THE CHAPLAINCY IN THE UNIVERSITY
The Sunday life in Christ the King commences with Holy Communion in the Lady Chapel at 8 a.m. This is deliberately plain and simple, and arranged especially for the benefit of those who are not accustomed to the more solemn celebration of the Anglican Liturgy which takes place at 9.15 a.m. This service, although in the setting of a highly traditional gothic building, attempts to reflect the new enthusiasm of christians everywhere, for scripture, for popular participation in the liturgical action, and for the centrality of the Eucharist in christian life and mission. Evensong is sung on Sundays in term at 7.30, and every effort is made to secure preachers of eminence and learning.
In addition to the services in the church all members of the Chaplaincy staff are at work throughout the week teaching, and celebrating the Eucharist for small faculty groups in the Colleges of the university. These services take place in lecture rooms at various times and under conditions of considerable simplicity, but do a great deal to break down the separation between religious life and the student vocation. On some weekdays there can be as many as fourteen celebrations for such groups, in which we are glad to have the assistance of a supporting team of honorary chaplains, who have other special tasks in the student world.
IN CONCLUSION
The hope of all who serve this church is that its noble architecture and the devotion of those who have worshipped here before will be an abiding reminder to all students, harassed by the traditional anxieties of young people, of 'the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ'.
All students who read this are invited to take part in our life, to use the church for daily prayer, to study with us the christian faith in the way that an intelligent person in the twentieth century can be expected to understand it, and to learn to love the Liturgy and so to love God, even though it may involve some development from what one has been accustomed to in the past; and so, by joining the ranks of those who are already engaged in this warfare, to do something to fulfil the hopes of those who built this church over a hundred years ago, working all of us for the regeneration of Christendom and, through that, for the renewal of the world, the reconciling of its contradictory passions, the true direction of its energies.
| Do not leave the church
without a prayer for those of us who work in this
University, whether as teachers, administrators or
research workers and students; and in particular for
those who have the pastoral care of all these responsible
people - student chaplains here and everywhere. O God, most glorious, most bountiful, |
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