Patrick Comerford
After my day of tests and consultations at the John Radcliffe Hospital at the end of last week, I took a walk by the river at the Head of the River and Folly Bridge, with a little time to clear my head.
But I was in need of time too for prayer and reflection at the end of the day, before the long journey back to Stony Stratford. The choices were varied, and included Choral Evensong in Christ Church Cathedral or the Chapel of Queen’s College. Eventually, I decided to go to Sung Evening Prayer followed by Benediction in the Chapel of Pusey House on Saint Giles.
There was a warm welcome from the Principal and staff and many of the people working and living at Pusey House, and it was good to catch up with the Revd Dr Matthew Cheung-Salisbury, who had been the Priest-in-Charge at Saint Mary and Saint Giles, Stony Stratford, until Easter. I had missed his farewell to Stony Stratford because I was spending Easter in Rethymnon in Crete.
The Principal of Pusey House, the Revd Dr George Westhaver, joined Pusey House in 2013. He is a former chaplain at Lincoln College, and completed his PhD at the University of Durham under the supervision of Professor Andrew Louth, on Pusey’s unpublished lectures, ‘Types and Prophecies of the Old Testament’.
I also met up with Father Benjamin Drury, who has been the senior chaplain in Athens since last year. It was interesting to find out that his first curacy was spent in Stony Stratford, and that he lived during that time in Bunsty Court in Galley Hill. He grew up in Richmond, Yorkshire, spent most summers in Greece in his godparents’ village, and has an MPhil in Byzantine Studies.
Throughout the academic year 2024-2025, Pusey House is hosting a number of special services and events to mark its 140th anniversary. Pusey House was opened on 9 October 1884 as a memorial to Edward Bouverie Pusey, Regius Professor of Hebrew, Canon of Christ Church, and for 40 years one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement.
Pusey House is marking this 140th anniversary with an interesting programme of special services, lectures, conferences, study days and other events.
According to its founding documents, Pusey House exists to promote theological study and holiness of life, and to provide spiritual counsel and comfort to members of the university. In their work to renew Catholic life and witness in the Church of England, Pusey and his colleagues also sought to understand and respond to needs of society in their day.
One of the basic principles of the Oxford Movement was that the life of the mind and the life of prayer belong together, and that holiness of life overflows in ministries of love and service. Pusey House today continues to seek to embody these founding principles.
I was in London the day before those day-long tests in Oxford. But I noticed the programme for Ascension Day (Thursday 29 May) included High Mass at which the preacher was the Revd Paul White of Saint Andrew’s, Linton Road; Sung Mass at which the preacher was the Principal of Pusey House, the Revd Dr George Westhaver, and a lecture by Harry Spain on ‘Ninian Comper at Pusey House’.
Canon Frederic Hood (1895-1975), the then Principal of Pusey House, commissioned his friend Sir Ninian Comper (1864-1960) to reorder the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament at Pusey House in 1935. The resulting scheme, complete with its golden ciborium – which illustrated my prayer diary on this blog this morning (2 June 2025) – is regarded as a perfect example of Comper’s later style: ‘unity by inclusion’.
The architectural historian Harry Spain is a former sacristan of Pusey House. He looked at theory and significance of Comper’s work in Pusey House, traced his sources of inspiration from fourth century Algeria to Botticelli, and explored Comper’s connections to Oxford and the work of Pusey House.
The preacher at High Mass yesterday (Sunday 1 June) was the Revd Prof Joshua Horden, Professor of Christian Ethics in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. Next Friday (6 June) the Preacher at Choral Evensong at 5:30 is is Professor Charles Foster, Visiting Professor at HeLEX: Centre for Health, Law and Emerging Technologies.
The annual Friends’ Festival takes place in Pusey House on Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday. The day includes High Mass at 11 am with a sermon by the Principal. Then, at 12:15 pm, to mark the House’s 140th Anniversary, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Irene Tracey, will address the congregation. A buffet luncheon will follow. Later this month, the Pusey 140 Concert on Sunday 21 June (4 pm) is being performed by the Choir of Pusey House.
