Petty Cury looking west towards the pinnacles of King’s College Chapel … but what does the name Petty Cury mean? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
Patrick Comerford
In the early mornings this week, I have been slipping out of my rooms in Sidney Sussex College to attend the daily Eucharist in Saint Bene’t’s Church, which is only five minutes’ walk away.
In the early morning, as Cambridge begins to come to life but is still quiet and calm, I am sometimes enamoured by the names of the streets and side passages and some of the street signs.
Most mornings on way to or from Saint Bene’t’s, I have found myself walking along the strangely named Petty Cury, a pedestrianised shopping street opposite the junction of Sidney Street with Christ’s College on the corner of Hobson Street and Saint Andrew’s Street.
Petty Cury links this junction with Market Hill, the venue for outdoor market in the heart of Cambridge, and Guildhall Street. As I walk west down Petty Cury these mornings, an interesting vista opens to the Guildhall, which continues the line of the south side of the street and on to the pinnacles of King’s College Chapel rising above the buildings on the west side of market.
A street sign at the west end of Petty Cury (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
But the name of Petty Cury is intriguing. Where does it come from? And how did it survive the crass developments along the south side of this narrow street in the 1960s and 1970s?
Petty Cury is an old street and the name first appears in documents around 1330, when it is recorded as Petycure. Two generations later, Thomas Furbisshour and his wife Agnes are recorded as living there in 1396.
It is most likely that this unusual name derives from petit (meaning “little”) and cury (meaning “cooks’ row”). Well, at least Samuel Pepys, who was an undergraduate at Magdalene College, Cambridge, offers this derivation in his Diary. So, it appears, there was a number of bakers’ stalls originally lined the sides of the street.
By the 15th century, the street was lined with inns, each with yards behind. But these yards later became some of worst slums in Cambridge by the 19th century. For example, up to 300 people may have lived in the Falcon Yard, which eventually was demolished on the order of the Medical Officer of Health in 1903.
Work on the extension to Boots in the 1950s indicated that that many of the mediaeval remains on this street had not been disturbed and that there was a deep sequence dating back Norman or even Saxon times.
Major changes came in the 1960s, when the entire south side was demolished to make way for the building of the Lion Yard shopping centre. The Lion Yard development destroyed all the remaining archaeology in this street. Limited observations were made, but most of what was there was destroyed unseen.
An extensive underground parking and service area runs under all the retail buildings, making the area below Petty Cury essentially hollow.
Today, Petty Cury is pedestrianised and is one of the primary shopping streets in Cambridge, with national retailers occupying most of the ground floor units … and one good Italian restaurant, Statzione, on the corner at the west end and with tables on the street. The upper storeys of the buildings on the street are mostly in commercial use, with some used for storage and others as office space.
The building of Lion Yard in 1960s and the 1970s means, of course, that we may never be able to trace the history of Petty Cury before the 1300s. Archaeologists say that while the potential for mediaeval finds may still be high, the potential for prehistory or Roman finds is low.
Gonville and Caius College asserts its rights between Saint Mary’s Court and Rose Crescent (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
On my way back from Saint Bene’t’s each morning, another sign that has caught my eyes this week is on the north side of Saint Mary Street, opposite Saint Mary’s University Church. This sign warns all pedestrians walking between Saint Mary’s Court and Rose Crescent that we are stepping on the soil of Gonville and Caius College … although no-one has yet tried to take the ground from under my feet.
A little further along, on the corner with Rose Crescent, a sailor guards a sign letting me know that Trinity Street is also nearby. As Cambridge is some distance inland and not a port city, I wonder how he was marooned up there.
Ahoy there! … the corner of Rose Crescent and Saint Mary Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
11 September 2014
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware
celebrates his 80th birthday
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware speaking at the IOCS conference in Cambridge this week (Photograph: IOCS)
Patrick Comerford
The summer schools and conferences organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge would not be the same without the humorous and gently-delivered yet scholarly and authoritative papers presented by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.
He is the President of IOCS, having served as chair of the board, and has been a lecturer at the summer schools and conferences I have been attending in Cambridge since 2008. This week he spoke at the international conference in Sidney Sussex College on “Florovsky, Lossky and ‘Neo-Patristic Synthesis’.”
