the borders of manuscripts and also in the borders of stained glass windows, there appeared mythical beings, birds or animals, like our monkeys. These were not idle doodles of a humorous artist, nor were they just to fill in odd spaces, there were specific reasons for them, to help make comparisons or connections. Our monkeys they have a purpose in what we can call a stained glass book of sacred meanings. They are a slice of animal life parodying us. Have a careful look at some of our other medieval windows in the Latin chapel, you will find more of these marginal figures, including a beautiful brown squirrel eating an acorn. There are more in the ‘Becket’ window in the South Transept. Monkeys or ‘apes’ were understood as imitators of human beings. The famous bishop St Isidore of Seville (c.560–636), had an explanation that helps us see why, for he said that the Latin word for monkey, simius, is derived from similitudo, meaning resemblance or likeness. Why?  Because monkeys mimic what they see, often copying human behaviour. Medieval bestiaries carried on this theme suggesting that apes were so called, because they ‘ape’ our behaviour. So our little monkeys come from a long tradition of spiritual parody and satire on the folly and foolishness of their nearest relative, homo sapiens, us! By making us look ridiculous, they bring us back to earth if we get too proud or self important! Good spiritual guides suggest this is necessary for anybody taking their life of Christian faith seriously, to get rid of pride and become truly humble in order to be like Christ. Our two monkeys are a visual reminder not to take ourselves too seriously, to have a sense of perspective and humour about religious matters!  But what are they doing? If you follow the pattern they are in upwards, our little yellowish-brown figures are definitely climbing, both wear leather belts with metal patterns, so perhaps they are pets or perhaps performing animals, both climb a strong vine, looking upwards to the bunches of grapes overhead , their big wide eyes fixed on their prize, their hands and legs gripping the vine tightly! In other pictures of monkeys, such as those in York Minister and in many Manuscripts, their juxtaposition to other images and the way they are dressed often make a point, by poking fun at us they point to the real message. So what of our two? They are extremely handsome examples of 14th c glaziers art, their fur carefully picked out, delicate hands, very like ours done with creative care, big eyes and slightly opened mouth gaze at their prize, the fruit of the vine! There is something moving about these little creatures, almost hidden at the bottom of the glass panels. They are with Saint Catherine of Alexandria’s panel, a martyr shown holding her Catherine wheel! If they are near her, what might they be saying? We can only guess, perhaps to point out that there is an obvious meaning. The chains attached to their belts are gone, freed from captivity they can now seek the fruits of their life’s journey, much as the martyr Catherine did in shedding her life blood for others. There is another tentative link, we use consecrated wine for communion, made holy by special blessing prayers, Christians refer to drink as the ‘blood’ of Christ. Here is another way of looking at them, our monkeys represent Christ setting us free from any kind of oppression and slavery to share in his fruitful life, symbolized by Holy Communion. They may be small, but for me these little apes mean so much! Enjoy them!      Robin Gibbons is a chaplain for the Eastern Catholic Community of Melkites in the UK. He was a Benedictine Monk, artist and University Academic specialising in Liturgy and the Arts, latterly Director of Studies for Theology & RS at the Continuing Education Department Oxford. He is our Catholic Honorary Ecumenical Canon at the Cathedral.
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Christ Church Cathedral in 25 Objects: Vyner Memorial Window
Tuesday, July 28, 2020
While on duty as a day chaplain in the Cathedral and spending time among its many glorious treasures, I was always particularly drawn to this window. Even though I was quite unaware of its history and significance, I noticed the moving portrayal of holy men who are very much in their youth. In ecclesiastical art we mostly see the saints and...
While on duty as a day chaplain in the Cathedral and spending time among its many glorious treasures, I was always particularly drawn to this window. Even though I was quite unaware of its history and significance, I noticed the moving portrayal of holy men who are very much in their youth. In ecclesiastical art we mostly see the saints and prophets depicted as ancient, shown to express their wisdom, experience and lives of faithfulness. Here, in contrast, blond or red-headed holy boys are brought to our gaze. In the bottom left corner, Burne-Jones shows us the chubby boy Samuel, in his little tunic woven by his mother, entrusted from when he was weaned, to the care of Eli in the Jerusalem Temple. He has gone to ask his master why he called, when Eli explains to him that The Lord himself was calling. In the panel above, Samuel is shown as an active young prophet. Next David as a powerful young shepherd is shown dynamically overcoming the huge Philistine champion Goliath. He has stunned and wounded him on the forehead with a pebble from his slingshot and, drawing Goliath’s own sword from its scabbard, is striking the fatal decapitating blow. Goliath’s elaborate armour contrasts with David’s simple clothing. David had refused the heavy armour offered by the King Saul. In the panel above he is shown as a young harpist king, probably singing the Psalms which normally resound daily in the Cathedral. The cartoon or preparatory drawing of David and Goliath is held in the sacristy. The disciple whom Jesus loved best is believed to be the young disciple St John, regarded as the gospel writer or Evangelist. Reclining on Jesus’s bosom in the emotional turmoil of the Last Supper depicted in the lower panel, John is then shown above confidently holding a chalice, his traditional symbol. This is a cup of suffering and of salvation. St Timothy, a companion and co worker with St Paul, is seen in the last square panel learning from his mother, Eunice. She and his grandmother Lois, were active members of the congregation in Lystra. Her closeness and tender care for Timothy is clear. This mother affectionately teaching her son struck me as unusual, as I had only remembered seeing this depicted in church art with a girl and her mother -  St Mary and her mother St Anne. Timothy became the first Bishop of Ephesus, but is shown in the panel above as still a young man, studying a book. Two angels play their harps amid the natural beauty of the detailed vines, leaves, flowers and fruits adorning the window’s tracery. The subtle and lovely detail of the gold decoration of the white textiles worn in the four large panels is best appreciated on the spot. I later learned the history of the Vyner memorial window, which makes these themes startling clear. It was designed by Burne-Jones to commemorate the life of Frederick Grantham Vyner, an undergraduate student of Christ Church, tragically killed in 1870 at the age of only 23, after being kidnapped and held captive for ten days for ransom by Greek brigands. The youths, the vines and the nurturing teacher and mother in the stained glass take on a new, tragic significance. Vyner’s    heartbroken mother and sister also used the unspent ransom money to commission William Burges to build the gothic revival St Mary’s church at Studley Royal in the grounds of Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.   Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.  1 Timothy 4:12     Janet Proudman is the Cathedral’s first Licensed Lay Minister, commissioned here in January 2018, and was a Day Chaplain in the Cathedral for 5 years before that. She previously served as LLM in a parish for 28 years and is a retired Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and former Honorary Hospital Chaplain at the John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals in Oxford.
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Christ Church Cathedral in 25 Objects: Monumental Mistakes
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Monuments to people who have died are a common feature in our older churches and cathedrals in this country. As cathedrals are grander buildings than parish churches, it isn’t surprising that the monuments in a cathedral are grander than those you will find in an ordinary parish church. But don’t make the mistake that the grander the monument,...
Monuments to people who have died are a common feature in our older churches and cathedrals in this country. As cathedrals are grander buildings than parish churches, it isn’t surprising that the monuments in a cathedral are grander than those you will find in an ordinary parish church. But don’t make the mistake that the grander the monument, the more worthy the person that is being commemorated. The opposite is often the case, especially in this cathedral, for genuinely great people don’t need to make a big thing about themselves. When people choose to put up a monument, it is common practice to state what status and position the deceased achieved in their lifetime in glowing terms. Great things are remembered whilst the more mundane parts of their life are passed over. This tendency fits with the sentiment that if you are going to have a monument erected in a cathedral you must have been a really good person who achieved great things in their life. Although this attitude might inspire people to strive to be good and only present their best qualities to others, this approach to life isn’t consistent with Jesus’ teaching or the way he interacted with people. The heart of Jesus teaching was about Love, Humility and Forgiveness. He taught that the purpose of life was not to try and impress God by your good works but instead to allow God’s love to flow through you into the wider world. Jesus accepted we make mistakes, so perfection and being good are not the primary aims of life, but this hardly ever comes across in the monuments in a cathedral. There is one glorious exception in this cathedral in the memorial to Johannis Fanshawe in the North aisle. The sentiment is not conveyed in the wording of the monument, but it is in the lettering. When the monument was first carved, a W was mistakenly carved as a V V. Maybe the person who was carving couldn’t read but he could cut beautiful letters. There was an attempt to cover up the mistake, how very human, but the passage of time has revealed the error in all its glory! The fact that this mistake is preserved in this monument is a triumph of  Jesus’ teaching over the convention that “you have to be good if you are to have a place in God’s house”, especially when it is a cathedral. Mistakes happen in life. So often we don’t admit them, we try to hide them, but is this God’s desire? If we can accept that we make mistakes, we are beginning to accept our true reality and recognise what it is to be loved by God. Once we know this, then we can afford to be a bit more generous in the way we judge others and allow God’s love to flow though us and make the world a more beautiful place in which all of us can live together in peace and harmony.     Andrew Bunch is an Honorary Canon of this Cathedral. He is gradually realising that we learn most in life by acknowledging our mistakes and that in a perfect world we will never discover the reality of God’s love.
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Christ Church Cathedral in 25 Objects: The Monk's Footprint
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
In the East there is a rather strange and wonderful religious practice of venerating footprints of the Buddha (such as the one on the left). There are in total about 3,000 of these footprints, some elaborate and covered in significant buddhist symbols, others just simple impressions of a foot onto rock. They exist because, before he died, the...
In the East there is a rather strange and wonderful religious practice of venerating footprints of the Buddha (such as the one on the left). There are in total about 3,000 of these footprints, some elaborate and covered in significant buddhist symbols, others just simple impressions of a foot onto rock. They exist because, before he died, the Buddha instructed his followers not to make images of him, and in early Buddhism there are no portrayals of the Buddha at all. Instead, his presence was represented by symbols such as a wheel, or an empty throne, or these wonderfully strange footprints. The tradition started in India, spreading throughout eastern Asia as Buddhism itself took its first steps beyond the land of its birth. The footprints invited people to walk the same path as the Buddha himself. They also acted as reminders to his followers that he had really existed (that he wasn’t some ethereal, other-worldly being). In fact, they are the only artefacts that give the Buddha a physical presence on earth. At Christ Church Cathedral we have something akin to a Buddha footprint. It is a depression in stone of a footprint belonging to a monk, or more likely many monks, made half a millennium and more ago. The cathedral, which began life as an Augustinian priory, was served by a small community of monks (or Canons as they are more correctly called). Long before there was a Bishop of Oxford, and many centuries before the cathedral became the cathedral, it was the church of St Frideswide's Priory, used seven times each day for worship by the Augustinian Canons. More accurately the church was used day and night, as their daily round of services began in the middle of the night. It meant the Canons had to leave their dormitory in the dark to make their way down to the church. The dormitory was a long attic room above the chapter house, now used to house the cathedral offices. Interestingly, there were two staircases leading up to it; a day stairs and a night stairs. The day stairs was used to gain access to the cloister, and was more or less in the same place as the present staircase up to the cathedral offices today. Indeed, part of the original stone handrail is still visible at the bottom of this staircase. The night stairs, however, descended directly down into the church. It would have led from the dormitory out onto the gallery above the sacristy, and from there down through the sacristy into the south transept. This was the shortest route from the dormitory to the church, avoiding having to go outside. In other words, it was a short-cut. So, imagine you are an Augustinian Canon. You retire to bed at 9 p.m. as is required of you, and are then woken for Nocturnes, the first of the seven canonical hours (consisting of psalms and lessons), at midnight. Down the night stairs you descend, and at the bottom, as you enter the south transept, you step onto the floor of the church. However, you can make another short-cut, this time by stepping across the base of one of the columns. It was just a convenient step down into the south transept. And there, on the base of the column next to the sacristy door, is a foot-sized depression, formed by monks stepping into church for hundreds of years. It's a remarkable survival. Just like the Buddha's footprints, it is the only artefact that gives the Augustinian Canons a physical presence today. We have of course a fine monument in the latin chapel of Prior Alexander de Sutton, and there are one or two brasses of the Augustinian Canons dotted about, but nothing that takes us back to their actual existence in the same way that this footprint does. And just as the Buddha footprints are meant not to represent the Buddha but rather the way of walking or practising his teaching, our monk's footprint is not an image of an Augustinian Canon. But it does speak of their daily path, their cycle of prayer, the central part of their lives. I love the way we have been left this echo, the faintest of echoes, by which we can still sense the presence of the Augustinians in the building.  And when we step down from the sacristy into the cathedral, at whatever time of day, what are we doing if not following, however falteringly, in their footsteps?     Jim Godfrey, who is one of our vergers at the Cathedral, has spent many years studying the history of Christ Church. He is the author of the current guidebook to the Cathedral and helps to train the Cathedral Guides. He studied Buddhism as part of his theology degree, and has practiced meditation for the last 20 years.
