News from the Oxford Oratory

Readers who do not follow on a regular basis the website of the Oxford Oratory may be interested in these four recent posts from that site.

The first, entitled Patching up the Relic Chapel deals with the restoration of the fabric - in this case putting right water damage to the painted ceiling in the chapel.

The second is  Monsignor Marcus Stock to be Bishop of Leeds, and concerns the appointment of  Mgr Stock to that position, and includes the text of his sermon at the Oratory for St Philip's day in 2012, and his retelling of the story of his part in recovering a relic of St Philip at the church in anticipation of the arrival of the Oratorians from Birmingham in 1990 - all of which rather suggests that St Philip arrived here before his sons.

The third, Blessed Joseph Vaz of the Oratory to be Canonised, is about Bl. Joseph Vaz, the seventeenth century Oratorian evangelist of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) who is to be canonised by the Pope on his forthcoming visit to the island.

Finally there is information about a new DVD on Bl.John Henry Newman which is being released. It is the work of Fr Nicholas Schofield and Fr Marcus Holden. The piece about it can be read at New film about Blessed John Henry Newman.

 

Baroque Music at the Oxford Oratory

Earlier this evening I attended a splendid concert of Baroque music at the Oxford Oratory in aid of their Appeal. The concert was given by the Camerata of Curiosities:

Image: Oxford Oratory

They are Jennifer Attia ~ Mezzo Soprano, Stephen Sweet ~ Violoncello and Andrew Knowles ~ Harpsichord, together with, for this occasion, the renowned soprano Emily Van Evera as a guest.

Andrew Knowles is Organist at the Oratory and the founder of the Camerata.

All the pieces were essentially from the time of the beginnings of the Oratory, and included music by John Blow, Domenico Scarlatti, Claudio Monteverdi, J S Bach, Alessandro Grandi, Isaac Posch and George Frederic Handel. 

A remarkable piece for the birth of Our Lady by Barbara Strozzi was movingly sung by Emily Van Evera, and the evening finished with the Office Hymn for St Philip "Pangamus Nerio", reconstructed from a manuscript from Santa Maria della Fava in Venice.

This was a most enjoyable evening, and one which aided the Oratory Campaign. This is the second such concert given by the Camerata, and I hope to advertise any future ones - they have a beautifully crisp style of performance and their performances a delight for anyone interested in music of the era.

Happy landings

Yesterday Fr Daniel Seward, the Provost of the Oxford Oratory, and Br Oliver Craddock, the youngest member of the community. made a sponsored parachute jump to raise funds for the Oratory Appeal. Happily they landed safe and sound, and thereby raised at least £9915.55  for the fund - hopefully more money will come in over this coming weekend. There are pictures of their descent to earth and a report on the Oratory website at Skydiving Success.

Their secure landing was better than that of a previous aerobatic religious, the eleventh century Flying Monk of Malmesbury - not however that in his case two broken legs appear to have discouraged Eilmer from planning future attempts, as can be read here. 

A visit by the Archbishop

Yesterday the Archbishop of Birmingham visited the Oxford Oratory to celebrate the 11am Mass and bless the recently completed parish centre, library and new accommodationblock. In an ecumenical gesture he was accompanied by Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, and the Archbishop stressed the closeness of relations with the Orthodox community, describing them as the closed with any other ecclesial group.

Following the Mass at which he preached, and presided from the recently constructed throne which was used by the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta on his visit in July, the Archbishop and the Metropolitan blessed all the new rooms and buildings. Although this all seemed a quite lengthy procedure Metropolitan Kallistos joked that by Orthodox standards it had been a short occasion ...

There are now two sets of photographs on the Oratory website of the morning's ceremonies. The first New building blessed by Archbishop Longley also includes the text of the Archbishop's sermon. The second set  can be viewed at More Photographs of the Blessing of the New Building.

The visit was a celebration of what has been achieved by the Oxford Oratory Appeal and an acknowledgement of the wider success of the Oratorians in Oxford. Furthermore there were hopes for the completion of the second phase of building and for the new work the Oratory is going to undertake in York.

Deo Gratias.

Viewing the new building at the Oxford Oratory

Earlier this evening,together with other members of the Oratory's Benedictine Oblates group, I was given atour of the newly developed building for which the Oratory has been raising funds. This is Phase One. The building work is now completed, although some fitting out works remains to be carried out before His Grace the Archbishop of Birmingham is comes to celebrate Mass and bless the completed work on August 4th.

This evening we saw the impressive conversion of the old parish centre, complete with new kitchen and bar, the library created in the room above - originally these housed the parish school. The library promises to be a fine galleried room with space to house the sizeable Oratory library, including the Gaisford collection, part of the library of Mgr Graham Leonard and the remains of G. K.Chesterton's library and related manuscript material.

Beyond this lies a set of new rooms for Fathers of the Oratory and guest accomodation, giving the community the ability to expand. What is striking about the extension and conversion is the skill of the architect in creating so much space on a limited site and the care in providing the finishing touches to make it a properly finished building.

After all the work of fund raising and the wait to see what was going on behind the screened-off area it was very satisfying to see what has been achieved, to look forward to the completion of this Phase, and then, of course, to go on to Phase Two...

There is more about the project on the Oxford Oratory Appeal website.

The Dream of Gerontius - a new setting at the Oxford Oratory

On Saturday May 12th there will be another opportunity to hear Julien Chilcott-Monk's new musical setting of Bl. John Henry Newman's Dream of Gerontius in aid of the Oxford Oratory Appeal in the Oratory church at 7.30 p.m. This new presentation of the work follows on from its premiere at Christ Church last autumn.

 

Image:newmanreader.org

The solo voices are those of the distinguished actor Robert Hardy as The Soul/Gerontius and Neil Nisbet as the Guardian Angel. The choir of assistants, angels and demons is provided by Vox Humana.

Tickets are available from the Oxford Playhouse and on the door on the evening at a cost of £10. Every pound buys a brick!

Oxford Oratory builds for the future

Yesterday morning after the Solemn Mass at the Oxford Oratory a lot of the congregation picked their way round to the site of the building work which is due to start today to add more accomodation and parish offices as well as preparing the new library.This is th next phase of the Reaffirmation and Renewal Campaign and has been long awaited by the Oratorians and by the congregation.

Once we were on site, and were all gathered together, there was a short service of blessing and Fr Daniel, the Provost, symbolically turned the first spadeful of earth on the project. This was, of course, a photo opporunity - and not just for the professional photographer making a record for the Oxford Oratory Appeal website.

My friend Irim Sarwar was snapping away with her mobile phone and has posted her photographs and comments on Facebook. She has very kindly send me the link which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150605195041297.378423.589506296&type=3&l=101df47ab4

If you look carefully, and indeed want to, you can see me on at least one of the photographs.

Oxford Oratory appeal - the next stages begin

The two latest posts on the Oxford Oratory Appeal website New Building to start soon and Over £2m raised! More restoration in Church! indicate how far matters have progressed and what we areto expect.

For those of you who have not looked at the site lately, or indeed, before, I recommend giving it a glance and looking back over other recent posts there to see how progress is being made and the work that has been put in to make things happen.

New Year sleep out

Spare a thought and a prayer, and maybe some money, for two of my friends from the Oxford Oratory, Jo O'Donovan and Catherine Brown, who are going to do a sponsored sleep out tonight in Oxford from 6 pm until 6 am in aid of the Oxford Oratory Appeal.

Given that these two ladies are, well, not in the first flush of youth (and I am sure they will not mind me saying so) this is a very commendable effort on their part, and deserves support and encouragement.