Later on Tuesday afternoon I had a valuable opportunity to catch up with him as he waited at the Porter’s Lodge for a taxi to the train that was bringing him back to Oxford. I first recall having him as a lecturer when I was a post-graduate student at the Irish School of Ecumenics in 1982-1984.
Metropolitan Kallistos is a bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and is one of the best-known Eastern Orthodox theologians and writers today. He has been the Bishopric of Diokleia since 1982, and he was made a metropolitan bishop by the Patriarch in 2007.
Participants at the conference in Cambridge this week were delighted to hear that Metropolitan Kallistos celebrates his eightieth birthday today [11 September 2014].
He was born Timothy Ware in Bath on 11 September 1934, and was raised in an Anglican family. Having won a King’s Scholarship, he went to Westminster School. From there he went to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a double first in classics as well as reading theology.
On 14 April 1958, at the age of 24, he joined the Orthodox Church, and later he travelled throughout Greece, where he spent much time at the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Patmos. He also visited other major centres of Orthodoxy, including Mount Athos and Jerusalem, and spent six months in Canada at a Russian Orthodox monastery.
In 1963, while he was still a lay member of the Orthodox Church, he published the first edition of his book The Orthodox Church under his original name, Timothy Ware. This has since become the standard English-language textbook and introduction to Orthodoxy, and he has gone on to wrote and contribute to many more books and journals.
In 1966, he was ordained priest within the Ecumenical Patriarchate and was tonsured as a monk, receiving the name Kállistos. That same year, he was appointed the Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox studies at the University of Oxford.
He continued to hold that post for 35 years until his retirement. In 1970, he was also appointed to a Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford.
In 1982, he was consecrated a bishop with the title Bishop of Diokleia, and was appointed an assistant bishop in the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
Although was now a bishop, he remained at Oxford where he continued to lecture in the university as well as serving as the parish priest of the Greek Orthodox community.
He retired in 2001, but he has continued to publish and to lecture on Orthodox theology.
In 2007, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elevated the Diocese of Diokleia to the status of a metropolitan diocese. He became a titular metropolitan although he has never had pastoral care of a diocese and he is nominally an assistant bishop in the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
He is President of the IOCS in Cambridge, and a former chair of the board of directors. He also chairs the Friends of Orthodoxy on Iona and the Friends of Mount Athos and serves on the advisory board of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.
The Orthodox Church, first published in 1963, has run to several editions and has been revised many times. In 1979, he produced a companion volume, The Orthodox Way.
However, his most substantial publications have emerged from his translation work. With GEH Palmer and Philip Sherrard he has undertaken to translate the Philokalia. Four volumes of five published to date, but the fifth volume has yet to appear.
Patrick Comerford and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware at the summer school in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, a few years ago
Patrick Comerford
The summer schools and conferences organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge would not be the same without the humorous and gently-delivered yet scholarly and authoritative papers presented by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.
He is the President of IOCS, having served as chair of the board, and has been a lecturer at the summer schools and conferences I have been attending in Cambridge since 2008. This week he spoke at the international conference in Sidney Sussex College on “Florovsky, Lossky and ‘Neo-Patristic Synthesis’.”
Later on Tuesday afternoon I had a valuable opportunity to catch up with him as he waited at the Porter’s Lodge for a taxi to the train that was bringing him back to Oxford. I first recall having him as a lecturer when I was a post-graduate student at the Irish School of Ecumenics in 1982-1984.
Metropolitan Kallistos is a bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and is one of the best-known Eastern Orthodox theologians and writers today. He has been the Bishopric of Diokleia since 1982, and he was made a metropolitan bishop by the Patriarch in 2007.
Participants at the conference in Cambridge this week were delighted to hear that Metropolitan Kallistos celebrates his eightieth birthday today [11 September 2014].
He was born Timothy Ware in Bath on 11 September 1934, and was raised in an Anglican family. Having won a King’s Scholarship, he went to Westminster School. From there he went to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a double first in classics as well as reading theology.
On 14 April 1958, at the age of 24, he joined the Orthodox Church, and later he travelled throughout Greece, where he spent much time at the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Patmos. He also visited other major centres of Orthodoxy, including Mount Athos and Jerusalem, and spent six months in Canada at a Russian Orthodox monastery.