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Christ Church Cathedral in 25 Objects: The Chantry Tomb AKA The...
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
  At the east end of the Cathedral, between the Latin and Lady Chapel is a curious wooden structure on top of a stone tomb. It may remind you of a tiny medieval church, there’s nothing like it anywhere else, it is certainly one of our curiosities, but what is it? Why is it there?   Often called the ‘watching-loft’ because people...
  At the east end of the Cathedral, between the Latin and Lady Chapel is a curious wooden structure on top of a stone tomb. It may remind you of a tiny medieval church, there’s nothing like it anywhere else, it is certainly one of our curiosities, but what is it? Why is it there?   Often called the ‘watching-loft’ because people thought it had something to do with clergy being on ‘guard’ over the shrine of St Frideswide, making sure nobody stole the pilgrims offerings or even the bones of the saint herself!   However good research suggests that is rather fanciful for several reasons.   Let’s start by looking at it, the stone tomb below and the oak structure above. Close your eyes and imagine it totally built in stone; suddenly you realise that it is a single object, with three layers, an altar tomb, a canopy above it with niches all round and the wooden structure also with niches and carvings. The style is completely mid 15th c ‘gothic’ except for the door which is 17th century.   We see something found in many medieval churches and cathedrals, a tomb with a ‘chantry chapel’ directly above. A ‘chantry’ is a kind of holy ‘trust fund’ to ensure that a priest said mass and prayers for the people and family whose tomb it was, to ensure that they got into heaven. This stopped at the Reformation but the objects remained. For us the big question is, whose tomb was it, and why was the top half made in wood?   Luckily we have some answers, the late Fr Jerome Bertram of the Oxford Oratory in St Giles wrote a scholarly article setting out theories for the structure. (This is found in ‘Oxonienis, The Tomb Beneath the Loft, 1998). Bertram was an expert in heraldry and medieval funeral brasses, portraits of the dead made out of latten or brass that were engraved and then set into a stone slab. Many of these were removed over time; all that is left is an outline and slight recess where the brass once was. If you look inside you can see two outlines, a lady with a headdress and another, male in a long robe, with three heraldic shields, so obviously very important people. But only one is buried there, for in the 19th century the tomb was opened and the bones of one person, a lady, 5’6” were found. What happened?  Fortunately Dr Bertram’s research actually gives us a family name, Danvers, one of whom, Sir Robert, was a High Court Judge. This family had extensive lands and connections with many families in Oxfordshire. Sir Robert’s first wife Agnes died in 1447 and was buried in St Bartholomew the Less, Smithfield. He then married Katherine, a widow, who came from a good family in Great Hasley in Oxfordshire. She died in 1462, and after a lot of detailed investigation the conclusion reached was that “…the balance of probability must therefore be that the brass figures on the tomb in Christ Church commemorated Sir Robert Danvers and his wife Katherine, made soon after her death in 1462”.   The explanation for one body and the wooden structure seems to have been that the memory of Katherine faded. Robert, instead of being buried with her, as the brass matrix suggests, asked to be interred with Agnes. Since her three children were the heirs, the possibility is that they didn’t want to spend a huge amount on a tomb for their stepmother! So instead of stone, wood was used. We cannot be certain, but everything points in this direction, and it adds a touch of human pathos to the monument.   What else can we say? The idea the top part was a watching chamber can be disputed, the shrine of St Frideswide was probably where the Montacute Tomb now stands in the next bay down. If that is so, it is impossible to look out of that side, the steep staircase makes a substantial gap and the wooden paneling is too high for anybody to comfortably watch out of either side. It is also unlike any other medieval watching chamber.   It has been called the shrine, but history tells us that Frideswide’s shrine was definitely another structure, though it is possible that vessels and vestments for Mass and other precious objects from the shrine could have been stored inside.   A singing loft is a strong possibility, the remains of three seats (sedilia) for ministers cut into the tomb on the Latin Chapel side suggest sung Masses were celebrated both here and in the Lady chapel, so a small band of singers up above, would have been very useful for the singing.   Was it a chapel? I think we can say yes, the stairs are very worn suggesting lots of use and into the pillar on the east wall is a groove suggesting an altar was fixed up there. The whole architecture of the wooden framework is so like a chapel even to the wooden ceiling.   It’s one of our mysterious objects, a tomb, a loft chapel, a storage space and a singing gallery, but not really a watching loft, with the bones of lady, alone without her husband!       About the Author Robin Gibbons is a chaplain for the Eastern Catholic Community of Melkites in the UK. He was a Benedictine Monk, artist and University Academic specialising in Liturgy and the Arts, latterly Director of Studies for Theology & RS at the Continuing Education Department Oxford. He is our Catholic Honorary Ecumenical Canon at the Cathedral.
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 45
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Today, on Ascension Day, we end our series of reflections on the psalms. In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we...
Today, on Ascension Day, we end our series of reflections on the psalms. In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 47 Clap your hands together, all ye people * O sing unto God with the voice of melody. For the Lord is high, and to be feared * he is the great King upon all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us * and the nations under our feet. He shall choose out an heritage for us * even the worship of Jacob, whom he loved. God is gone up with a merry noise * and the Lord with the sound of the trump. O sing praises, sing praises unto our God * O sing praises, sing praises unto our King. For God is the King of all the earth * sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen * God sitteth upon his holy seat. The princes of the people are joined unto the people of the God of Abraham * for God, which is very high exalted, doth defend the earth, as it were with a shield. The Vice-Principal of my theological college used to say that he was constitutionally incapable of clapping in church. Embarrassingly, I still share his discomfort when a worship song requires a handclap, but Psalm 47 shows us that clapping in worship is scarcely an innovation. The opening verse probably refers to the kind of rhythmic clapping that can bind performers and an audience together. The calls to praise in verses 1 and 6 – ‘Clap’, ‘Sing’ – are followed by elaboration of the rationale for praise, each verse reiterating the divine majesty that covers all the earth. In Christian worship this psalm is associated with today’s feast of the Ascension, calling us to lift our hearts to the heavenly places where Christ reigns at the Father’s right hand. Yet the psalm does not leave us in distant adoration, ‘staring up into heaven’ (Acts 1:11), for the one ‘which is very high exalted’ also ‘defends the earth’. Worshipping God in Christ, we are embraced by the unfolding of God’s love, whose ‘length and breadth and height and depth’ (Ephesians 3:18) encompass heaven and earth alike. Edmund Newey
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 44
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 89  My song shall be alway of the loving-kindness of the Lord : with my mouth will I ever be shewing thy truth from one generation to another.  2. For I have said, Mercy shall be set up for ever : thy truth shalt thou stablish in the heavens.  3. I have made a covenant with my chosen : I have sworn unto David my servant;  4. Thy seed will I stablish for ever : and set up thy throne from one generation to another.  5. O Lord, the very heavens shall praise thy wondrous works : and thy truth in the congregation of the saints.  6. For who is he among the clouds : that shall be compared unto the Lord?  7. And what is he among the gods : that shall be like unto the Lord?  8. God is very greatly to be feared in the council of the saints : and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him.  9. O Lord God of hosts, who is like unto thee : thy truth, most mighty Lord, is on every side.  10. Thou rulest the raging of the sea : thou stillest the waves thereof when they arise.  11. Thou hast subdued Egypt, and destroyed it : thou hast scattered thine enemies abroad with thy mighty arm.  12. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine : thou hast laid the foundation of the round world, and all that therein is.  13. Thou hast made the north and the south : Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy Name.  14. Thou hast a mighty arm : strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.  15. Righteousness and equity are the habitation of thy seat : mercy and truth shall go before thy face.  16. Blessed is the people, O Lord, that can rejoice in thee : they shall walk in the light of thy countenance.  17. Their delight shall be daily in thy Name : and in thy righteousness shall they make their boast.  18. For thou art the glory of their strength : and in thy loving-kindness thou shalt lift up our horns.  19. For the Lord is our defence : the Holy One of Israel is our King.  20. Thou spakest sometime in visions unto thy saints, and saidst : I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.  21. I have found David my servant : with my holy oil have I anointed him.  22. My hand shall hold him fast : and my arm shall strengthen him.  23. The enemy shall not be able to do him violence : the son of wickedness shall not hurt him.  24. I will smite down his foes before his face : and plague them that hate him.  25. My truth also and my mercy shall be with him : and in my Name shall his horn be exalted.  26. I will set his dominion also in the sea : and his right hand in the floods.  27. He shall call me, Thou art my Father : my God, and my strong salvation.  28. And I will make him my first-born : higher than the kings of the earth.  29. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore : and my covenant shall stand fast with him.  30. His seed also will I make to endure for ever : and his throne as the days of heaven.  31. But if his children forsake my law : and walk not in my judgements;  32. If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments : I will visit their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges.  33. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him : nor suffer my truth to fail.  34. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips : I have sworn once by my holiness, that I will not fail David.  35. His seed shall endure for ever : and his seat is like as the sun before me.  36. He shall stand fast for evermore as the moon : and as the faithful witness in heaven.  37. But thou hast abhorred and forsaken thine Anointed : and art displeased at him.  38. Thou hast broken the covenant of thy servant : and cast his crown to the ground.  39. Thou hast overthrown all his hedges : and broken down his strong holds.  40. All they that go by spoil him : and he is become a reproach to his neighbours.  41. Thou hast set up the right hand of his enemies : and made all his adversaries to rejoice.  42. Thou hast taken away the edge of his sword : and givest him not victory in the battle.  43. Thou hast put out his glory : and cast his throne down to the ground.  44. The days of his youth hast thou shortened : and covered him with dishonour.  45. Lord, how long wilt thou hide thyself, for ever : and shall thy wrath burn like fire?  46. O remember how short my time is : wherefore hast thou made all men for nought?  47. What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death : and shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hell?  48. Lord, where are thy old loving-kindnesses : which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?  49. Remember, Lord, the rebuke that thy servants have : and how I do bear in my bosom the rebukes of many people.  50. Wherewith thine enemies have blasphemed thee, and slandered the footsteps of thine Anointed : Praised be the Lord for evermore. Amen, and Amen.  This very long psalm moves through several moods: a hymn praising God; a poem about God’s promise of kingship to David and David’s descendants; a lament for the way that the relationship between God and God’s people has broken down; and a final sentence of praise.   Different sections might be meaningful at different times, but I think the praise with which the psalm starts and ends is key; it puts both God’s promise and the writer’s lament into their context. In this hymn we are invited to praise God as creator; as holy; as the home of all virtues and as the glory of God’s people.  As we pray this psalm, we remember incidents from the story of God’s people Israel, like the escape from Egypt (verse 11) and the giving of a king (verse 3); we remember too that God is creator, not just of Israel’s story, but of all that is: the heavens and earth (verse 12), the north and the south (verse 13). We praise God because of his power (verse 11); we praise God because his power is used to bring good things to people (verse 18); and we praise God because he is not just powerful, but also righteous, just, merciful and truthful (verse 15) and, above all of these, loving (verse 1).  This praise draws those who praise God into the right kind of relationship with God. We are invited to become the blessed people who rejoice in God, walking in God’s light, delighting in God’s name (verses 16-17). The lament of verses 31-2 and 37-50 remind us that there is another option: of rejecting a relationship with God, and therefore forfeiting blessing and cutting ourselves off from God’s love. But the psalm ends where it began: ‘praised be the Lord for evermore. Amen and Amen.’ (verse 50). Even for those who turn away from God, there is always the option to turn back and to turn disobedience into praise.   Philippa White   
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 40
Thursday, May 14, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 2  Why do the heathen so furiously rage together : and why do the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel together : against the Lord, and against his Anointed. Let us break their bonds asunder : and cast away their cords from us. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn : the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath : and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King : upon my holy hill of Sion. I will preach the law, whereof the Lord hath said unto me : Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Desire of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance: and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron : and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel.  Be wise now therefore, O ye kings : be learned, ye that are judges of the earth. Serve the Lord in fear : and rejoice unto him with reverence. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and so ye perish from the right way : if his wrath be kindled, (yea, but a little,) blessed are all they that put their trust in him.  Earlier in the week, writing about Psalm 1, I suggested that it was placed at the beginning of the Book of Psalms as a summary of some of the key themes of the book. Psalm 2, which follows it, does the same: this time, drawing out the themes of kingship and the sovereignty of God which are threaded through the Psalms. It reminds us, as we read, hear or pray the psalm, that God is the real sovereign, compared to whom the world’s leaders and their plans are insignificant.  Many Old Testament scholars think that this psalm was written to be used at the coronations of kings of Israel. Even at the moment of coronation, when they  symbolically received almost total power over the kingdom and its people, those kings were reminded: all this belongs to God. You are where you are because God has called you there; you have enormous power because God has given it to you; all you are comes from God, and all you do needs to honour God.  I wonder what that did to the way those kings ruled? (If you read the Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles, you might think: not a lot!)  I wonder what it might change for the world’s leaders at the moment, if they truly believed the message of this psalm?  And I wonder what it might change in us, if we live as people who believe that real power belongs to a God who is righteous and loving? 
