03 September 2023

Saint Mary Magdalen, Oxford,
‘has a central position in
the minds and hearts of
Catholic Anglicans worldwide’

Saint Mary Magdalen Church is a familiar sight in Oxford in a traffic island at the south end of Saint Giles and close to the Martyrs’ Memorial (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

When I was in Oxford on Friday, I attended the mid-day Eucharist in Saint Mary Magdalen Church, It was Saint Giles Day, and Mass was celebrated by the Revd Professor Martin Henig, an archaeologist who has recently been in the news for his comments on the recent crisis in the British Museum.

Saint Mary Magdalen Church or ‘Mary Mags’ in Magdalen Street is a familiar sight to many people in Oxford because it faces a row of bus stops opposite the former Debenham’s, in a traffic island at the south end of Saint Giles and close to the Martyrs’ Memorial, Broad Street and Cornmarket.

Archbishop Rowan Williams once said, ‘Saint Mary Magdalen’s has a central position not only physically in Oxford, but spiritually in the minds and hearts of Catholic Anglicans worldwide. Its open door has been for countless people a door into renewed faith and profound joy in believing.’

Inside Saint Mary Magdalen, known as a centre of Anglo-Catholic worship, ministry, teaching and preaching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Saint Mary Magdalen is known as the Apostle to the Apostles, because she was chosen to witness and to spread the news of Christ’s resurrection. ‘Mary Mags’ has practised and preached the Christian faith for over 1,000 years. For the last 100 years or so, it has celebrated that faith within the Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, and it is a well-known centre of Anglo-Catholic worship, ministry, teaching and preaching.

The first church on the site was built in the Saxon period and stood outside the city walls, just beyond the North Gate. That timber church was destroyed when Vikings attacked and burned most of Oxford in 1010 and 1013.

The Norman Constable of Oxford, Robert d’Oyly, founded a new single-aisle, stone chapel on the site in 1074 as a daughter house of Saint George’s Chapel in Oxford Castle.

The Abbey of Saint Frideswide, which had acted as the patron of the Saxon church, tried but failed on several occasions to assert its right to the new church. When Oseney Abbey was founded in 1129 it took over both chapels and provided vicars for Saint Mary Magdalen until the Dissolution of the Monasteries four centuries later.

Saint Mary Magdalen’s Church has practised and preached the Christian faith for over 1,000 years (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The church was replaced in 1194, during the reign of Richard the Lionheart, and the new building dedicated by Saint Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln.

The new church had links to both King John and Richard I, both born at nearby Beaumont Palace. Richard granted the parishioners the right to use a common seal bearing the crescent and star device that he used during the Third Crusade.

Part of Saint Hugh’s 12th-century building survives in the south aisle, east chancel wall, and the altar dedicated to Saint Thomas Becket. By 1235, the church had an altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In the late 13th century, Devorguilla de Balliol built an oratory dedicated to Saint Catherine in the present north aisle to serve her new foundation, Balliol College.

In 1320, the Carmelites founded a chapel in the south aisle, which survives as the present Lady Chapel and has Elizabethan glass in the middle window. The Lady Chapel and the richly-decorated font, dating from ca 1350, are the most visible parts of the mediaeval church today.

The richly-decorated font in Saint Mary Magdalen dates from ca 1350 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

A 14th-century wooden chest in the south aisle was damaged in the Civil War by Parliamentarian soldiers held prisoner in the church after the Battle of Cirencester. The damage was repaired on the orders of Charles I, who had his Civil War headquarters in Oxford.

The Revd John Felton or Haresfelde, who was vicar in 1397-1434, was such a popular preacher that after his death his grave at Saint Mary Magdalen became a minor place of pilgrimage.

The west tower was rebuilt between 1511 and 1531 with stones from Rewley Abbey in Oxford. The south porch, with a room above it, was added around that time. There is a 16th-century holy water stoup near the south door.

The theologian William Tresham, who was vicar in 1534-1537, acted as a commissioner for the trial of the Oxford Martyrs, Latimer, Cranmer and Ridley.

After the Reformation, the patronage of Saint Mary Magdalen passed Christ Church College, although it maintained close ties to the three colleges in the parish: Balliol, Saint John’s and Trinity.

An interesting 16th century burial is that of Amy Robsart, first wife of Robert Dudley. She died in a mysterious accident in 1560. Although it was said she had fallen down a flight of stairs, it was widely rumoured that Dudley had her killed to further his chances of marrying Elizabeth I. The queen was alarmed by the scandal and distanced herself from Dudley.