In 1963, while he was still a lay member of the Orthodox Church, he published the first edition of his book The Orthodox Church under his original name, Timothy Ware. This has since become the standard English-language textbook and introduction to Orthodoxy, and he has gone on to wrote and contribute to many more books and journals.
In 1966, he was ordained priest within the Ecumenical Patriarchate and was tonsured as a monk, receiving the name Kállistos. That same year, he was appointed the Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox studies at the University of Oxford.
He continued to hold that post for 35 years until his retirement. In 1970, he was also appointed to a Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford.
In 1982, he was consecrated a bishop with the title Bishop of Diokleia, and was appointed an assistant bishop in the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
Although was now a bishop, he remained at Oxford where he continued to lecture in the university as well as serving as the parish priest of the Greek Orthodox community.
He retired in 2001, but he has continued to publish and to lecture on Orthodox theology.
In 2007, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elevated the Diocese of Diokleia to the status of a metropolitan diocese. He became a titular metropolitan although he has never had pastoral care of a diocese and he is nominally an assistant bishop in the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.
He is President of the IOCS in Cambridge, and a former chair of the board of directors. He also chairs the Friends of Orthodoxy on Iona and the Friends of Mount Athos and serves on the advisory board of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.
The Orthodox Church, first published in 1963, has run to several editions and has been revised many times. In 1979, he produced a companion volume, The Orthodox Way.
However, his most substantial publications have emerged from his translation work. With GEH Palmer and Philip Sherrard he has undertaken to translate the Philokalia. Four volumes of five published to date, but the fifth volume has yet to appear.
Patrick Comerford and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware at the summer school in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, a few years ago
Running and rowing with the smallest
pub and the smallest club in Cambridge
King Street, behind Blundell Court in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge ... the street gives its name to the King Street Run, although there are only half a dozen pubs there today (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
Patrick Comerford
King Street runs from the corner behind Blundell Court, where I am staying in Sidney Sussex College, to the junction with Jesus Lane. The student bar is below me on the ground floor, but King Street is behind me and has been a more interesting place for some of the participants in the summer school to find a place to meet and talk in the evenings. The street is well-known for its pubs, but it is also notorious for the King Street Run, a pub crawl in which students try to quaff a pint in each pub on the street in quick succession and in the quickest time.
Today there are only half a dozen pubs on King Street – far fewer than the number at the height of great student pranks, and they are better known for their individual charm than their reputation for student drinking binges.
The King Street Run … the pub takes its name from the race (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
The King Street Run continues, and although only four pubs are listed in the race, runners are still required to consume eight pints. The run was banned in 1964 by the Cambridge University Proctors, but was revived in the mid-1970s and again in 1982. The current record of 14 minutes 05 seconds is held by John Philips of the Cambridge Hash House Harriers, but ties are awarded to anyone who completes the run in under an hour.
The Champion of the Thames … was this Scullion’s favourite club? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
The Champion of the Thames is named after an oarsman who won a sculling race on the Thames before moving to Cambridge in 1860. He asked that all mail to him should be addressed to “The Champion of the River Thames, King Street, Cambridge.”
The rowing connection continues, and a rowing club known as the “Champion of the Thames” is sponsored by the pub.
The pub is thinly disguised in Tom Sharpe’s novel Porterhouse Blue, where Scullion’s favourite pub is named ‘The Thames Boatman.’
The sign on the corner of The Champion of the Thames (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
The Champion of the Thames is one of the smaller pubs in Cambridge and is also known for a corner sign directed at students taking part in the King Street Run:
“This HOUSE is dedicated towards those splendid FELLOWS who make DRINKING a pleasure, who reach CONTENTMENT before CAPACITY and who, whatever the DRINK, can take it, hold it, enjoy it, and STILL remain GENTLEMEN.”
Saint Radegund … the smallest pub in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
At the top of King Street, at the Four Lamps Roundabout and the junction with Jesus Lane, opposite the Wesley Methodist Church, is Saint Radegund. This is neither a church nor a college. Although Saint Radegund’s College is a fictional, all-female college in Rosy Thornton’s campus satire, Hearts and Mind (2007), Saint Radegund is the smallest pub in Cambridge.
The pub is the starting point, or the finishing point, of the King Street Run and is named after a sixth century Thuringian princess and Frankish queen who is associated with Jesus College: the full name of Jesus College is the College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge.