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 39
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 1  Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners : and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord : and in his law will he exercise himself day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the water-side : that will bring forth his fruit in due season. His leaf also shall not wither : and look, whatsoever he doeth, it shall prosper. As for the ungodly, it is not so with them : but they are like the chaff, which the wind scattereth away from the face of the earth. Therefore the ungodly shall not be able to stand in the judgement : neither the sinners in the congregation of the righteous. But the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous : and the way of the ungodly shall perish.  The Book of Psalms did not come about by chance. This collection of 150 poem-prayers – some clearly written to be used by the whole Jewish community, some for individual use – written over decades if not centuries, were gathered into a single book with some care. So it isn’t irrelevant that this is the first psalm. Placed at the beginning of the Psalms, it reflects some of the themes of the whole book: themes of blessedness, of the right way to live, of the goodness of the Law, and of the justice of God. The final verse not only concludes this Psalm, but offers a summary of one theme of the Book of Psalms (and of other parts of the Old Testament): ‘the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous : and the way of the ungodly shall perish.’ Those who read, reflect on and live according to God’s righteousness and Law shall be blessed; those who choose to reject God will not.  This isn’t a comfortable message for those of us who, rightly, want to emphasise God’s mercy and grace; the goodness of God revealed in loving forgiveness. In the Old Testament, God’s mercy, grace, goodness and forgiveness are very much present; God acts in covenant love, loving-kindness, compassion. But in this psalm, as elsewhere in what’s called the ‘wisdom literature’ of the Bible, this covenant love is revealed most clearly in God’s gracious gift of the Law – the Bible. This psalm speaks of the Law with tenderness and joy: it is a gift in which the writer delights, it offers freedom, truth, and an insight into God’s heart.  Many people are finding this period of lockdown difficult, not least because of being unable to receive Communion – the gifts of God made tangible in bread and wine. Perhaps this psalm can remind us that the gifts of God can also be made present and tangible in the words of Scripture. May we delight in the Word of God and meditate on Scripture; and may our faith grow like blossoming trees, bearing fruit for the good of all people. 
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 38
Monday, May 11, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 114   When Israel came out of Egypt *  and the house of Jacob from among the strange people,   Judah was his sanctuary *  and Israel his dominion.   The sea saw that, and fled *  Jordan was driven back.   The mountains skipped like rams *  and the little hills like young sheep.   What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest *  and thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?   Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams *  and ye little hills, like young sheep?   Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord *  at the presence of the God of Jacob;   Who turned the hard rock into a standing water *  and the flint-stone into a springing well. Most psalms open with a verse that brings God and God’s people together: a call to praise, lament or prayer before the Lord. Psalm 114 is different – it rises in a crescendo, naming God only at the very end. Beginning with the people of Israel, exiled among a people whose language and customs are alien to them, it recounts their flight to sanctuary. As yet, God remains unnamed, merely gestured to: the terms in which the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan are described echo the creation account in Genesis. Just as in creation, so here in deliverance, order is brought out of chaos in ways that exceed human powers of understanding. Then, in awe the psalmist describes these miraculous events again, not as past happenings, but as a present encounter in which the Red Sea and the Jordan are addressed directly, the mountains and hills also. And only then is God named: first in fear and trembling; then as the one who is so close to his people that his presence is like a draught of fresh spring water, slaking our thirst in the desert. Edmund Newey
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 37
Saturday, May 9, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 134 Behold now, praise the Lord * all ye servants of the Lord; Ye that by night stand in the house of the Lord * even in the courts of the house of our God. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary * and praise the Lord. The Lord that made heaven and earth * give thee blessing out of Sion. This psalm comes a close second to 117 in the contest for shortest in the Psalter. Like its cousin, it is a hymn of praise, but whereas Psalm 117’s context is the day, Psalm 134 is an evening psalm, often prayed in the office of Compline before bed. It consists of two parts, the distinction between them being the switch from plural to singular in the final verse. In the opening three verses, the worship leader addresses the congregation, inviting them to praise God at the close of day. In the last verse the congregation responds with a blessing upon the minister. This pattern of call and response invites us to see that blessing is a two-way process: from God to us, obviously, but also from us to God: ‘Come, bless the Lord, you servants of the Lord’, says the modern translation, faithful to the Hebrew vocabulary. Odd, we may think, that creation could bless its Creator, but this is the dignity conferred on us in worship which puts us back in right relationship with God and one another: called not just to receive but to bestow blessing. Edmund Newey  
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 34
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 84 O how amiable are thy dwellings *  thou Lord of hosts! 2  My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord *  my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God. 3  Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young *  even thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. 4  Blessed are they that dwell in thy house *  they will be alway praising thee. 5  Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee *  in whose heart are thy ways. 6  Who going through the vale of misery use it for a well *  and the pools are filled with water. 7  They will go from strength to strength *  and unto the God of gods appeareth every one of them in Sion. 8  O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer *  hearken, O God of Jacob. 9  Behold, O God our defender *  and look upon the face of thine Anointed.  10  For one day in thy courts *  is better than a thousand. 11  I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God *  than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness. 12  For the Lord God is a light and defence *  the Lord will give grace and worship, and no good thing shall he withhold from them that live a godly life. 13  O Lord God of hosts *  blessed is the man that putteth his trust in thee.  In his commentary on the Psalter, John Eaton gives each psalm a title: Psalm 84’s is ‘Travelling to God’. It’s a bold claim for anyone to make, but it fits this psalm of pilgrimage perfectly.  These verses sing of the pilgrim’s joy at arriving. Where does he arrive? In the holy city of Jerusalem, of course; but more importantly in God’s greater house, the cosmos itself. Recognising that in the words of another psalm ‘the earth is the Lord’s and all that therein is’, he has travelled to God and arrived.   True pilgrimage always teaches that the journey’s end is not just a particular place, but a proper understanding of our place in the world. Here the psalmist sings with delight, discovering afresh the loveliness of creation and the place of dignity each of us enjoys within it as a child of God.   Truly God’s ‘dwellings’ are everywhere: even the most overlooked and despised places, even the people we find most challenging, even we ourselves, are ‘amiable’ – lovely and beloved – when illuminated by God who is ‘a light and defence’, the giver of ‘grace and worship’.  Edmund Newey 
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 33
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean PSALM 47 Omnes gentes, plaudite O CLAP your hands together, all ye people: O sing unto God with the voice of melody. For the Lord is high, and to be feared: he is the great King upon all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us: and the nations under our feet. He shall choose out an heritage for us: even the worship of Jacob, whom he loved. God is gone up with a merry noise: and the Lord with the sound of the trump. O sing praises, sing praises unto our God: O sing praises, sing praises unto our King. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon his holy seat. The princes of the people are joined unto the people of the God of Abraham: for God, which is very high exalted, doth defend the earth, as it were with a shield. Clapping is a universal expression of applause and usually approval. We have been doing it for millennia – and it currently finds common expression on a Thursday evening when we applaud all those working for the NHS and other social services during our Covid-19 crisis. The psalm cries out to be sung – as all psalms are in Jewish worship. There are numerous musical settings and hymns. One of my favourites is the anthem by Orlando Gibbons which was first performed when he received his D Mus in Oxford – ‘O clap your hands together’ in 1622. We particularly use the Psalm with its words ‘God is gone up with a merry noise’ at Ascensiontide. Every verse centres on God and the coming of his Kingdom or Rule. Can we join this worship and express our own sense of God’s Kingship in our lives? Interestingly the Psalmist focuses on the Nations, not just humans and the rest of creation. It is the Nations – the world of politics? - who are called together to express awe and wonder at our complex but inspiring world. Here is a universal challenge: May we see you Lord as King of all and sing praises with this psalm, for you are highly exalted and reign in majesty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. David Knight
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 32
Monday, May 4, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean PSALM 46 Deus noster refugium GOD is our hope and strength: a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved: and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof rage and swell: and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same. The rivers of the flood thereof shall make glad the city of God: the holy place of the tabernacle of the most Highest. God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen make much ado, and the kingdoms are moved: but God hath shewed his voice, and the earth shall melt away. The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge. O come hither, and behold the works of the Lord: what destruction he hath brought upon the earth. He maketh wars to cease in all the world: he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire. Be still then, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge. This is one of the psalms which expresses a robust trust and confidence in God in every situation in which we might find ourselves. Martin Luther was said to use it when he was depressed and could burst into song with ‘Ein Feste Burg’ –‘ A safe stronghold our God is still’. It’s a hymn we regularly use today and, rather surprisingly, we even continue to use one of Luther’s tunes. You can also find ‘God is our strength and refuge’ in our modern hymnbooks, sung to the rousing Dambusters’ March. As one of the Hymns of Zion, possibly originally used at a New Year Festival, we join in with all the other worshippers acknowledging God as the God of all human beings. We are drawn into bold exciting worship, complete with instrumental accompaniment [though we don’t know what the original instrument was], and honour God as King, as Lord of all and Jesus as Emmanuel, God is with us. Then, in the middle of all that noise we are suddenly called to silence as we realize the presence of God. We are to be still and come to realize that he is God, not just of our own little group, but of all human beings and the whole of creation. David Knight
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 31
