St Barnabas and St Paul, with St Thomas the Martyr Parish Profile
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September 2018 St Barnabas and St Paul, with St Thomas the Martyr Parish profile Unity and Mutual Respect United, friendly and welcoming – we hope that is the impression our congregation might Why I worship here: make on a first-time visitor to our principal service, the 10.30am Sunday High Mass at St Traditional liturgy with Barnabas. Ours is not a predominantly elderly congregation: we have young families as well its timeless beauty and as people who have worshipped here for many decades, and everything in between. holiness. Originally worshippers came predominantly from the parish itself, then an industrial suburb; now they come from all over Oxford and beyond – indeed, all over the world – drawn by our Tractarian heritage, with its beautiful liturgy, excellent music, and sound but concise sermons. The congregation also reflects Oxford’s place in the wider world; many nationalities and backgrounds are represented, pointing to the profound truth that we are one Contents: in Christ. Unity and Mutual Respect Our New Incumbent History Liturgy and Worship Music Church Life Parish Links About the Parish Vicarage Properties Challenges and Opportunities From the Bishop The Oxford Deanery This fellowship is also expressed socially. The newly-installed kitchen/servery at the west Appendices: end of the church not only encourages a lively coffee-time after Mass but enables us to Summary Accounts 2017 gather for Lent courses and study days over a shared lunch and to celebrate feast days in some style. Motion & Statement of Need Map of Parish Throughout this profile the reader will find occasional statements headed ‘Why I worship here’. They speak of our shared values and give a flavour of our parish: a sense of the Person Specification numinous and the beauty of holiness, and of the friendships that are formed here and our care for each other. They also make clear that within the parish family there is a range of strongly-held and differing doctrinal opinion. However, each member of the parish chooses Why I worship here: I love the peace and to accept this difference and focus on the prayer and worship that are at the heart of all we space of St Barnabas do: at Mass we come together as one body, uniting our worship with that of the whole and the many kind and gentle people. company of Heaven. The way in which we have learned to live together as the body of Christ is, we believe, something we offer to the wider Church of England as a pattern, and something we look to our new incumbent to sustain and cherish. OUR NEW INCUMBENT Essential Attributes Other Attributes Spirituality. The work of the parish is grounded Our liturgy is supported, deepened and enriched by in prayer offered at the Daily Office and in the Mass. our musical tradition. We do not need our priest to We expect that our priest will see this daily be a musical expert, but an appreciative discipline as the foundation of both personal and understanding would be very welcome. corporate spiritual life. We would obviously hope that our new priest will be Leadership. The incumbent would lead the approachable and friendly to all. We would like the ministry team consisting of Vicar, Deacon, two new incumbent to be available for both parishioners LLMs and an Honorary Assistant Priest, who will and congregation to seek advice, comfort, and share the duties of preaching and pastoral care. We inspiration for moving forward with a prayerful life. have an active lay membership with a wide range of professional skills and expertise. Our priest will be Our priest should be a good role model. able to delegate, as well as to motivate this wider team. Why I worship here: Teaching. Our priest will be able to link all our It’s like all the air in here is christening you. activity back to the Word of God and the teaching of Confirmation candidate – 9 years old. the Church, and ensure that preaching and catechesis of a high quality enrich our corporate life. As a congregation we are eager to deepen our sacramental, worshipping life through participation in activities such as the recent ‘Learning Christ’ Statement of Theological Need course, lectio divina, and the daily parish prayer The PCC has requested that arrangements be scheme. made for the parish in accordance with paragraph 22 of the House of Bishops’ Engagement. Our priest should be a visible Declaration on the Ministry of Bishops and pastoral presence within the parish, and engage in a Priests. Our request is that our next incumbent positive way with the Church School and with those is a man who has been ordained by a bishop of other faiths. He should also develop and foster the who is a man and who has been consecrated