Patrick Comerford
One day in Oxford recently, I went in search of the Greek inscription over the Wren Door on the north side of the Divinity School in Bodleian Library. This has been described by some sources as the only public inscription in Greek in Oxford. However, later that day I found another public inscription in Greek at the chapel in Somerville College on Woodstock Road.
The Greek inscription in capital letters above the west door or entrance to the chapel reads, Οικοσ Προσευχησ Πασι Τοισ Εθνεσιν. This translates as ‘A House of Prayer for all People’, and is quotation from Isaiah 56: 7. This verse is quoted by Jesus when he enters the Temple in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and says, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers’ (Matthew 21: 13).
Somerville College was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of the first two women’s colleges in Oxford – the Anglican-founded Lady Margaret Hall opened the same year. The non-denominational and liberal values of Somerville College date from its founding by political and social liberals. It was among the first colleges to end locking up at night to stop students staying out late, no gowns are worn at formal halls, and it first admitted men in 1994. The alumnae include Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Vera Brittain, Shirley Williams and Dorothy L Sayers.
Somerville Hall opened with 12 students, aged from 17 to 36, and the first 21 students from Somerville and Lady Margaret Hall attended lectures in rooms above a baker’s shop on Little Clarendon Street. Just two of the original 12 students remained in Oxford for three years, the time required for male students to attain a bachelor’s degree.
Somerville appointed Lilla Haigh as its first in-house tutor in 1882, and by the end of the 1890s female students were attending lectures in almost all colleges. In 1891 it became the first women’s hall to introduce entrance exams, and in 1894 it changed its name to Somerville College. The traditionally all-male colleges in Oxford began to admit female students in the 1970s, but Somerville did not admit men until 1992.
The main entrance and the Porters’ Lodge are at the south end of Woodstock Road, with Little Clarendon Street to the south, Walton Street to the west and the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter to the north. The front of the college is between the Oxford Oratory and the Faculty of Philosophy, and five buildings are Grade II listed.
Somerville College Chapel is unique as an Oxford college because it has no religious affiliation – reflecting the non-sectarian foundation of the college as place for the higher education of women. It is seen as both a manifestation of the aspirations of liberal Christianity in the inter-war years, including the advancement of women and ecumenism, and a response to the role of religion in higher education at the time.
The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner has described the chapel as ‘bleakly classical, ashlar, of three windows with narrower altar and lobby protections, bleak also inside – unloved-looking somehow.’ But the chapel embodies the college’s commitment to religious freedom, and was built in as a plain, neutral space with no cross or crucifix. It is built of dimension stone ashlar masonry and stands opposite Somerville College Library, on the south side of the main quad.
The creation of the chapel was made possible with a generous and, at the time, anonymous donation from a former student, Emily Georgiana Kemp (1860-1939), in 1932. She was an adventurer, writer and artist, and came from a wealthy Baptist family. Through her extensive travels, she developed an inclusive vision of Christianity, an interest in world religions and a wide, inclusive vision of faith.
Kemp wanted the chapel to be a place where members of all nationalities and religions could pray. Like the college, the chapel would be nondenominational, and this is unique within the University of Oxford.
However, the beginnings of the chapel were not without problems. Despite Emily Kemp’s request for a building to promote ‘the spiritual life, mainly by prayer and meditation, for those of all creeds and nations’, there was strong resistance. The Association of Senior Members (ASM), representing former students, was determined to maintain Somerville’s non-sectarian character and Helen Darbishire (1881-1961), the then Principal of Somerville College (1931-1945), described one meeting with the ASM in 1932 as ‘lively’.
A compromise was eventually agreed: the chapel was carefully located so as not to dominate the grounds and the architecture and interior were designed to avoid conventional religious archetypes.
Emily Kemp, who donated the chapel to Somerville during her own lifetime, would recall how her ‘imagination was fired with stories of adventure’ by accounts of missionary work she heard as a child. She was one of the first students at Somerville and went on to lead an adventurous life, writing a number of travel books about her journeys in Asia.
Between leaving Somerville and setting off on her first trip to China, Emily Kemp studied Fine Art with Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), who was Slade Professor of Art at University College London. She documented her travels and adventures with her watercolours and in her books, including: The Face of China (1909), The Face of Manchuria, Korea and Russian Turkestan (1910), Wanderings in Chinese Turkestan (1914), and Chinese Mettle (1921). She also translated a book on Buddhism from German in 1910.
Her books show her fascination with the religions she encountered and the places of worship she visited, and show her dedication to the welfare and education of women.