Saturday, May 2, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean PSALM 18 Diligam te, Domine I WILL love thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my stony rock, and my defence: my saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, which is worthy to be praised: so shall I be safe from mine enemies. The sorrows of death compassed me: and the overflowings of ungodliness made me afraid. The pains of hell came about me: the snares of death overtook me. In my trouble I will call upon the Lord: and complain unto my God. So shall he hear my voice out of his holy temple: and my complaint shall come before him, it shall enter even into his ears. The earth trembled and quaked: the very foundations also of the hills shook, and were removed, because he was wroth. There went a smoke out in his presence: and a consuming fire out of his mouth, so that coals were kindled at it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and it was dark under his feet. He rode upon the cherubins, and did fly: he came flying upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place: his pavilion round about him, with dark water and thick clouds to cover him. At the brightness of his presence his clouds removed: hail-stones, and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave his thunder: hail-stones, and coals of fire. He sent out his arrows, and scattered them: he cast forth lightnings, and destroyed them. The springs of water were seen, and the foundations of the round world were discovered, at thy chiding, O Lord: at the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure. He shall send down from on high to fetch me: and shall take me out of many waters. He shall deliver me from my strongest enemy, and from them which hate me: for they are too mighty for me. They prevented me in the day of my trouble: but the Lord was my upholder. He brought me forth also into a place of liberty: he brought me forth, even because he had a favour unto me. The Lord shall reward me after my righteous dealing: according to the cleanness of my hands shall he recompense me. Because I have kept the ways of the Lord: and have not forsaken my God, as the wicked doth. For I have an eye unto all his laws: and will not cast out his commandments from me. I was also uncorrupt before him: and eschewed mine own wickedness. Therefore shall the Lord reward me after my righteous dealing: and according unto the cleanness of my hands in his eye-sight. With the holy thou shalt be holy: and with a perfect man thou shalt be perfect. With the clean thou shalt be clean: and with the froward thou shalt learn frowardness. For thou shalt save the people that are in adversity: and shalt bring down the high looks of the proud. Thou also shalt light my candle: the Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light. For in thee I shall discomfit an host of men: and with the help of my God I shall leap over the wall. The way of God is an undefiled way: the word of the Lord also is tried in the fire; he is the defender of all them that put their trust in him. For who is God, but the Lord: or who hath any strength, except our God? It is God, that girdeth me with strength of war: and maketh my way perfect. He maketh my feet like harts' feet: and setteth me up on high. He teacheth mine hands to fight: and mine arms shall break even a bow of steel. Thou hast given me the defence of thy salvation: thy right hand also shall hold me up, and thy loving correction shall make me great. Thou shalt make room enough under me for to go: that my footsteps shall not slide. I will follow upon mine enemies, and overtake them: neither will I turn again till I have destroyed them. I will smite them, that they shall not be able to stand: but fall under my feet. Thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle: thou shalt throw down mine enemies under me. Thou hast made mine enemies also to turn their backs upon me: and I shall destroy them that hate me. They shall cry, but there shall be none to help them: yea, even unto the Lord shall they cry, but he shall not hear them. I will beat them as small as the dust before the wind: I will cast them out as the clay in the streets. Thou shalt deliver me from the strivings of the people: and thou shalt make me the head of the heathen. A people whom I have not known: shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: but the strange children shall dissemble with me. The strange children shall fail: and be afraid out of their prisons. The Lord liveth, and blessed be my strong helper: and praised be the Lord of my salvation; Even the God that seeth that I be avenged: and subdueth the people unto me. It is he that delivereth me from my cruel enemies, and setteth me up above mine adversaries: thou shalt rid me from the wicked man. For this cause will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles: and sing praises unto thy Name. Great prosperity giveth he unto his King: and sheweth loving-kindness unto David his Anointed, and unto his seed for evermore. The superscription of this psalm tells us that it was written when David has been delivered from Saul and his other enemies. It is therefore one of the psalms of thanksgiving. David begins by celebrating the greatness of God (vv 1-4), then describes his plight and his deliverance from his enemies, when God appeared in an earthquake and thunderstorm and ‘sent his arrows and scattered them’ (vv 7-19). David boldly proclaims his own righteousness and faith, ‘For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and not wickedly departed from my God’ (v 20), a reminder that the Israelite ideal of kingship was always expressed in strongly ethical terms. David concludes by celebrating the might of God, ‘For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle’ (v39), and in thankfulness praises the living God, who ‘sheweth mercy to his anointed , to David and to his seed for evermore’ (v50). This psalm is almost the same as the song sung by David at the end of his life, as recorded in 2 Samuel 22. It was therefore sung in two contexts, first when David became king of Israel, and later as a grateful retrospect as he looked back as an old man over his life. This psalm expresses a full-blooded faith in God, ‘my rock and my fortress and my deliverer… my strength in whom I will trust’ (vv1-2); and also a firm belief in the power of righteous living, ‘with the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful’ (v 25). Such is David’s confidence in his relationship with God that he uses strong and vivid expressions, running through a troop, leaping over a wall, making my feet like hind’s feet, pursuing enemies until they are destroyed. We may today find such aggressive confidence misplaced, but we cannot help being moved by David’s stirring and unequivocal declaration of faith and love, ‘I will love thee, O Lord, my strength’. Revd David Meara
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 30
Friday, May 1, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean PSALM 17 HEAR the right, O Lord, consider my complaint: and hearken unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips. Let my sentence come forth from thy presence: and let thine eyes look upon the thing that is equal. Thou hast proved and visited mine heart in the night-season; thou hast tried me, and shalt find no wickedness in me; for I am utterly purposed that my mouth shall not offend. Because of men's works, that are done against the words of thy lips: I have kept me from the ways of the destroyer. O hold thou up my goings in thy paths: that my footsteps slip not. I have called upon thee, O God, for thou shalt hear me: incline thine ear to me, and hearken unto my words. Shew thy marvellous loving-kindness, thou that art the Saviour of them which put their trust in thee: from such as resist thy right hand. Keep me as the apple of an eye: hide me under the shadow of thy wings. From the ungodly that trouble me: mine enemies compass me round about to take away my soul. They are inclosed in their own fat: and their mouth speaketh proud things. They lie waiting in our way on every side: turning their eyes down to the ground. Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey: and as it were a lion's whelp, lurking in secret places. Up, Lord, disappoint him, and cast him down: deliver my soul from the ungodly, which is a sword of thine; From the men of thy hand, O Lord, from the men, I say, and from the evil world: which have their portion in this life, whose bellies thou fillest with thy hid treasure. They have children at their desire: and leave the rest of their substance for their babes. But as for me, I will behold thy presence in righteousness: and when I awake up after thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it. This is one of the psalms of lament, a prayer that God will intervene on behalf of the righteous person. The psalmist protests his innocence (vv 3-5), he then renews his appeal for help (vv 6-9), and goes on to describe the actions of those who prey upon him (vv 10-12). He prays again for divine intervention, and ends by contrasting the lot of those who have their fill of good things in this world with his own spiritual poverty in God’s presence. The superscription calls this a psalm of David, and perhaps in origin it was a prayer of his for deliverance from his enemies, when he was being persecuted and pursued by Saul. Throughout this period of testing David believes that he is innocent of wrongdoing, and that God will acknowledge this. He urges God to reveal to him His lovingkindness, and utters the beautiful request in verse 8, ‘Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings’, a verse that was later incorporated into the monastic office of Compline. The phrase ‘apple of the eye’ was used to describe something precious, easily injured and demanding protection. It is a figure of speech that is also found in the Book of Deuteronomy (32:10), and in Proverbs (7:2). Taken with the phrase ‘Hide me under the shadow of thy wings’, these two phrases paint a powerful picture of God’s love and care for His people, which leads David in the final verse of the psalm to express his confidence that whatever happens to him he would one day see the face of God. David Meara
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 29
Thursday, April 30, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 112 1 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord: he hath great delight in his commandments. 2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the faithful shall be blessed. 3 Riches and plenteousness shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. 4 Unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness: he is merciful, loving, and righteous. 5 A good man is merciful, and lendeth: and will guide his words with discretion. 6 For he shall never be moved: and the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. 7 He will not be afraid of any evil tidings: for his heart standeth fast, and believeth in the Lord. 8 His heart is established, and will not shrink: until he see his desire upon his enemies. 9 He hath dispersed abroad, and given to the poor: and his righteousness remaineth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. 10 The ungodly shall see it, and it shall grieve him: he shall gnash with his teeth, and consume away; the desire of the ungodly shall perish. Imagine you’re tasked by the Department for Reviving Public Morals to write a poem to be committed to memory and repeated each day by the public as they wash their hands. You decide to create something easy to remember by using the alphabet: begin with avarice, end at zootheism, and your work is done. Something like that was the origin of Psalm 112. The Jews in their captivity concluded that their exile to Babylon was due to the nation’s wickedness: what was needed was renewal, and it had to start with the individual. Righteous and unrighteous behaviour were easily distinguished - all aspects of behaviour were covered by the Law, in which the God-fearing would take great delight. And so we have this poem. Each half-verse begins with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, to assist the memory. Learn it by heart, and you can recite a lesson on public behaviour: piety will lead the righteous to prosperity, while they take comfort from watching the wicked fade away through their disregard of God’s commandments. The promise to the godly that light will arise in the darkness – hope in times of despair – is wisdom worth repeating in any age. John Paton
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 27
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 109  HOLD not thy tongue, O God of my praise: for the mouth of the ungodly, yea, the mouth of the deceitful is opened upon me.  And they have spoken against me with false tongues: they compassed me about also with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.  For the love that I had unto them, lo, they take now my contrary part: but I give myself unto prayer.  Thus have they rewarded me evil for good: and hatred for my good will.  Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.  When sentence is given upon him, let him be condemned: and let his prayer be turned into sin.  Let his days be few: and let another take his office.  Let his children be fatherless: and his wife a widow.  Let his children be vagabonds, and beg their bread: let them seek it also out of desolate places.  Let the extortioner consume all that he hath: and let the stranger spoil his labour.  Let there be no man to pity him: nor to have compassion upon his fatherless children.  Let his posterity be destroyed: and in the next generation let his name be clean put out.  Let the wickedness of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be done away.  Let them alway be before the Lord: that he may root out the memorial of them from off the earth.  And that, because his mind was not to do good: but persecuted the poor helpless man, that he might slay him that was vexed at the heart.  His delight was in cursing, and it shall happen unto him: he loved not blessing, therefore shall it be far from him.  He clothed himself with cursing, like as with a raiment: and it shall come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.  Let it be unto him as the cloke that he hath upon him: and as the girdle that he is alway girded withal.  Let it thus happen from the Lord unto mine enemies: and to those that speak evil against my soul.  But deal thou with me, O Lord God, according unto thy Name: for sweet is thy mercy.  O deliver me, for I am helpless and poor: and my heart is wounded within me.  I go hence like the shadow that departeth: and am driven away as the grasshopper.  My knees are weak through fasting: my flesh is dried up for want of fatness.  I became also a reproach unto them: they that looked upon me shaked their heads.  Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy.  And they shall know, how that this is thy hand: and that thou, Lord, hast done it.  Though they curse, yet bless thou: and let them be confounded that rise up against me; but let thy servant rejoice.  Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame: and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a cloke.  As for me, I will give great thanks unto the Lord with my mouth: and praise him among the multitude.  For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor: to save his soul from the unrighteous judges. (BCP)  Imagine yourself a ‘forty-niner’ laboriously panning soil and sand in the Klondike, until you’re rewarded with the glint of a nugget of pure gold. Nuggets are generally of little value by themselves; but they may indicate rich seams nearby.  And so it is, perhaps, with this psalm. It’s rarely used in public worship. Getting things off your chest is one thing, but this concentrated stream of cursing and invective fits badly with Jesus’ command, ‘Love your enemies’. Who the deceitful and ungodly people are who’ve caused the psalmist such harm that he should want their children to be fatherless vagabonds, we’re given no clue.  The psalm needs no commentary – it speaks for itself, and the vicious details of its imagined harm are best passed over. But there is one gleam of gold. ‘Though they curse, Lord, yet bless thou’, says verse 27. Balaam the prophet was asked by King Balak of Moab to curse the invading armies of Israel; but he refused, saying, ‘How can I curse whom God has not cursed?’, and he goes on to bless them instead. Perhaps Balaam’s wisdom may lead singers of this psalm to the limitless seam of grace that came through Jesus Christ.   John Paton 