Then, next month (7-9 July 2025), Pusey House is hosting the fourth in a series of theological conferences, ‘Restoring the Image: Creation, Salvation, and the Human Person’. The conference is looking at Christian theological anthropology and the doctrine of humankind’s creation and restoration in the image and likeness of God.
The Church confesses that human beings are made in both the image and likeness of God. The restoration and perfection of this image in the human person and in the whole body of Christ, knit together in one, is fundamental to God’s purposes for humankind and the whole cosmos.
The conference will consider how the creation and salvation of the human being is revealed and taught in both the Old and New Testaments, and its reception by the Fathers of the Church. The discussion will look at how theologians through the ages related the divine image and likeness to the developing dogmas of the Triune deity and of Christ as the Incarnate Word.
The speakers have been invited to draw on both the riches of the catholic tradition and contemporary philosophical theology. All this will enable the conference to consider current debates about the human person and community, and the great questions of mediaeval Catholic, Reformation and modern theology will be posed:
• How is the image damaged by sin?
• How are humans restored by faith and participation in God’s sacramental economy to grow in the likeness of God?
• How does grace use human nature, and how is human nature perfected by grace?
• How is the human person conformed to Christ, and brought to participate in the divine nature?
The organisers hope that the conference will serve not only the furnishing of our minds, but also the transforming of our lives and communities by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit, that we may all grow together in the image and likeness of God.
The conference follows previous Pusey House theological conferences on the Holy Trinity (the Transforming Vision, 2016), the Person of Christ (Totus Christus, 2018), and the Holy Spirit (Descent of the Dove, 2022).
The conference speakers include:
• Gary A Anderson, Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought, University of Notre Dame
• John Behr, Regius Chair in Humanity, University of Aberdeen
• Joanna Collicutt, Karl Jaspers Lecturer in Psychology and Spirituality, Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Supernumerary Fellow Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and Oxford Diocesan Advisor for Spiritual Care for Older People
• David Curry, Rector of Christ Church, Windsor, Nova Scotia
• Andrew Davison, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Oxford
• Paul Dominiak, Senior Tutor and Director of Studies in Bachelor of Theology for Ministry Exams, Jesus College, University of Cambridge
• Mark Edwards, Professor of Early Christian Studies and Tutor in Theology, Christ Church, University of Oxford
• Jennifer Frey, Dean of the Honors College and Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Tulsa
• Malcolm Guite, Life Fellow, Girton College, University of Cambridge
• Joshua Hordern, Professor of Christian Ethics, University of Oxford
• Chris Kugler, Assistant Professor of Theology, Houston Christian University
• Andrew Louth, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham, and Rector Emeritus of the Orthodox Parish of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Bede, Durham
• Pia Matthews, Senior Lecturer, Saint Mary’s University, Twickenham, and Lecturer, Allen Hall Seminary, Chelsea
• Grant MacAskill, Kirby Laing Chair of New Testament Exegesis, University of Aberdeen
• Aidan Nichols, Lector, Study House of the English Dominican Province
• Simon Oliver, Van Mildert Professor of Divinity, University of Durham
• Michele Schumacher, Privatdocent, University of Fribourg
• Alexis Torrance, Archbishop Demetrios Associate Professor of Byzantine Theology, University of Notre Dame
Thomas Joseph White, Rector Magnificus, Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome
• Judith Wolfe, Professor of Philosophical Theology, University of St Andrews.
Meanwhile, the Library at Pusey House remains one of the hidden gems of Oxford. The Library began with Pusey’s personal collection of rare books. The library now holds over 75,000 volumes. Its main specialism is the history of the Oxford Movement, but it also has extensive holdings in patristics, liturgy, doctrinal theology and broader church history.