Jesus College was established in 1496 by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, on the site of the 12th century Benedictine nunnery of Saint Mary and Saint Radegund. The nuns’ refectory, became the college hall, and the former lodging of the prioress became the Master’s Lodge.
The sign outside Saint Radegund bears an uncanny resemblance to the coat of arms of Jesus College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
On first looking at it, the sign outside Saint Radegund bears an uncanny resemblance to the coat of arms of Jesus College (right). The pub is home to the Cantabrigensis Hash House Harriers, a successful rowing club, a well-known cricket team – all encouraged or started by the late Terry Kavanagh, who was the landlord between 1992 and 2009. The present landlord is James Hoskins.
Inside, the pub is decorated with blades, photographs, plaques and other ephemera celebrating the successes of the Saint Radegund Boat Club.
The Saint Radegund Boat Club was formally ratified in 2001, being initially a “bumps only” crew for three years. This was due mainly to the enthusiasm and patience of the club’s original coach and captain John Whitney. The club has been the holder of the John Jenner Trophy for two consecutive years and runners-up twice more. Saint Radegund crews have also “won their blades” in the town bumps on a number of occasions.
The first boat to compete on the River Cam in the name of the St Radegund did so in 1998, when members of the Cantabrigensis Hash House Harriers entered a boat in that year’s Town Bumps.
Saint Radegund’s successes on the river are celebrated in the interior decoration of the pub (Photograph: Patrick Cmerford, 2014)
For the succeeding two years, the Saint Radegund ‘River Rats’ rowed under the banner of the Free Press Boat Club, and began the new Millennium near the top of the Third Division. In 2001, a second Saint Radegund crew entered the Bumps in the ‘Metric Tonne’ boat. In the 2002, the men’s ‘River Rats’ and ‘Son of Tonne’ boats were joined by the St Radegund’s first ever women’s boat.
The St Radegund Boat Club was then formed with the landlord Terry Kavanagh as commodore and John Whitney as captain. The club became independent of the Free Press (by then the X-Press Boat Club) and joined the Cambridgeshire Rowing Association in its own right. Other non-college clubs on the river include the Cambridge ’99 Boat Club, the Cantabrigian Rowing Club, the City of Cambridge Rowing Club, the Rob Roy Boat Club, the X-Press Boat Club and the Champion of the Thames Boat Club, some of them based in the CRA boathouse.
The X-Press Boat Club was once the boat club of the Free Press Public House, but is now associated with The Cambridge Blue after the landlord switched pubs. The name of the club was supposed to change to the Cambridge Blue Boat Club, but this was blocked after objections were raised by the university.
The St Radegund Boat Club bought its first boat from Saint Neot’s Rowing Club after the 2006 Bumps, and renamed the boat Vera after Dame Vera Lynn. Soon afterwards it bought its first set of oars, and painted them in the distinctive club colours.
For a time, the club used the facilities of Jesus College boathouse and then rowed from Corpus Christi. The club currently occupies the Joint Colleges Boat House and has four boats on the river, one Four and three Eights.
The club says “serious training takes place of course in the St Radegund Pub after outings.” The smallest club on the River Cam is proud of its roots in the smallest pub in Cambridge.
Like the Eagle on Bene’t Street, the pub ceiling has been adorned with the candle signatures of locals and notable guests. Friday night in Saint Radegund is Vera Lynn Appreciation Society night, when large G&Ts are served to the sounds of the wartime forces sweetheart.
Perhaps the Saint Radegund Boat Club is just a more mature version of the King Street Run.
Celebrating the excesses of the King Street Run in a sign at the King Street Run (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
Patrick Comerford
King Street runs from the corner behind Blundell Court, where I am staying in Sidney Sussex College, to the junction with Jesus Lane. The student bar is below me on the ground floor, but King Street is behind me and has been a more interesting place for some of the participants in the summer school to find a place to meet and talk in the evenings. The street is well-known for its pubs, but it is also notorious for the King Street Run, a pub crawl in which students try to quaff a pint in each pub on the street in quick succession and in the quickest time.
Today there are only half a dozen pubs on King Street – far fewer than the number at the height of great student pranks, and they are better known for their individual charm than their reputation for student drinking binges.