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 26
Monday, April 27, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 104 PRAISE the Lord, O my soul: O Lord my God, thou art become exceeding glorious; thou art clothed with majesty and honour. Thou deckest thyself with light as it were with a garment: and spreadest out the heavens like a curtain. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: and maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind. He maketh his angels spirits: and his ministers a flaming fire. He laid the foundations of the earth: that it never should move at any time. Thou coveredst it with the deep like as with a garment: the waters stand in the hills. At thy rebuke they flee: at the voice of thy thunder they are afraid. They go up as high as the hills, and down to the valleys beneath: even unto the place which thou hast appointed for them. Thou hast set them their bounds which they shall not pass: neither turn again to cover the earth. He sendeth the springs into the rivers: which run among the hills. All beasts of the field drink thereof: and the wild asses quench their thirst. Beside them shall the fowls of the air have their habitation: and sing among the branches. He watereth the hills from above: the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works. He bringeth forth grass for the cattle: and green herb for the service of men; That he may bring food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man: and oil to make him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart. The trees of the Lord also are full of sap: even the cedars of Libanus which he hath planted; Wherein the birds make their nests: and the fir-trees are a dwelling for the stork. The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats: and so are the stony rocks for the conies. He appointed the moon for certain seasons: and the sun knoweth his going down. Thou makest darkness that it may be night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do move. The lions roaring after their prey: do seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, and they get them away together: and lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth to his work, and to his labour: until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are thy works: in wisdom hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches. So is the great and wide sea also: wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships, and there is that Leviathan: whom thou hast made to take his pastime therein. These wait all upon thee: that thou mayest give them meat in due season. When thou givest it them they gather it: and when thou openest thy hand they are filled with good. When thou hidest thy face they are troubled: when thou takest away their breath they die, and are turned again to their dust. When thou lettest thy breath go forth they shall be made: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth. The glorious majesty of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works. The earth shall tremble at the look of him: if he do but touch the hills, they shall smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will praise my God while I have my being. And so shall my words please him: my joy shall be in the Lord. As for sinners, they shall be consumed out of the earth, and the ungodly shall come to an end: praise thou the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord. This long and beautiful psalm is a reflective song of praise to God the creator and provider: God whose love is manifested in the wonders of creation, God whose power is manifested in the glory of his appearing, God whose mercy is manifested in his tender provision for all that has been made.  It’s one of the few places in the Bible where we see hints of a creation story that far predates the two that begin the book of Genesis: a story in which God doesn’t create calmly, unopposed, out of a ‘formless void,’ but by taming the dangerous powers of creation. This psalm shows us the God who is beyond human understanding, powerful, glorious, and altogether good. What, to humans, is wild, strange and dangerous is entirely part of God’s domestic sphere. The roaring lions of verse 21 turn out to be God’s housecats, fed by his hand and, once day dawns, curling up in a patch of sunlight in their dens. Perhaps this is a psalm for those of us who – deprived of ordinary amusements – are spending more time outside: on our state-approved daily walks, runs or cycles, or in our gardens.  It can remind us that the beauty of the created world is for our sake, and that God who clothes the flowers in colour and scent will also supply our needs. And perhaps it is also a psalm for those of us who are cut off from the outside world, or from other things which sustain us. God, for whom ravenous lions are domestic pets, who dispels the waters of chaos with a stern rebuke, will protect us with his power and sustain us with his love. God, who created the world in all its wild splendor and rugged beauty, has seen far worse than this and borne it all. God will bear our burdens too. ‘Praise thou the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!’ Philippa White
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 22
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 111 1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, * in the company of the faithful and in the congregation. 2 The works of the Lord are great, * sought out by all who delight in them. 3 His work is full of majesty and honour * and his righteousness endures for ever. 4 He appointed a memorial for his marvellous deeds; * the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. 5 He gave food to those who feared him; * he is ever mindful of his covenant. 6 He showed his people the power of his works * in giving them the heritage of the nations. 7 The works of his hands are truth and justice; * all his commandments are sure. 8 They stand fast for ever and ever; * they are done in truth and equity. 9 He sent redemption to his people; he commanded his covenant for ever; * holy and awesome is his name. 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have those who live by it; * his praise endures for ever. To the Jewish people, God’s name is unutterable. Only the consonants – YHWH – may be written and when that name is referred to in speech, it is always by a circumlocution: ‘the Lord’. Christians disregard this reticence too readily, ‘growing familiar with mysteries’, as Cardinal Newman put it. This psalm is an acrostic: in the Hebrew each half-verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet. From aleph to taw the ‘marvellous deeds’ of the Lord are spelled out. First, God’s works are praised in general terms, then they are enumerated specifically: the miraculous feeding in the wilderness, the establishment of the covenant and the commandments, the granting of victory and the settlement of the Holy Land. Yet, for all that these deeds reveal of the Lord’s ‘truth and equity’, still God’s name remains ‘holy and awesome’, beyond comprehension. What was true of the old covenant is also true of the new. In the face of Jesus Christ we have ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God’ (2 Corinthians 4: 6), but the mysteries of our faith deepen even as they are made known. Filled with ‘fear of the Lord’ we need not cower like Adam and Eve ‘in the garden at the time of the evening breeze’ (Genesis 3:8). Instead we may respond with awe and praise, as Moses did before the burning bush, knowing that the place where we stand is holy ground (Exodus 3:5). Edmund Newey
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 17
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 78 HEAR my law, O my people: incline your ears unto the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will declare hard sentences of old; Which we have heard and known: and such as our fathers have told us; That we should not hide them from the children of the generations to come: but to shew the honour of the Lord, his mighty and wonderful works that he hath done. He made a covenant with Jacob, and gave Israel a law: which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children; That their posterity might know it: and the children which were yet unborn; To the intent that when they came up: they might shew their children the same; That they might put their trust in God: and not to forget the works of God, but to keep his commandments; And not to be as their forefathers, a faithless and stubborn generation: a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit cleaveth not stedfastly unto God; Like as the children of Ephraim: who being harnessed, and carrying bows, turned themselves back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God: and would not walk in his law; But forgat what he had done: and the wonderful works that he had shewed for them. Marvellous things did he in the sight of our forefathers, in the land of Egypt: even in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea, and let them go through: he made the waters to stand on an heap. In the day-time also he led them with a cloud: and all the night through with a light of fire. He clave the hard rocks in the wilderness: and gave them drink thereof, as it had been out of the great depth. He brought waters out of the stony rock: so that it gushed out like the rivers. Yet for all this they sinned more against him: and provoked the most Highest in the wilderness. They tempted God in their hearts: and required meat for their lust. They spake against God also, saying: Shall God prepare a table in the wilderness? He smote the stony rock indeed, that the waters gushed out, and the streams flowed withal: but can he give bread also, or provide flesh for his people? When the Lord heard this, he was wroth: so the fire was kindled in Jacob, and there came up heavy displeasure against Israel; Because they believed not in God: and put not their trust in his help. So he commanded the clouds above: and opened the doors of heaven. He rained down manna also upon them for to eat: and gave them food from heaven. So man did eat angels' food: for he sent them meat enough. He caused the east-wind to blow under heaven: and through his power he brought in the south-west-wind. He rained flesh upon them as thick as dust: and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea. He let it fall among their tents: even round about their habitation. So they did eat and were well filled, for he gave them their own desire: they were not disappointed of their lust. But while the meat was yet in their mouths, the heavy wrath of God came upon them, and slew the wealthiest of them: yea, and smote down the chosen men that were in Israel. But for all this they sinned yet more: and believed not his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity: and their years in trouble. When he slew them, they sought him: and turned them early, and inquired after God. And they remembered that God was their strength: and that the high God was their redeemer. Nevertheless, they did but flatter him with their mouth: and dissembled with him in their tongue. For their heart was not whole with him: neither continued they stedfast in his covenant. But he was so merciful, that he forgave their misdeeds: and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned he his wrath away: and would not suffer his whole displeasure to arise. For he considered that they were but flesh: and that they were even a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. Many a time did they provoke him in the wilderness: and grieved him in the desert. They turned back, and tempted God: and moved the Holy One in Israel. They thought not of his hand: and of the day when he delivered them from the hand of the enemy; How he had wrought his miracles in Egypt: and his wonders in the field of Zoan. He turned their waters into blood: so that they might not drink of the rivers. He sent lice among them, and devoured them up: and frogs to destroy them. He gave their fruit unto the caterpillar: and their labour unto the grasshopper. He destroyed their vines with hail-stones: and their mulberry-trees with the frost. He smote their cattle also with hail-stones: and their flocks with hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the furiousness of his wrath, anger, displeasure and trouble: and sent evil angels among them. He made a way to his indignation, and spared not their soul from death: but gave their life over to the pestilence; And smote all the first-born in Egypt: the most principal and mightiest in the dwellings of Ham. But as for his own people, he led them forth like sheep: and carried them in the wilderness like a flock. He brought them out safely, that they should not fear: and overwhelmed their enemies with the sea. And brought them within the borders of his sanctuary: even to his mountain which he purchased with his right hand. He cast out the heathen also before them: caused their land to be divided among them for an heritage, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. So they tempted and displeased the most high God: and kept not his testimonies; But turned their backs, and fell away like their forefathers: starting aside like a broken bow. For they grieved him with their hill-altars: and provoked him to displeasure with their images. When God heard this, he was wroth: and took sore displeasure at Israel. So that he forsook the tabernacle in Silo: even the tent that he had pitched among men. He delivered their power into captivity: and their beauty into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword: and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men: and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests were slain with the sword: and there were no widows to make lamentation. So the Lord awaked as one out of sleep: and like a giant refreshed with wine. He smote his enemies in the hinder parts: and put them to a perpetual shame. He refused the tabernacle of Joseph: and chose not the tribe of Ephraim; But chose the tribe of Judah: even the hill of Sion which he loved. And there he built his temple on high: and laid the foundation of it like the ground which he hath made continually. He chose David also his servant: and took him away from the sheep-folds. As he was following the ewes great with young ones he took him: that he might feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them with a faithful and true heart: and ruled them prudently with all his power. In the much-quoted words of the philosopher, George Santayana, ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ In many ways this sums up the message of psalm 78. The psalmist asks that ‘the hard sentences of old’ be listened to and taught to children, so that all may remember and learn from the history of the people of Israel. The psalm outlines the relationship between God and the people of Israel in the time of the Exodus. God repeatedly delivers and blesses: rolling back the sea for them to pass, providing water, manna and quails in the wilderness. The people fluctuate between remembering God’s provision of their needs and then forgetting: ‘many a time did they provoke him in the wilderness’, ‘they thought not of his hand.’ This time of difficulty that we live in can make us wonder where God is. We face a situation unknown in our lifetime. The psalm reminds us to look back. The past has things to teach us about how God sustains people through turmoil and reminds us how often we forget our dependence on the sustaining power of our Creator. Our God makes springs in the desert and gives us the sustenance we need day by day. We can take time to reflect on our past – both the tough times and the good times – to see how God provided for us. We can read the lives and prayers of Christians in the past who point us to the sustaining power of God. And we can count our blessings that we may not forget the hand that holds us and keeps us through the wilderness days. Emma Percy