She also wrote two books about missionaries: a biography of her sister, Reminiscences of a Sister, S Florence Edwards (1919), and an account of women Baptist missionaries, There followed Him, women (1927). Her belief in the importance of women in Christianity is expressed in her last book, Mary, with her son, Jesus (1930).
The chapel in Somerville was designed by the architect Courtenay Theobald, who later redesigned the Lumen Church in Tavistock Place, London, in the 1960s.
The chapel opened in 1935 and was dedicated to God, and only the stained glass window, designed by George Bell, is dedicated to Christ explicitly.
Kemp also donated a 19th century Italian terracotta derived from the ‘Annunciation lunette’ in the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, by Andrea della Robbia. The subject symbolic got her the special importance of women in serving God.
Emily Kemp died in 1939. Her memorial plaque in the chapel calls her a ‘friend of China’ and not a ‘missionary’.
She left a significant bequest of western and eastern art to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, along with three oil paintings, including a number of works by Alphonse Legros, ‘The Holy Family’ by Ambrosius Benson (ca 1550), and a collection of her own watercolours painted in Asia.
Notable Somerville alumnae commemorated on the chapel walls include the Revd Constance (Todd) Coltman (1889-1969), Britain’s first ordained female minister in a mainstream church. Other names include the novelist and Christian apologist Dorothy L Sayers, Dorothy Hodgkin, Margaret Thatcher, and Dame Emily Penrose (1858-1942), the third principal (1907-1926).
The chapel organ was made in 1937 by Harrison & Harrison in Durham. Kemp’s friend, the Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), was the chapel’s organ adviser and recommended a Neo-Baroque organ, as this style was popular in the organ reform movement. However, the college voted for an organ voiced in the style of the Romantic era. The organ case is made of oak, designed by the architect Courtenay Theobald, and was renovated in 2012. The organ is used regularly for recitals, concerts and recordings.
The chapel also has a Steinway grand piano, a two-manual harpsichord by Robert Goble and a portable digital piano.
In keeping with the non-denominational tradition of Somerville College, the chapel has a chapel director rather than a dean or chaplain. The current chapel director, Dr Joel Clarkson, hosts the choral contemplation events at 5:30 pm each Sunday in term time, combining choral music from the college choir with readings and reflections from speakers of a variety of backgrounds. He also helps connects members of the Somerville community with wellbeing resources.
Clarkson is also a composer for film, concert, and sacred music, with a research interest in interdisciplinary studies between music and theology. His PhD in theology is from the Institute of Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His doctoral thesis examined how 20th century Catholic metaphysics impacted musical and liturgical reform in the Catholic Church. He has written on the Scottish Catholic composer James MacMillan, and on theological content in the music of composers such as Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki and Olivier Messiaen.
He began his musical career in Los Angeles as a composer and orchestrator for film and TV. After his doctorate, he specialised in composing for vocal music, drawing on the English choral tradition. His music has been premiered and performed by vocal ensembles such as Grammy-nominated VOCES8 and the Vicars Choral of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London.
Somerville College Choir is young by Oxford standards, yet has released several albums with commercial labels, undertaken international tours and performed live on national radio. The real strength of the choir is found in its freedom from convention, enabling a diverse repertoire. There are regular concerts, cathedral visits, recitals and tours, and the choir has released two CDs. True to the spirit of the college founders, the choir is also non-denominational in its practice and vision.
The choir is mixed voice and led by the Director of Chapel Music, Will Dawes. He was appointed in 2017 and has also been Director of Music at Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford, since 2011.
As well as providing opportunities for traditional Christian worship and in keeping with its liberal, inclusive tradition, the chapel hosts speakers with a range of religious perspectives. Past speakers have include the Belfast-born Oxford theologian Alister McGrath, Shirley Williams, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, the humanist Andrew Copson and the writer Rosamund Bartlett.
An annual service commemorates past members of the Somerville community who have died in the previous year.
Today, the chapel in Somerville College continues to reflect the non-sectarian values at the foundation of the college as a place for the higher education of women. It is seen as both a manifestation of the aspirations of liberal Christianity in the inter-war years, including the advancement of women and ecumenism, and a response to the role of religion in higher education at that time.
The motto carved in Greek above the entrance to the chapel reads ‘A house of prayer for all people’, and so it has proved.
True to the vision of its founder, Emily Kemp, the chapel remains a place where people of all nationalities and religions can pray, discuss, meditate and celebrate their spiritual lives.
For my guide to churches, chapels and religious buildings and sites in Oxford, visit here
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