A portrait of King Charles I hangs to the side of Saint Thomas’s altar (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The church was openly royalist, even during the Commonwealth. It was the first church to resume using the Book of Common Prayer, a month before the restoration of the monarchy. A reminder of these royalist ties is a portrait of Charles I to the side of Saint Thomas’s altar.

The church was restored and rebuilt in 1841-1842. The architects for the north or ‘Martyrs’ Aisle’ were Sir George Gilbert Scott, then young and unknown, and his partner William Bonython Moffatt. It was the first Gothic Revival interior in Oxford.

Scott and Moffatt also removed the Norman arch to the chancel. The north aisle complemented Scott’s Martyrs’ Memorial just north of the church. The architect for the restoration of the south aisle was Edward Blore.

The 13th-century chancel was altered in 1874-1875 by raising the floor before the altar and adding a screen, the windows of the west tower were opened into the church and the bells were re-hung. The architect for these works was William Wilkinson. The ornate reredos was added in 1894.

The west tower and the west window designed by Elizabeth Wigram (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The striking west window was designed by Elizabeth Wigram in 1898 to depict Oxford’s mediaeval history. It uses notably more muted colours than the vivid Victorian glass elsewhere in the church.

The west tower has a ring of 10 bells, all cast or re-cast by Taylors of Loughborough. The Oxford University Society of Change Ringers has rung the bells since the 1930s.

The altar and reredos in the Lady Chapel after the weekday mid-day Mass (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Revd Richard St John Tyrwhitt (1827-1895), who was vicar in 1858-1872, was sympathetic to the teachings of the Oxford Movement, but not to its ritual. He was an admirer of John Ruskin and assisted William Morris in painting the roof of the Oxford Union Society.

The Revd Cecil Deedes (1843-1920), vicar in 1872-1876, was popular among the poor, but caused controversy in 1876 over a sermon advocating the occasional practice of confession.

With the vicars who followed, the number of services increased and in 1898 as many as a fifth of the adult population of the parish were said to be communicants.

When the Revd Bartle Starmer Hack was vicar in 1922-1947, the church moved closer to the Anglo-Catholic tradition for which it is known today. He introduced full vestments and a sung Eucharist on Sundays. His vicarage at 53 Broad Street, between Trinity College and Blackwells, was the last private residence in the Broad until it was bought by Trinity.

The Revd JC Stephenson, vicar in 1948-1959, made the church the centre of Anglo-Catholicism in Oxford in the 1950s, which hastened the decline of Saint Paul’s Church on Walton Road.

A statue of Saint Mary Magdalen in Saint Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today, Saint Mary Magdalen Church is a thriving, diverse, and inclusive community, offering witness in the Catholic tradition of the Church of England through the celebration of the Eucharist and the preaching of the Gospel.

The Revd Canon Dr Peter Groves has been the parish priest of Saint Mary Magdalen’s since 2005. He completed a BA and then a DPhil in theology at New College Oxford and trained for the ministry at Westcott House, Cambridge. He has been Chaplain and Fellow of Brasenose College, and continues to be a member of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Oxford.

The associate priests include the Revd Dr Melanie Marshall Mel, currently Acting Chaplain at Balliol College. She studied classics in Oxford and was sent from Mary Mags to train for ordination at Westcott House and Emmanuel College Cambridge. She was Chaplain of Lincoln College for five years.

The Revd Esther Brazil, assistant curate was brought up in Beijing, Singapore, and Sydney. She read philosophy and theology at the Queen’s College, Oxford, and later trained as a classical singer Shen trained for ministry at Ripon College Cuddesdon. She is the first female curate of Saint Mary Magdalen’s.

The Revd Professor Judith M Brown, an associate priest, is an Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College, where she assists in the chapel. She was Beit Professor of Commonwealth History at Oxford from 1990 to 2011, and her academic speciality is modern India. She trained at Cuddesdon and was ordained in 2009. She was interim chaplain at Brasenose College in 2017.

The Sunday Masses at Saint Mary Magdalen are: 8 am, Said Mass; 10.30 am, High Mass; 5:30 pm: Said Mass. During the week, there is a Said Mass at 12: 15 and 6 pm, Monday to Saturday, and Morning Prayer (8:15) and Evening Prayer (5:40), Monday to Friday.

Saint Mary Magdalen Church is a thriving, diverse, and inclusive community in the centre of Oxford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time
with USPG: (98) 3 September 2023

All Saints’ Church in Milton Keynes Village … one of the largest and most attractive mediaeval churches in Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and today is the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII, 3 September 2023).

Later this morning, I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stratford, and in the afternoon to attend the Parish Fete in All Saints Church, Calverton.