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 14
Monday, April 6, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 137 BY THE waters of Babylon we sat down and wept: when we remembered thee, O Sion. As for our harps, we hanged them up: upon the trees that are therein. For they that led us away captive required of us then a song, and melody in our heaviness: Sing us one of the songs of Sion. How shall we sing the Lord's song: in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem: let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth: yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth. Remember the children of Edom, O Lord, in the day of Jerusalem: how they said, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground. O daughter of Babylon , wasted with misery: yea, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us. Blessed shall he be that taketh thy children: and throweth them against the stones. A poignant image of the people of Israel in their captivity – impervious to the beauty of their new surroundings, unable to raise their voices to praise their God, whether through despondency or because they could not conceive that God might still be with them in exile. Jerusalem was God’s earthly dwelling place, and for his scattered children the ruins of the Temple and the city were grounds equally for hope and despair. The last few verses of the psalm are rarely used in Christian worship. The merciless cry for vengeance upon the descendants of Esau, the patriarch tricked of his inheritance by his brother Jacob; the memory, no doubt, of the Edomites’ part in the looting of Zion – how can we reconcile this with our Lord’s call to love our enemies? We all sometimes need to acknowledge our anger and frustration. Pour out your heart, and the figure on the cross will patiently, gently, wait for you to return to your senses. Troubles that burden us must be voiced before they can be healed, and there’s nothing we are forbidden to say to our Maker, who in his good time will restore both our frame of mind and our well-being. John Paton
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One Equal Music 2
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Palm Sunday: Hosanna to the Son of David All the great days and seasons of the Christian year have music that goes with them: carols, hymns, choral music, organ music. Whatever it is that you associate with Palm Sunday and Holy Week, I’m sure it has its own soundtrack – whether that’s the processional hymns of Palm Sunday, the stark and...
Palm Sunday: Hosanna to the Son of David All the great days and seasons of the Christian year have music that goes with them: carols, hymns, choral music, organ music. Whatever it is that you associate with Palm Sunday and Holy Week, I’m sure it has its own soundtrack – whether that’s the processional hymns of Palm Sunday, the stark and unaccompanied chanting of the Passion on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, or the St John Passion. And as we begin this strangest of Holy Weeks with this strangest of Palm Sundays, perhaps the music is one of the things we miss. As our standalone Palm Sunday sermon explored, it is strange and painful to celebrate Palm Sunday without the donkey, without the processions, without the hymns, without the palm crosses. We miss them, because they mean something. The importance of being there for the Palm Sunday processions echoes the sense that this was a day all about physical presence. Jesus and the disciples entered a crowded, noisy Jerusalem, full of pilgrims, tourists, locals and soldiers – a city it’s almost impossible to imagine in these days of lockdown, social distancing and eerily empty streets. I imagine that those who were with Jesus as he mounted the donkey and rode in, or those in the streets who were drawn into the clapping and shouting, went home to tell their friends and family that ‘you had to be there.’ Being there drew people in, to meet Jesus in a new way and make a profound theological statement.  The piece of music we have chosen for this Palm Sunday blog post is a setting of those profound words which the crowds called to Jesus as he entered Jerusalem: Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna, thou that sittest in the highest heavens. Hosanna in excelsis Deo. It’s set by English composer Thomas Weelkes (1576-1623); a music student at New College Oxford, then organist at Winchester College then Chichester Cathedral.  Weelkes is known mostly for his madrigals, and for his distinct lack of holiness of life – yet the music he writes can allow us to enter into the story of Jesus. Listening to these words, sung, perhaps you can imagine yourself in Tom Quad – straining to hear the words of the president and the music of the choir, singing All glory laud and honour as we process into the cathedral and becoming increasingly out of time (and possibly key!) And perhaps you can also imagine yourself in Jerusalem, greeting Jesus with palm branches or your coat, laid down in his path to make a red carpet for this donkey-riding king. As you enter into the story of Palm Sunday – and as you enter into this holiest of weeks, even when all else is so strange – may you sing your praises to Jesus, Son of David, and cry with saints and angels ‘Hosanna’! Hosanna to the Son of David     
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 11
Thursday, April 2, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 24 THE earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas: and prepared it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord: or who shall rise up in his holy place? Even he that hath clean hands, and a pure heart: and that hath not lift up his mind unto vanity, nor sworn to deceive his neighbour. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord: and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him: even of them that seek thy face, O Jacob. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory: it is the Lord strong and mighty, even the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory: even the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. This psalm is a great liturgical song of praise to God which inspired composers like Bach, Handel and Joseph Barnby. The singers affirm God the Creator in the first two verses. This is the God who overcame chaos, symbolized by the sea, reflecting the story of creation found in Genesis 1. We then take part in the temple liturgy as, singing antiphonal chants, we go up the hill – a procession of pilgrims to the Temple, perhaps with the Ark or, as in later Judaism, the Torah – the scrolls, seeking to enter the mystery of God to be found in the worship of the Temple beyond the entrance doors. We acknowledge God, our Creator, as the King of Glory and pray that God will be revealed as the doors open and we come to worship the King of Glory not at a reverent distance, but within the threshold, the gate of heaven itself. Christians use this psalm particularly when we celebrate Jesus Christ the King ascending into heaven. He is the mighty Lord who has triumphed over death and leads us into the glory and mystery of God. We join in and glimpse the heavenly worship to which we aspire. David Knight
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 10
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Psalm 102 Hear my prayer, O Lord * and let my crying come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the time of my trouble * incline thine ear unto me when I call; O hear me, and that right soon. For my days are consumed away like smoke * and my bones are burnt up as it were a fire-brand. My heart is smitten down, and withered like grass * so that I forget to eat my bread. For the voice of my groaning * my bones will scarce cleave to my flesh. I am become like a pelican in the wilderness * and like an owl that is in the desert. I have watched, and am even as it were a sparrow * that sitteth alone upon the house-top. Mine enemies revile me all the day long * and they that are mad upon me are sworn together against me. For I have eaten ashes as it were bread * and mingled my drink with weeping; And that because of thine indignation and wrath * f or thou hast taken me up, and cast me down. My days are gone like a shadow * and I am withered like grass. But, thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever * and thy remembrance throughout all generations. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Sion * for it is time that thou have mercy upon her, yea, the time is come. And why? thy servants think upon her stones * and it pitieth them to see her in the dust. The heathen shall fear thy Name, O Lord * and all the kings of the earth thy Majesty; When the Lord shall build up Sion * and when his glory shall appear; When he turneth him unto the prayer of the poor destitute * and despiseth not their desire. This shall be written for those that come after * and the people which shall be born shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from his sanctuary * out of the heaven did the Lord behold the earth; That he might hear the mournings of such as are in captivity * and deliver the children appointed unto death; That they may declare the Name of the Lord in Sion * and his worship at Jerusalem; When the people are gathered together * and the kingdoms also, to serve the Lord. He brought down my strength in my journey * and shortened my days. But I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of mine age * as for thy years, they endure throughout all generations. Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth * and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure * they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed * but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. The children of thy servants shall continue * and their seed shall stand fast in thy sight. This psalm is a psalm of protest, and is of great psychological depth, as it moves from a narrow individualism and isolation to a discovery of meaning gained by placing the psalmist’s own experience within a wider context. The psalm begins in fearful isolation, reflected in its superscription – ‘A prayer of one afflicted, when faint and pleading before the Lord.’ After the graphic description of the psalmist’s situation which reflects his sense of being an unclean person, isolated from the community, the psalmist cries out in protest against God (v 10), and is full of self pity (v 11). But then he begins to set his own situation in a wider context (v 12-22), looking outwards to his people, and recognising that what is happening to him is mirrored within the wider community. This wider perspective collapses in verse 23, and again he reverts to self-pitying isolation. But he recovers his balance with a dignified reflection on the contrast between a sense of individual transitoriness and the eternity of God (v 26), which finally enables the psalmist to set his own situation within the cosmic context of the permanency of God: You, O God, remain, even if I do not, and because you remain our children will be safe. David Meara  
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The Lord our Light: Praying together with the Psalms 9
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Canon Edmund Newey, Sub Dean Psalm 29  Bring unto the Lord, O ye mighty, bring young rams unto the Lord *   ascribe unto the Lord worship and strength.  Give the Lord the honour due unto his Name *   worship the Lord with holy worship.  It is the Lord, that commandeth the waters *   it is the glorious God, that maketh the thunder.  It is the Lord, that ruleth the sea; the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation *   the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice.  The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedar-trees *   yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Libanus.  He maketh them also to skip like a calf *   Libanus also, and Sirion, like a young unicorn.  The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness *   yea, the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Cades.  The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to bring forth young, and discovereth the thick bushes *   in his temple doth every man speak of his honour.  The Lord sitteth above the water-flood *   and the Lord remaineth a King for ever.  The Lord shall give strength unto his people *   the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.  Scholars tell us this is probably the most ancient of the psalms. It is based on, or perhaps a priestly response to, a hymn to the storm god, Baal, composed in Ugaritic. But as a psalm it celebrates God as the creator of all things, echoing the opening of Genesis: ‘The voice of the Lord is upon the waters (v.3).’  This is not a remote God outlying the universe, but a living God working within what is created to nurture and tend (‘The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve’); imbuing each of the elements with the breath of life – water and fire, the air we breathe and earth we stand on.  Repeatedly, the agency of divine creativity (again like the word in Genesis that calls creation forth from nothing) is the voice. The call of God and from God is returned back to God in worship (v.2) and praise (v.9). The call is, then, not only written into every order of creation (from mountains and rivers, to trees and animal life), it is also within us. Unlike Baal, the despotic overlord, our God is intimate; more intimate than we are to ourselves. We are part of the call, voicing the voice. The psalm itself is a voicing of the voice, and it speaks of the ‘beauty of holiness’ and the glory of God’s presence with us that fills those in the temple (and the temple itself). Worship is not just our response to the gift of creation, it is also a participation in God, speaking to God through God about God. In that worship lies all our strength, blessing and peace (v.11).   Graham Ward 