The King Street Run … the pub takes its name from the race (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
The King Street Run continues, and although only four pubs are listed in the race, runners are still required to consume eight pints. The run was banned in 1964 by the Cambridge University Proctors, but was revived in the mid-1970s and again in 1982. The current record of 14 minutes 05 seconds is held by John Philips of the Cambridge Hash House Harriers, but ties are awarded to anyone who completes the run in under an hour.
The Champion of the Thames … was this Scullion’s favourite club? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
The Champion of the Thames is named after an oarsman who won a sculling race on the Thames before moving to Cambridge in 1860. He asked that all mail to him should be addressed to “The Champion of the River Thames, King Street, Cambridge.”
The rowing connection continues, and a rowing club known as the “Champion of the Thames” is sponsored by the pub.
The pub is thinly disguised in Tom Sharpe’s novel Porterhouse Blue, where Scullion’s favourite pub is named ‘The Thames Boatman.’
The sign on the corner of The Champion of the Thames (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
The Champion of the Thames is one of the smaller pubs in Cambridge and is also known for a corner sign directed at students taking part in the King Street Run:
“This HOUSE is dedicated towards those splendid FELLOWS who make DRINKING a pleasure, who reach CONTENTMENT before CAPACITY and who, whatever the DRINK, can take it, hold it, enjoy it, and STILL remain GENTLEMEN.”
Saint Radegund … the smallest pub in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
At the top of King Street, at the Four Lamps Roundabout and the junction with Jesus Lane, opposite the Wesley Methodist Church, is Saint Radegund. This is neither a church nor a college. Although Saint Radegund’s College is a fictional, all-female college in Rosy Thornton’s campus satire, Hearts and Mind (2007), Saint Radegund is the smallest pub in Cambridge.
The pub is the starting point, or the finishing point, of the King Street Run and is named after a sixth century Thuringian princess and Frankish queen who is associated with Jesus College: the full name of Jesus College is the College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge.
Jesus College was established in 1496 by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, on the site of the 12th century Benedictine nunnery of Saint Mary and Saint Radegund. The nuns’ refectory, became the college hall, and the former lodging of the prioress became the Master’s Lodge.
The sign outside Saint Radegund bears an uncanny resemblance to the coat of arms of Jesus College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
On first looking at it, the sign outside Saint Radegund bears an uncanny resemblance to the coat of arms of Jesus College (right). The pub is home to the Cantabrigensis Hash House Harriers, a successful rowing club, a well-known cricket team – all encouraged or started by the late Terry Kavanagh, who was the landlord between 1992 and 2009. The present landlord is James Hoskins.
Inside, the pub is decorated with blades, photographs, plaques and other ephemera celebrating the successes of the Saint Radegund Boat Club.
The Saint Radegund Boat Club was formally ratified in 2001, being initially a “bumps only” crew for three years. This was due mainly to the enthusiasm and patience of the club’s original coach and captain John Whitney. The club has been the holder of the John Jenner Trophy for two consecutive years and runners-up twice more. Saint Radegund crews have also “won their blades” in the town bumps on a number of occasions.
The first boat to compete on the River Cam in the name of the St Radegund did so in 1998, when members of the Cantabrigensis Hash House Harriers entered a boat in that year’s Town Bumps.
Saint Radegund’s successes on the river are celebrated in the interior decoration of the pub (Photograph: Patrick Cmerford, 2014)
For the succeeding two years, the Saint Radegund ‘River Rats’ rowed under the banner of the Free Press Boat Club, and began the new Millennium near the top of the Third Division. In 2001, a second Saint Radegund crew entered the Bumps in the ‘Metric Tonne’ boat. In the 2002, the men’s ‘River Rats’ and ‘Son of Tonne’ boats were joined by the St Radegund’s first ever women’s boat.
The St Radegund Boat Club was then formed with the landlord Terry Kavanagh as commodore and John Whitney as captain. The club became independent of the Free Press (by then the X-Press Boat Club) and joined the Cambridgeshire Rowing Association in its own right. Other non-college clubs on the river include the Cambridge ’99 Boat Club, the Cantabrigian Rowing Club, the City of Cambridge Rowing Club, the Rob Roy Boat Club, the X-Press Boat Club and the Champion of the Thames Boat Club, some of them based in the CRA boathouse.