But, before the day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

This week, I have been reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at a church on the route of the annual Ride + Stride, organised by Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Trust and taking place next Saturday, 9 September 2023;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

On All Saints’ Day 1995, 100 Saxon bodies were reburied at All Saints’ Churchyard (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

All Saints’ Church, Milton Keynes Village:

The annual Ride + Stride organised by Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Trust takes place next Saturday, 9 September 2023. Participants may be cyclists, walkers, horse-riders or drivers of mobility scooters. They can be of any age, but under-13s must be accompanied by an adult. All denominations are welcome.

Participants may visit as many churches as they like, planning their own route, and are asked to seek sponsorship from friends, relations and colleagues: so much per church visited or a lump sum. https://ridestride.org/

Ride + Stride offers opportunities find out what lies behind the churchyard gates of Buckinghamshire’s many churches and chapels.

Ride + Stride is open to walkers as well as horse-riders and cyclists. It always takes place on the second Saturday of September, between 10 am and 6 pm, and aims to raise money for the repair and restoration of churches and chapels of any Christian denomination in Buckinghamshire.

Half the money raised goes to the church or chapel of the participant’s choice, and the other half is added to a general fund administered by the Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Trust.

Churches are encouraged to make applications to the trust for grants to help with church repairs and restoration. Last year’s Ride + Stride event raised more than £26,610. Last year, the trust awarded grants totalling £28,000 to 11 churches that applied for funding to assist with both major and minor works.

My photographs this week are from some of the churches taking part in this year’s Ride + Stride next weekend. My photographs this morning are of All Saints’ Church in Milton Keynes Village.

The three-stage tower of All Saints’ Church is in an unusual position on the north side of the nave (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 16: 21-28 (NRSVA):

21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’ 23 But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

27 ‘For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.’

The north side of the chapel, including one of two small low-side openings doors (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Harvest.’ This theme was introduced today:

As we approach the season of harvest, we are increasingly aware of how many families and individuals around the UK are now relying on emergency food parcels from food banks. Around 3 million parcels were given out last year alone.

Further afield, the Diocese of Kurunagala in Sri Lanka is unique for its work with farmers, plantation sector workers, labourers and interfaith collaborations. The recent economic crisis has had a huge impact on the diocese and it must take this into consideration when it plans its mission activities.

These activities have been a mixture of advocacy towards transformation on a national level and being grounded at a community level. The diocese has extended its outreach work to the most vulnerable with rations being deployed from time to time. A focus on well-being and the protection of children are also key areas the diocese is working on, through seminars and small group visits. To do this, the diocese partners with local Buddhist temples, enabling the Church to reach more people.

This autumn, USPG will be running a Harvest appeal and sharing stories about the amazing work of our partners in Sri Lanka. To find out more, visit www.uspg.org.uk

The USPG Prayer Diary today (3 September 2023, Trinity XIII) invites us to reflect on these words:

You shall go out in joy and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. (Isaiah 55: 12)

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God our creator,
you feed your children with the true manna,
the living bread from heaven:
let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage
until we come to that place
where hunger and thirst are no more;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The south porch at All Saints’ Church in Milton Keynes Village (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

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

The west end of All Saints’ Church in Milton Keynes Village (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Wadham College in
the heart of Oxford
and its Gothic-style
chapel and buildings

The Gothic-style chapel in Wadham College, Oxford, is part of the original college building (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

I have visited Oxford a few times over the past ten days or so, visiting colleges, chapels and churches, as well as bookshops, parks and museums.

Wadham College is in the centre of Oxford, at the corner of Park Roads and Broad Street. Although it is close to the Ashmolean Museum .and the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ at Hertford College, I wonder how many visitors step inside Wadham College, the former college of notable figures ranging from Sir Christopher Wren to Michael Foot and Archbishop Rowan Williams.

Wadham is one of the largest colleges in Oxford, with about 70 Fellows, 480 undergraduates and 240 graduate students. It was among the first colleges in Oxford to admit women students in 1974, the others being Brasenose, Jesus College, Hertford and Saint Catherine’s, and in 2011 it became the first Oxford college to fly the rainbow flag.

Wadham College Oxford was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham and built by the architect William Arnold (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, fulfilling the wishes of her husband Nicholas Wadham in his will. The central buildings, a notable example of Jacobean architecture, were designed by the architect William Arnold and erected in 1610-1613. They include a large and ornate hall, an interesting chapel and the Wadham Gardens. The hall, one of the third largest in Oxford, is notable for its great hammer-beam roof and for the Jacobean woodwork of the entrance screen.