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The Lord our Light: Praying Together with the Psalms 8
Monday, March 30, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Psalm 22  MY GOD, my God, look upon me; why hast thou forsaken me: and art so far from my health, and from the words of my complaint?  O my God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not: and in the night-season also I take no rest.  And thou continuest holy: O thou worship of Israel.  Our fathers hoped in thee: they trusted in thee, and thou didst deliver them.  They called upon thee, and were holpen: they put their trust in thee, and were not confounded.  But as for me, I am a worm, and no man: a very scorn of men, and the outcast of the people.  All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot our their lips, and shake their heads, saying,  He trusted in God, that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, if he will have him.  But thou art he that took me out of my mother's womb: thou wast my hope, when I hanged yet upon my mother's breasts.  I have been left unto thee ever since I was born: thou art my God, even from my mother's womb.  O go not from me, for trouble is hard at hand: and there is none to help me.  Many oxen are come about me: fat bulls of Basan close me in on every side.  They gape upon me with their mouths: as it were a ramping and a roaring lion.  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart also in the midst of my body is even like melting wax. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my gums: and thou shalt bring me into the dust of death.  For many dogs are come about me: and the council of the wicked layeth siege against me.  They pierced my hands and my feet; I may tell all my bones: they stand staring and looking upon me.  They part my garments among them: and casts lots upon my vesture.  But be not thou far from me, O Lord: thou art my succour, haste thee to help me.  Deliver my soul from the sword: my darling from the power of the dog.  Save me from the lion's mouth: thou hast heard me also from among the horns of the unicorns.  I will declare thy Name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.  O praise the Lord, ye that fear him: magnify him, all ye of the seed of Jacob, and fear him, all ye seed of Israel.  For he hath not despised, nor abhorred, the low estate of the poor: he hath not hid his face from him, but when he called unto him he heard him.  My praise is of thee in the great congregation: my vows will I perform in the sight of them that fear him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied: they that seek after the Lord shall praise him; your heart shall live for ever.  All the ends of the world shall remember themselves, and be turned unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him.  For the kingdom is the Lord's: and he is the Governor among the people.  All such as be fat upon earth: have eaten and worshipped.  All they that go down into the dust shall kneel before him: and no man hath quickened his own soul.  My seed shall serve him: they shall be counted unto the Lord for a generation.  They shall come, and the heavens shall declare his righteousness: unto a people that shall be born, whom the Lord hath made.  ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ This cry of bewildered despair to God is very apt as we all confront the new and unexpected challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic. Our whole way of life Is changing in previously unimaginable ways in the coming weeks and months, and we are obliged to look again at our private and public priorities. Jesus cried out these very words in his great agony on the Cross. Certainly he knew, even if he did not say, the entirety of this psalm with its prophetic references to the events of the Crucifixion: ‘all who see me mock at me’ and ‘for my clothing they cast lots’, but we should read on. While we, our families and friends may be burdened with fears and anxiety about the future of our society we appeal to God ‘Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help’, and find that there is hope for us all.  Psalm 22 ends in triumph, praise and redemption: ‘He did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him’; ‘The poor shall eat and be satisfied, those who seek him shall praise the Lord’; ‘Future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.’ Just as Jesus overcame death in his Resurrection we too will trust in God and look towards the coming day when we will rebuild our lives. Thanks be to God. Janet Proudman   
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The Lord our Light: Praying together with the Psalms 7
Saturday, March 28, 2020
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for...
In these extraordinary times, as our nation and our world face the unprecedented challenge of the Coronavirus epidemic, our first task is naturally to support and enable the efforts of frontline staff tackling the disease and supporting those who have fallen ill. As we engage in every way we can with their work, we as Christians turn for guidance to God, in whom we have our origin and our end. Here at Christ Church the book of Psalms – the prayer book of the Bible, as it is sometimes called – sustains our daily worship, now as always. Public worship is no longer an option, but the cathedral clergy here are maintaining the daily round of prayer and warmly encourage you to share in the spiritual communion that prayer makes possible across all boundaries of time and space. At the core of this work of prayer the psalms voice the cry of our hearts to God. With this in mind the ministry team here is sharing one psalm each day with an accompanying reflection. Recalling the University of Oxford’s motto, Dominus illuminatio mea – ‘The Lord is my light’ – we pray that, together, we may know God’s strength, encouragement and blessing in this time of need. ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?’ (Psalm 27:1) Psalm 91  WHOSO dwelleth under the defence of the most High: shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say unto the Lord, Thou art my hope, and my strong hold: my God, in him will I trust.  For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter: and from the noisome pestilence.  He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his feathers: his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler.  Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night: nor for the arrow that flieth by day;  For the pestilence that walketh in darkness: nor for the sickness that destroyeth in the noon-day.  A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.  Yea, with thine eyes shalt thou behold: and see the reward of the ungodly.  For thou, Lord, art my hope: thou hast set thine house of defence very high.  There shall no evil happen unto thee: neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.  For he shall give his angels charge over thee: to keep thee in all thy ways.  They shall bear thee in their hands: that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone.  Thou shalt go upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet.  Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him up, because he hath known my Name.  He shall call upon me, and I will hear him: yea, I am with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and bring him to honour.  With long life will I satisfy him: and shew him my salvation. There is no obvious title to this psalm in the Scriptures but it helps us feel God’s protection and encourages us to trust him in all things. Christians often say it at Night Prayer or Compline where we entrust ourselves to God during the hours of darkness. We express our hope in God who will deliver us ‘from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.’ We shouldn’t be afraid of the ‘pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the sickness that destroys at noonday’ – words that strike home with particular force at the moment.   The psalmist spells out his complete trust in God whatever the circumstances and the chaos going on around him, be it the plague or danger from hostile people. Verses 11 and 12 are quoted in the Gospels during the Temptation of Christ – but in that instance the Devil misuses the text and tries to bargain with God and manipulate the outcome.  Finally, towards the end of the psalm we hear the assuring voice of God promising to deliver his people; those in relationship with God, who know God’s name. What is more, God is prepared to grant us a satisfying long life and the ‘salvation’, the health, to go with it.  David Knight 
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Behind The Scenes Part 1
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
  Welcome to the first instalment of Behind the Scenes, a new series of blogs in which I unhook the red ropes, fumble with enormous bunches of keys and unlock a lot of doors marked ‘Private’ all in the aim of showing you bits of Christ Church Cathedral that you can’t normally see as a visitor. To this end the editor...
  Welcome to the first instalment of Behind the Scenes, a new series of blogs in which I unhook the red ropes, fumble with enormous bunches of keys and unlock a lot of doors marked ‘Private’ all in the aim of showing you bits of Christ Church Cathedral that you can’t normally see as a visitor. To this end the editor (otherwise known as me) will be climbing umpteen flights of unforgiving stairs, squeezing into far too many small and dusty places and fumbling with endless bundles of keys whilst muttering something about none of them being the right one. First a quick disclaimer, all the places in this blog are not accessible to visitors. They're up high, cramped and generally not somewhere you should wonder around. So if you do come and visit us please don't try and sneak into them, we'd rather not have to come and rescue you. With that out of the way on with the first instalment… This week’s door is in one of the most looked at and photographed bits of the Cathedral, the mighty Reiger, the organ. Despite this I feel pretty confident in saying that most people will not have seen it from this angle nor opened this door. That’s because it’s a door in the back of the organ case. But we’re jumping ahead, to get here was relatively painless, compared against those coming in future blogs at least… There’s just one quite narrow iron staircase, although it is quite difficult to negotiate with a camera bag as I found out. The view from the organ loft is quite spectacular, you can see the entire Cathedral Stretched out before you through the Nave to the Chancel and finishing in the beautiful East End. But this is all tangential to today’s door. I arrived in the organ loft equipped with a large bundle of miscellaneous keys helpfully labelled ‘Organ Case’ this seemed too easy, and indeed it was, after a good few minutes of trying them all  none of them seemed to fit. Then I looked at the next door along. It had a key in it. Yes, of course it was the right one. Keys 1, verger 0. Having found said key I did actually manage to open the door, which is good because had I been unable to open it I’d have started to doubt if I was qualified to write a blog centred around opening doors.  I have to be honest when I decided to pick the organ case for a behind the scenes post I wasn’t actually sure what was behind the door I had in mind, I was fully prepared for it to be a bit naff and for me to have to find another door. Happily I was pleasantly wrong. The Organ at Christ Church is an odd beast, bits of it date from the original ‘Father Smith’ instrument of 1680, bits of the screen might even be older than that, possibly 1635(ish). Most of the internals are from when the Organ was rebuilt by Reiger of Austria in the 1970s. And as opening this door shows, they are quite some internals. There are 3,300 pipes in total, varying from huge ones that are feet tall and chimney-like and other tiny ones that look more like a drinking straw. Opening up the back of the organ case lets you see all of this and it’s kind of impossible not to marvel at how all of these parts can come together to make not just a coherent sound, but one that is quite beautiful. The Reiger is often a little bit underappreciated, much of it dates from the decade that brought you Sea Monkeys and Angel Delight and as such it can get a bit looked down on compared to some other Cathedral Organs. But open the door and look in the back and I challenge you to not be amazed by the amazing craftsmanship, and the way that so many bits of such a huge instrument can come together and thunderously belt out O God our Help in Ages Past. So, that’s it for this door, but no fear Behind the Scenes will return, where I will no doubt be in another small space wondering which key is the right one…     Claustrophobia: 2/10 Other than sticking my head in a quite small space to photograph the pipes this one was pretty painless Stairs: 4/10 Not all that many of them, but they are narrow spindly and a little bit wobbly… Key Fumbling: 5/10 I got deceived by overly logical key labelling, but at least the right one was nearby. Red Ropes Removed/Private Signs Passed: 1   About the Author Jacob works for Christ Church Cathedral as an Events assistant and Verger and can normally be found either in the Cathedral office trying desperately to remember the extension number for the porters’ lodge or in the sacristy scratching his head whilst looking at the key safe. He enjoys exploring and is the smallest of the verger team, which might be how he ended up writing this blog series.
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St Frideswide: a message for us all
Monday, September 23, 2019
The season of Frideswidetide is one we celebrate every October. Our patron saint Frideswide founded the convent on which site the Cathedral was built and her remains lie somewhere in the Cathedral grounds. According to legend, St Frideswide’s life was remarkable. She was a young woman with a bold heart who did the things that...