The X-Press Boat Club was once the boat club of the Free Press Public House, but is now associated with The Cambridge Blue after the landlord switched pubs. The name of the club was supposed to change to the Cambridge Blue Boat Club, but this was blocked after objections were raised by the university.
The St Radegund Boat Club bought its first boat from Saint Neot’s Rowing Club after the 2006 Bumps, and renamed the boat Vera after Dame Vera Lynn. Soon afterwards it bought its first set of oars, and painted them in the distinctive club colours.
For a time, the club used the facilities of Jesus College boathouse and then rowed from Corpus Christi. The club currently occupies the Joint Colleges Boat House and has four boats on the river, one Four and three Eights.
The club says “serious training takes place of course in the St Radegund Pub after outings.” The smallest club on the River Cam is proud of its roots in the smallest pub in Cambridge.
Like the Eagle on Bene’t Street, the pub ceiling has been adorned with the candle signatures of locals and notable guests. Friday night in Saint Radegund is Vera Lynn Appreciation Society night, when large G&Ts are served to the sounds of the wartime forces sweetheart.
Perhaps the Saint Radegund Boat Club is just a more mature version of the King Street Run.
Celebrating the excesses of the King Street Run in a sign at the King Street Run (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
Trotsky’s surprising encounter with
a Russian theologian and priest
Joining the queue for meals in the Hall in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)
Patrick Comerford
The final speaker at this year’s summer conference in Cambridge organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies was Dr Christoph Schneider, Academic Director of IOCS.
Dr Schneider was the principal organiser of this week’s conference in Sidney Sussex College and spoke this afternoon [10 September 2014] on “Pavel A Florensky’s ‘Critique of Impure Reason’ and the debate about fideism and onto-theology.”
For the past week, we have been discussing the “Horizons and Limitations of Russian Religious Philosophy.”
Before Vespers in the college chapel, we had an extensive discussion of Russian theology and religious philosophy and the conference papers and contributions later in the afternoon.
Dr Natalia Vaganova from Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University stimulated an unexpected discussion on the unusual working relationship between Father Floensky and Leon Trotsky in the early years of Soviet Russia. Trotsky strongly believed in Florensky’s ability in the electrification of rural Russia, and there are contemporary accounts of the remarkable sight of Father Florensky wearing his priest’s cassock and cross as he worked alongside other leaders of a Government department.
Although Trotsky asked him to wear a suit, Florensky insisted that while he had no parish he was still a priest, and insisted on wearing his cassock and cross and keeping his long priest’s beard. He continued to hold teaching and research positions until 1934.
The discussion later turned to the appropriate use of icons by individuals and in the prayer life of the Church.
The speakers and participants have been truly international this year, with people coming to Cambridge for this conference from Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Austria, Russia, Hungary Greece, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, the US and many other countries.
The conference ends tomorrow with the annual pilgrimage to the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights, Essex.
Patrick Comerford
The final speaker at this year’s summer conference in Cambridge organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies was Dr Christoph Schneider, Academic Director of IOCS.
Dr Schneider was the principal organiser of this week’s conference in Sidney Sussex College and spoke this afternoon [10 September 2014] on “Pavel A Florensky’s ‘Critique of Impure Reason’ and the debate about fideism and onto-theology.”
For the past week, we have been discussing the “Horizons and Limitations of Russian Religious Philosophy.”
Before Vespers in the college chapel, we had an extensive discussion of Russian theology and religious philosophy and the conference papers and contributions later in the afternoon.
Dr Natalia Vaganova from Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University stimulated an unexpected discussion on the unusual working relationship between Father Floensky and Leon Trotsky in the early years of Soviet Russia. Trotsky strongly believed in Florensky’s ability in the electrification of rural Russia, and there are contemporary accounts of the remarkable sight of Father Florensky wearing his priest’s cassock and cross as he worked alongside other leaders of a Government department.
Although Trotsky asked him to wear a suit, Florensky insisted that while he had no parish he was still a priest, and insisted on wearing his cassock and cross and keeping his long priest’s beard. He continued to hold teaching and research positions until 1934.
The discussion later turned to the appropriate use of icons by individuals and in the prayer life of the Church.
The speakers and participants have been truly international this year, with people coming to Cambridge for this conference from Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Austria, Russia, Hungary Greece, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, the US and many other countries.
The conference ends tomorrow with the annual pilgrimage to the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights, Essex.
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