The main building was erected by Arnold in a single building operation in 1610-1613. The style is traditional Oxford Gothic, modified by classical decorative detail, most notably the ‘frontispiece’ framing statues of James I and the Founders immediately facing visitors as they enter the college.

Sir Christopher Wren is probably Wadham’s most famous alumnus. While John Wilkins was Warden of Wadham (1648-1659), Wren was part of a group of experimental scientists at Oxford, the Oxford Philosophical Club, that included Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. They met regularly meetings at Wadham College and formed the nucleus of what became the Royal Society.

Wren was an undergraduate at Wadham before he became a fellow of All Souls’ College. He later returned to rooms at Wadham while he was the Savilian Professor of Astronomy from 1661.

Statues of James I and Dorothy and Nicholas Wadham face visitors as they enter Wadham College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The college grounds include the Holywell Music Room (1748), said to be the oldest purpose-built music room in Europe and England’s first concert hall, and the Ferdowsi Library, specialising in Persian literature, art, history, and culture and initially funded by the then ruling Iranian Pahlavi dynasty.

Wadham Gardens are relatively large, compared with those of other Oxford colleges, even without the land sold to build Rhodes House in the 1920s. They were first carved out from the property of the previous Augustinian priory.

Wadham has a wide range of graduates who have contributed significantly to public life (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Wadham has a wide range of graduates in the fields of economics, history, law, physiology, medicine, management, humanities, mathematics, science, technology, media, philosophy, poetry, politics and theology who have contributed significantly to public life.

Notable early members of the college include Robert Blake, Cromwell’s admiral and founder of British sea-power in the Mediterranean, John Cook the first solicitor general of the English Commonwealth and prosecutor of King Charles I, and the libertine poet and the courtier John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester.

More recent members include Archbishop Rowan Williams, who completed his DPhil at Wadham, the author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, the writer and jJonathan Freedland, and the Nobel laureate, mathematical physicist and philosopher Sir Roger Penrose, now an emeritus fellow.

Wadham Chapel is usually reached through the door in staircase 3 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Wadham’s Gothic-style chapel is part of the original college building. Although a ceremonial door opens directly into Front Quad, the chapel is usually reached through the door in staircase 3.

The original pulpit still stands. The chapel screen, like that in the Hall, was carved by John Bolton. Originally Jacobean woodwork ran right round the chapel but the stone reredos was inserted in the east end of the chapel in 1832.

The East Window, depicting the Passion of Christ and several other Biblical scenes, including Jonah and the whale, was created by Bernard van Linge in 1621-1622. The windows on the north and south sides of the chapel depict various prophets such as Jonah, and apostles such as Saint Andrew. They originate from different periods.

The East Window in Wadham Chapel was created by Bernard van Linge in 1621-1622 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

One window dated 1616 is attributed to the glazier Robert Rutland, a local craftsman. But Dorothy Wadham had his contract terminated on hearing bad reports of his Biblical prophets on the onrth side of the chapel. The name of the glazier for the more successful depiction of Christ and the Apostles on the south side of the chapel is unknown.

The windows of the antechapel, which also show saintly figures, are Victorian. They were designed by John Bridges, and created by David Evans in 1838. The elegant young man reclining on his monument in the antechapel is Sir John Portman, who died in 1624 as a 19-year-old undergraduate. Another monument, in the form of a pile of books, commemorates Thomas Harris, one of the college fellows appointed at its foundation who died in 1614 aged 20.

The chapel organ dates from 1862 and 1886. It is one of the few instruments by Henry Willis, the doyen of Victorian English organ builders, to survive without substantial modification of its tonal design.

The chapel screen, like that in the Hall, was carved by John Bolton (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Revd Dr Jane Baun is Chaplain and Welfare Officer of Wadham College. She has taught English in Russia, mediaeval and Byzantine history at New York University, Eastern Christianity in Oxford, and Church History and Christian Ethics at Ripon College Cuddesdon.

She is the author of Tales from Another Byzantium: Celestial Journey and Local Community in the Medieval Greek Apocrypha (Cambridge, 2007), and scholarly papers on official and unofficial religious culture in Eastern Orthodoxy.

Before coming to Wadham, she was a curate in Abingdon and a lecturer in Ripon College Cuddesdon.

The ethos of the chaplaincy is warm and, as I found in recent days, the chapel is open all day, offering a place of prayer, stillness, a holy space where all can search for meaning, comfort and rest.

Wadham Chapel is open all day, offering a place of prayer, stillness, a holy space where all can search for meaning, comfort and rest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)