The season of Frideswidetide is one we celebrate every October. Our patron saint Frideswide founded the convent on which site the Cathedral was built and her remains lie somewhere in the Cathedral grounds. According to legend, St Frideswide’s life was remarkable. She was a young woman with a bold heart who did the things that everything around her said she couldn’t do. Frideswide was a woman of great faith, devoted to her God and committed to offering her entire life to God’s service. Still in her youth, she attracted the attention of a powerful king, one who cared for nothing but the fulfilment of his desires. She had no power, no recourse either legally or culturally. No one could have expected anything other than her meek acceptance of his will. And instead she ran away. Tradition has it that Frideswide hid herself cleverly, staying one step ahead of an entire army. She prayed for deliverance and God listened. She had the man who had pursued her at her mercy, and she forgave him. She became a leader, a respected abbess, a healer and protector of the city in which she served. She did more than anyone around her could have imagined. There are some people who face up to challenges in the world with simple determination. People whose passion and belief in what they are doing vastly outstrips the criticism they face. Frideswide was one such person. It doesn’t matter if the risks are high or that the odds are stacked against them, when they are doing something that they believe in then they will see it through to the very end. It is these leaders who can capture the imagination of a whole society, who can transform the lives of the people they touch. That spark of perseverance made Rosa Parks a figurehead for the civil rights movement, Mother Teresa a name synonymous with charity, and Sir Thomas Allen the ‘real Billy Elliot’. That spark drives us to great things, to do good things, because when you believe in something enough it doesn’t really matter if you’re the only one who does. And this doesn’t have to be about great feats that bring you fame, or selfless sacrifices that define the rest of your life. Sometimes it is about knowing what makes you happy, what you want to spend your life doing. Or committing to a cause and sticking to it: reversing climate change, achieving equal pay; it doesn’t matter if you’re not the spokesperson everybody knows about, it matters if you persevere. Frideswide dared to defy the will of a king because she believed – passionately – that she was called to something else: to serve God as a nun, later as an abbess. She ran away, not because she intended to become the patron saint of virgins, but because she saw the course of her life clearly enough to know that marriage to Algar was not what she wanted. She became an abbess, not in order to defy the patriarchy, but because she wanted to serve God and her fellow religious. She didn’t found her convent with a vision of Christ Church some 1.5k years later. Her vision was a place of prayer and seeking in her present day. Frideswide’s goal was not to become the figure that we remember, but she faced challenges we recognise: being a woman in a world where men are regarded as the natural leaders; being unmarried and choosing to stay that way despite propositions; founding a convent with all its practical and spiritual hardships. It is as true for us as it was for her that in order to achieve the goal you believe in, you may have to overcome the scepticism – sometimes even the downright opposition – of the world. It seems that it is never easy. The will to persevere comes from your passion and your bravery: believing passionately in what you want to achieve and being brave enough to see it through. The season of Frideswidetide fills me with joy because it reminds me of the remarkable woman at the centre of this place, with all her passion and bravery, her perseverance. This October I hope her legacy will inspire us afresh, that we would hear loud and clear her message: When everything around you is telling you that you can’t possibly succeed, carry on.
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Season of Mists and Mellow Thoughtfulness
Monday, September 23, 2019
Every time I put on my sunglasses, the sun goes behind a cloud. This fact has never endeared me to my fellow holiday-makers. Sometimes the effect is so immediate that my companions have ordered me straight back inside in the hopes of reversing it. I know that the world is big and that my simple act of putting on sunglasses is unlikely to...
Every time I put on my sunglasses, the sun goes behind a cloud. This fact has never endeared me to my fellow holiday-makers. Sometimes the effect is so immediate that my companions have ordered me straight back inside in the hopes of reversing it. I know that the world is big and that my simple act of putting on sunglasses is unlikely to affect the weather to such a precise extent. But nevertheless, I sometimes start to wonder. As we approached the season of Creationtide, a period dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life, I felt acutely aware of the threads that pull nature together, the flowers and the bees, the rain and the rivers, the intricate dance of life and death in the turning of the seasons. Surely if this one pollen-dusted bee can sustain the life of so many flowers, my simple act of putting on sunglasses could sway the clouds? Perhaps not. And yet there is a tension between the part of me that feels insignificant and the part that would have me at the very centre of the universe. Not because one is simply right and the other simply wrong  - but because both speak of something profoundly true about what it means for God to be the Creator and Sustainer of all life. ‘Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted.’ (Matthew 10:29-30) We are more precious to God than we can possibly imagine. As a painter knows every stroke of his brushwork, and a composer every note of her symphony, so God knows every tiny detail of our lives. There is no doubt that we are, each of us, loved beyond measure. And it is that feeling – that belief that someone finds us to be infinitely precious – that makes us feel as if we are the centre of the Universe. That is what it means to be created and sustained by God – it is Love that creates us, Love that keeps us. The very fabric of the created world crying out in love. But that knowledge of our preciousness can quickly become distorted when we forget that we are not the sole focus of God’s love. It is not we that are created, at the expense of everything else; we are part of a tapestry of creation that connects all life, weaves all things together. Nothing I do is without consequence for another part of that tapestry. God’s creation is intertwined with its creator. It is important to remember that we are loved, but it can become dangerous when we imagine ourselves to be the sole focus. Too much scrutiny and our flaws will become glaringly present; too high a pedestal and we risk it all coming tumbling down. We all fall short of the mark at one time or another, but to imagine those faults as being broadcast across the universe, the front page of every newspaper, is to get our sense of our place in the world out of proportion. There is a line in Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote which I have never forgotten: the Monsignor encounters a man eaten up with guilt for the theft of two brass coffin handles, and after hearing his self-recrimination Father Quixote tells him: “[God] has created a universe – we don’t know how many stars and planets and worlds. You have stolen two brass handles – don’t feel so important.” That dizzy high pedestal, wind-battered and crumbling, is not where we are in God’s eyes. We are not higher than our station, balanced precariously in favour, we are in exactly the place we were created to inhabit. God sees every hair on our heads, God sees every fleeting desire of our hearts. God sees the whole beautiful, tangled web of the universe and every person in it. And we are all precious in God’s sight. Setting aside time to reflect on God as Creator and Sustainer is especially important because we need to have a sense of perspective. We need to understand that we are loved in all our tiny-ness, not because we are huge. The marks we leave on the world may be small, but they are profound. Like the marks we leave on other people’s hearts. This is particularly relevant when we consider our call to love and care for creation. We know that we are small and that the problems our world is facing are huge by comparison. It would be easy to say that we therefore can’t make a difference. But that isn’t true. No matter how small our actions they are counted; each small step we take is a real step in the right direction. And the ways in which our actions encourage, challenge, and transform the way other people interact with creation are numerous beyond measure. Knowing that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all life means knowing our place in the Universe. It means knowing that we are tiny but that our legacy is long-lasting. It means beginning to see the world in all its glorious complex huge-ness and saying with our creator: this is good.
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Jackie Holderness, Education Officer
Friday, April 5, 2019
  Emily: How did you come to be the Education Officer at Christ Church? Jackie: I wasn’t actually looking for a new job but I noticed an advert which had popped up on the Diocesan website and it so intrigued me that I applied. With a background in history and art history, I have always enjoyed visiting churches, abbeys and...
  Emily: How did you come to be the Education Officer at Christ Church? Jackie: I wasn’t actually looking for a new job but I noticed an advert which had popped up on the Diocesan website and it so intrigued me that I applied. With a background in history and art history, I have always enjoyed visiting churches, abbeys and cathedrals, but I knew very little about the world of Cathedral Education. Thankfully, there was a well-established tradition of hosting school groups, led by Jim Godfrey, our longest-serving verger, who left a helpful legacy on which I could expand, and so my remit was to try and develop the education programme still further. Emily: What does the job involve? Jackie: Since many schools are not aware they can bring pupils here, one of my main roles is to publicise our education programme and explain what we offer. We are now offering Family Trails and activities during Half term holidays and, when possible, I also visit schools to introduce Christ Church to pupils who may not be able to visit the Cathedral. Emily: What is the best part of your job? Jackie: I very much enjoy the chance to work with pupils of all ages and love the variety of this role. No two days or groups are the same, but almost always the pupils’ eyes widen with wonder as they step inside the Quad or enter the Cathedral. I still get a thrill from sharing this very special place with young people and enjoy the challenge of trying to explain its purpose, past and present, and the faith that helped to build, and still sustains, it. I am also very fortunate to work with such a brilliant Education volunteer team. We have a lot of fun working together and particularly enjoy sharing the story of Saint Frideswide with the children. Emily: And now you’ve written a book about her! What is it about St Frideswide that is so inspiring to you? Jackie: I first encountered her story through the jewel-like colours of the stained glass window in the Latin Chapel. The pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones was only 24 when he was commissioned to tell the saint’s story. As soon as I saw the sun shafting through the brilliant coloured glass, I fell in love with the window and with its feisty protagonist, the Anglo-Saxon princess who was determined to live her life as she believed she should. The more I learned about Frideswide, the more important she became to me on a personal level. Traditionally, Frideswide was a saint that women, especially would-be mothers, prayed to for help. In the Middle Ages, so many pilgrims came to visit the shrine and her holy well at Binsey, that additional inns and guest houses had to be built to shelter them all. Even Katherine of Aragon made the journey to Oxford to ask the saint to intercede on her behalf. Emily: Why is she a good subject for a children’s book? Jackie: Frideswide’s tale is one of adventure, courage in the face of danger, friendship, faith and kindness. Her story is typical of many children’s stories, where the good but apparently weaker protagonist ends up outwitting or transforming the wicked, and often stronger-looking character. It is a ‘right versus might’ story. Against all odds, but thanks to God’s intervention and protection, the heroine, Princess Frideswide, defeats the villain, King Algar. When I first looked closely at the medieval shrine, in the Latin Chapel, I was struck by the image of St Frideswide hiding amongst the trees. There isn’t, of course, any historical evidence for the idea that Frideswide might have been a little girl with a penchant for tree-climbing, but we see her hiding among the trees in both Burne-Jones’s window and, more importantly, in the medieval stone carvings on the shrine. This image of her peeping out from some foliage encouraged me to share her story with children who may play hide and seek as a game. Emily: How did it start, how did the idea come about? What made you decide to write a book about her? Jackie: The idea to write down the story for younger readers originated directly from my realisation that local children had never heard of their patron saint, upon whose little Anglo-Saxon church Christ Church Cathedral was founded. I researched into the various versions of Frideswide’s story and began to tell it to all visiting school groups. When I first started, I used to just retell the story, but I found using drama and role play really helped the story come to life. In the picture book, it is the pictures that bring the story alive. The stunning illustrations by artist Alan Marks help children imagine the characters and the drama, and his skilful use of watercolour helps create the mood and atmosphere of each scene. Emily: What are your hopes for this book? Jackie: I very much hope that all readers will enjoy being able to imagine a time over a thousand years ago through the illustrations. Because I have worked with struggling readers and second language learners, I have tried to keep the language accessible, without being simplistic. Hopefully, both boys and girls will appreciate and feel empowered by the strong and feisty character of the princess. Although society is becoming increasingly secular, I hope that this book will generate within a family setting, or in a classroom, open discussion about the belief and trust in God which was reflected in Frideswide’s life of faith.   The Princess who Hid in a Tree, published by Bodleian Library Publishing, is now available from the Cathedral shop and from other local bookstores. ISBN9781851245185
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