in partnerships in the wider City of Oxford that are the historic, male episcopate. We would needed to revitalize St Thomas’. welcome either a Traditionalist who is enthusiastic about serving and honouring the Pastoral care. We have an organised pastoral needs of a congregation which includes non- team and our priest would play an active part in this Traditionalist members or a non-Traditionalist ministry. who is enthusiastic about serving and Working with children and young families. Our honouring the needs of a congregation which previous incumbent brought young families and includes Traditionalists. We ask that our next children into our Church; they are a much-valued incumbent gladly accept and fully honour both presence, and our priest needs to be able to connect the spirit and the letter of our Statement of with them and to minister to them. Theological Need, dated March 2018, which is appended. Liturgy. We have a reputation for unfussy excellence. Our new priest needs to be liturgically skilled and confident. Management and administration. The union of Why I worship here: Encouragement and inclusion of the two benefices has brought many changes. The young people in many aspects of major works required at St Thomas’ will have to be Church life. done in partnership with another Anglican Church and/or another institution: our priest would need to be a shrewd negotiator who is competent at Why I worship here: managing change. The parish has not got a paid A rock of continuity and administrator. nourishment. HISTORY St. Barnabas’ (1869) is a daughter parish of St. Paul’s, Walton St.; and St. Paul’s was in turn the daughter of St. Thomas’. The parish of St Paul was carved out of the parishes of St Thomas and St Giles, and the parish church in Walton Street, the finest Grecian church in Oxford, was consecrated in 1836. By the 1850s it had become renowned for its elaborate ritual and processions, and drew so many worshippers that another church was needed to serve the poor, overcrowded and disease-ridden area of Jericho. One of the St Paul’s church wardens, Thomas Combe, Superintendent of the Clarendon Press, had St Barnabas built for Jericho at his own expense. The architect Arthur Blomfield decided on an Italian Romanesque design but, in accordance with Thomas Combe’s wishes, built the walls out of cement-rendered builders’ rubble, and added a striking campanile. It is now a grade 1 listed building. St Paul’s declined after the Second World War, and in 1963 the two parishes were amalgamated. In 1969 St Paul’s was closed. It is now a café. St Barnabas was designed for Tractarian worship, with its east end making visible the high doctrine of the Sacrament that is the hallmark of Anglo-Catholic devotion. On entering the church, the visitor may first notice the great openwork iron cross suspended above the nave (based on Fr Montague Noel’s SSC cross and memorably borrowed by Thomas Hardy in Jude the Obscure), then the baldacchino crowning the high altar, and finally the great Pantocrator decorating the vault of the apse. To receive the sacrament kneeling with Christ in Majesty looking down is a deeply moving experience. St Thomas the Martyr: Grandmother became sister in St Thomas' was closely 2015, when the benefice of St Thomas was united with associated with the early that of St Barnabas. St Barnabas is the parish church of the days of the Oxford new benefice, and St Thomas the Martyr a chapel of ease. Movement. Some of its leading lights – Dr Pusey, Canon Liddon, Dr Neale, Fr Lowder and Edward King – preached here. It was the first parish church to revive daily services since the time of Queen Anne, and the wearing of Eucharistic vestments was resumed on Whitsunday 1854 by Canon Chamberlain, who was vicar for 50 years. As the slums were cleared, and their St Thomas’ is the historic parish of West Oxford. The inhabitants rehoused, the church was founded in the twelfth century by the parish declined. In 2012 Augustinian canons of Osney Abbey: the oldest part is the the Bishop of Oxford Norman chancel, with three Norman windows. On the invited the clergy of St south side of the chancel is the priest’s door, dating from Barnabas to look after St Thomas’. 1250, with its original iron work. The east window is 14th century. The nave and tower date from the mid-15th Our friends in the Romanian Orthodox Congregation have century. some regular use of St Thomas’. St Barnabas can justly be described as a flourishing church Why I worship here: after Father Jonathan’s transforming ministry. St Thomas’ There is a sense of reverence in the services which helps one connect with the worship of needs considerable work to improve fabric and amenities, the universal Church and with the ongoing but also a vision of how best it can serve its community.