Patrick Comerford
Before this day gets busy, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.
Throughout this week, I am reflecting in these ways:
1, One of the readings for the morning;
2, A reflection based on seven more churches or chapels in Oxford I have visited recently;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’
Luke 16: 1-8 (NRSVA):
1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” 3 Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” 6 He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” 7 Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.’
The Chapel of Oriel College, Oxford:
Oriel College, on Oriel Square, is the oldest royal foundation in Oxford. In the past, the college has also been known as King’s College and King’s Hall, and the reigning monarch, Charles III, is the official visitor. Among its former members are two saints, Thomas More and John Henry Newman.
The original mediaeval foundation established in 1324 by Adam de Brome, under the patronage of Edward II, was the House of the Blessed Mary at Oxford, and the college received a royal charter in 1326. Oriel was the first college in Oxford to be founded in honour of the Virgin Mary.
An additional royal grant in 1329 of a manor house, La Oriole, eventually gave rise to its common name. The main site of the college incorporates four mediaeval halls: Bedel Hall, Saint Mary Hall, Saint Martin Hall, and Tackley’s Inn, the last being the oldest standing mediaeval hall in Oxford.
The first proposals allowed for a provost and ten fellows, called scholars, and the college remained a small body of graduate fellows until the 16th century, when it started to admit undergraduates.
The Provost of Oriel, Thomas Ware was one of the first to embrace the Reformation in the 16th century.
During the English Civil War, Oriel played host to high-ranking members of the king's Oxford Parliament.
The college has almost 40 fellows, about 300 undergraduates and some 250 graduates. Notable Oriel alumni include two Nobel laureates, and prominent fellows have included founders of the Oxford Movement.
The chapel has been a place of prayer and learning at the heart of Oriel since it was founded. The current chapel in the Front Quad or First Quad is Oriel’s third college. The ornate portico in the centre In the east range of First Quad leads into a hall, where doors on either side lead to the undercroft (left) and the chapel (right).
The first chapel was built around 1373 on the north side of First Quad. By 1566, during a visit by Queen Elizabeth I, the chapel was located on the south side of the quad. Little is known of those early chapels, although the college records refer to a ‘high altar’, ‘nave’, and ‘chancel’ and various furnishings.
The present chapel was consecrated in 1641, and despite restorations in the succeeding centuries, it largely retains its original appearance.
The bronze lectern was given to the college in 1654. The black and white marble paving dates from 1677 to 1678. Except for the pews on the west, dating from 1884, the panelling, stalls and screens are all 17th-century, as are the altar and carved communion rails.
Behind the altar is the oil-on-panel painting, ‘The Carrying of the Cross,’ also titled ‘Christ Falls, with the Cross, before a City Gate,’ by the Flemish Renaissance painter Bernard van Orley. The organ case dates from 1716. It was originally designed by Christopher Schreider for Saint Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, and was acquired by Oriel in 1884.
Above the entrance to the chapel is an oriel that, until the 1880s, was a room on the first floor that formed part of a set of rooms occupied by Richard Whately (1787-1863), and later by John Henry Newman (1801-1890).
Whately was a fellow of Oriel (1811-1821) and Drummond Professor of Political Economy in Oxford (1830-1831) before becoming Archbishop of Dublin (1831-1863). He is said to have used the space as a larder. He was a mentor of and later an opponent Newman, who is said to have used the same space for his private prayers.
John Henry Newman is among the most renowned figures associated with Oriel. He was a fellow of Oriel from 1822 to 1845. During these years he was also the college chaplain (1826-1831, 1833-1835) and Vicar of the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin (1828-1843).
Newman was the driving force behind the Oxford Movement, alongside John Keble (1792-1866) and Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882), and Oriel is pre-eminently the college of the Oxford Movement, the first phase of which lasted from 1833-1845. Its proponents produced the Tracts for the Times, a series of 90 tracts on a wide range of religious subjects. This in turn gave them the name ‘Tractarians’.
Besides Newman, Keble and Pusey, other figures of the movement associated with Oriel included Robert Wilberforce (1802-1857), Richard Hurrell Froude (1803-36), GA Denison (1805-1896), Thomas Mozley (1806-1893), Charles Marriott (1811-1858) and RW Church (1815-1890).
Keble was a fellow 1811-1835, chaplain 1817-1823, and Professor of Poetry. Pusey was a fellow 1823-1828, Regius Professor of Hebrew and a canon of Christ Church. Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873), an undergraduate of Oriel, Bishop of Oxford and then Winchester, was the founder of Cuddesdon Theological College (1854), now Ripon College Cuddesdon.
On the other hand, Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), fellow 1815-1827, headmaster of Rugby, then Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, was a supporter of the Broad Church movement.
The legacy of the Oxford Movement continues to inform life at Oriel. The college traditions include singing the ancient hymn Phos Hilaron (‘Hail Gladdening Light’) on feast days and other special occasions. The translation was produced by John Keble for Lyra apostolica, a collection of poems published in 1836.
When the organ was installed in 1884, the space once used by Whately and Newman was used for the blower. The wall that once separated the room from the ante-chapel was removed, making it accessible from the chapel. The organ was built by JW Walker & Sons in 1988.
The space behind the organ was rebuilt in 1991 as an oratory and memorial to Newman and the Oxford Movement. A new stained-glass window designed by Vivienne Haig and realised by Douglas Hogg was installed in 2001.
The chapel was last restored in the 1980s with the assistance of donations from Norma, Lady Dalrymple-Champneys. During this work, the chandelier was put back in place, the organ was restored, the painting mounted behind the altar, and the chapel repainted. A list of former chaplains and organ scholars was erected in the ante-chapel.
Recent Church figures associated with Oriel have also include Canon John Collins (1905-1982), chaplain 1937-1948, founder of Christian Action and a leading figure in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and the Anti-Apartheid Movement; John Hick (1922-2012), theologian and editor of The Myth of God Incarnate (1977); and John Baker (1928-2014), who was the principal author of the report The Church and the Bomb (1983).
• The Chaplain of Oriel College, the Revd Dr Rob Wainwright, is also a tutor in theology. The regular chapel services include: Sundays, Choral Evensong, 6 pm; Monday to Friday, Morning Prayer 8 am, Evening Prayer 6 pm; Wednesdays, Holy Communion 6 pm; Thursdays, Compline 9:30 pm. .
Today’s Prayer (Friday 4 November 2022):
The Collect:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have kindled the flame of love
in the hearts of the saints:
grant to us the same faith and power of love,
that, as we rejoice in their triumphs,
we may be sustained by their example and fellowship;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Lord of heaven,
in this eucharist you have brought us near
to an innumerable company of angels
and to the spirits of the saints made perfect:
as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage
we have shared their fellowship,
so may we come to share their joy in heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The theme in the USPG Prayer Diary this week is ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd David Rajiah, Diocesan Prayer Co-ordinator for the Diocese of West Malaysia.
The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:
We pray for countries like Malaysia, where Christianity is a minority religion. May everyone be treated respectfully and have their freedom of religion and belief protected.
Yesterday’s reflection tomorrow
Continued tomorrow</b>
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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