Chris Church Matters MICHAELMAS TERM 2014 ISSUE 34 Editorial Contents In this Michaelmas edition we welcome our 45th Dean, the Very Revd Professor Dean’s Diary 1 Martyn Percy, who joined us in October after ten years as Principal of Ripon College Cuddesdon. We also say goodbye to our former Dean, Christopher Lewis, and his wife Goodbye from Chrsitopher Lewis 2 Rhona as they retire to the idyllic Suffolk coast. Much has been achieved in this year Cardinal Sins 6 of change, and we celebrate the successes of members past and present in this issue. If you have news of your own which you would like to share with the Christ Church Christ Church Cathedral Choir 8 community, we invite you to make a submission to the next Annual Report – details Cathedral News 9 of this can be found in College News. A new Christ Church website will be launched in the spring, and with this a new Christ Church People: digital platform for Christ Church Matters. If you would like to receive the magazine Phyllis May Bursill 10 digitally, please let us know. Conservation work We wish you a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and hope to see you in 2015. on the Music Collection 12 Simon Offen Leia Clancy Cathedral School 14 Christ Church Association Alumni Relations Officer Vice President and Deputy [email protected] College News 16 Development Director +44 (0)1865 286 598 [email protected] Boat Club News 18 +44 (0)1865 286 075 Association News 19 FORTHCOMING EVENTS Sensible Religion: A Review 29 Event booking forms are available to download at www.chch.ox.ac.uk/development/events/future The Paper Project at Ovalhouse 30 MARCH 2015 APRIL 2015 SEPTEMBER 2015 Robert Hooke’s Micrographia 32 14 March 24-26 April 12 September FAMILY PROGRAMME LUNCH MEETING MINDS: ALUMNI BOARD OF BENEFACTORS GAUDY Who should decide on war? 34 Christ Church WEEKEND IN VIENNA Christ Church Parents of current or former All are invited to join us for 18-20 September Christ Church Gardens 30 students are invited to lunch at three days of alumni activities MEETING MINDS: ALUMNI Christ Church. in Vienna. We will be hosting a WEEKEND IN OXFORD The 150th Anniversary of dinner exclusive to Christ Church 20 March alumni on the Friday night. Join fellow alumni for three days Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 36 1965 50TH ANNIVERSARY Details can be found online at of talks, lectures, walks, tours and CELEBRATION www.alumniweekend.ox.ac.uk many more activities. Books without Christ Church Ending Inside back cover MAY 2015 Contact: alumniweekend@ Those who came up in 1965 are alumni.ox.ac.uk or sign up invited to a reunion marking 17 May for email updates at www. the 50th anniversary of their NORFOLK LUNCH alumniweekend.ox.ac.uk matriculation. Catherine Blaiklock (1981) invites 19 September Cover image: 21 March members to a Sunday lunch at CHRIST CHURCH ASSOCIATION The Very Reverend Christopher Lewis, Dean of HONG KONG RECEPTION her home in Norfolk. DINNER & AGM Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church Alumni in the region are invited 27-30 May Oil on Gesso Panel to a reception and dinner at the EIGHTS WEEK All members are invited to the 48 x 30 inches Hong Kong Country Club with annual Christ Church Association Saied Dai the Dean. JUNE 2015 Dinner and AGM. 21 – 29 March Trained at The Royal Academy of Arts in 19 June 20 September OXFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL BOAT CLUB SOCIETY DINNER 1946 LUNCH London, Saied is a figurative artist living Christ Church Christ Church Christ Church and working in Bath. He has had many solo We welcome world-class authors exhibitions in London, the UK and abroad and Members of the Boat Club Members of the 1546 Society are and speakers at The FT Weekend Society are invited back for the invited to the annual lunch. is an elected member of The Royal Society of Oxford Literary Festival. Details annual dinner. Portrait Painters and the New English Art Club. can be found online at www. Unless otherwise stated, please Saied is also an experienced teacher who has oxfordliteraryfestival.com contact the Development Office 25 June taught in a number of art schools, notably, The 1991-93 GAUDY for bookings and queries: Royal Academy of Arts and The Prince of Wales Christ Church +44 (0)1865 286325 [email protected] School of Architecture. Dean’s Diary Martyn Percy (1635 –1703), an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath, whose work Allan Chapman discusses in more detail on pages 32-33.In his early life, he had lacked the money for a decent education, but had somehow managed to take a course of twenty organ lessons. From this platform, he became an assistant to Dr Thomas Willis, a chemist. Through work with Willis, Hooke met Robert Boyle (helping to develop early air pumps), and later the architect, Christopher Wren. Hooke became curator of experiments of the Royal Society, Gresham Professor of Geometry and Surveyor to the City of London after the Great Fire of 1666, in which capacity he probably performed more than half of all the surveys after the fire. He was, by all accounts, The first proper meal at Christ Church Good education then, scrupulously fair and honest in this. was a modest, circumspect affair – just fresh fish and some cheese, costing 19 as now, benefits not just We don’t know precisely which shillings and sixpence in January 1547. the few who come to benefaction enabled Hooke to be The foundation feast and celebrations at Christ Church. But we have every that followed a few weeks later was a college, but the whole of rather more lavish affair, costing over £21. This marked a re-birth of Wolsey’s humanity. Societies that great vision – a place for the ‘brining upp nourish good education of youthe in virtue’, rooted in Christian principles, and open to the humanist will inevitably nourish the teachings already adopted by Magdalen and Corpus Christi. world. Goodness is fecund; it breeds. The early years of any institution can be fragile, and Christ Church was no exception. It had of course started the House. Well-educated scholars with some advantage, being well- meant a more healthful society – a endowed from the outset. Indeed, the commonwealth that was nourished. imagination and entrepreneurship of Good education then, as now, benefits our Tudor forebears provided much of not just the few who come to college, the solid foundation that Christ Church but the whole of humanity. Societies still rests on today. The key then, as that nourish good education will now, was development. The food and inevitably nourish the world. Goodness is feasts that the first scholars enjoyed fecund; it breeds. were the fruit of careful stewardship, coupled to generous giving that sought Some of our greatest thinkers from the nourishing and flourishing of Christ Church were to benefit from this those scholars who were admitted to goodness. I think of Robert Hooke 1 L Procession of Governing Body to the Cathedral L The installation service reason to suppose that the gifts of and founded in gift, and those who have with various events for new students. earlier generations had already laid received have themselves gone on to Talking to hundreds of parents at a the foundation for encouraging and be givers. It is this virtuous cycle that Sunday Tea – welcoming them to Christ developing scholars like Hooke, who enables us to advance and improve, and Church as they dropped off their sons might otherwise not have received so enable others. and daughters – was a real pleasure a decent education. These days, talk and privilege. And then meeting the of ‘development’ at universities and Wherever you are within this orbit, I new undergraduates on Monday, and colleges is often seen as a less than hope and trust you will be thankful for beginning to get to know them. This is all subtle code for some basic fundraising. the gift of the House, and reflect on how enfolded by the beauty of the worship in This is not so at Christ Church. Here at you can help it continue to give to others. the cathedral, our fine Canons, and world- The House, ‘development’ means exactly class choir. It all underlines the bountiful what it says on the tin: ‘an unfolding’ I could not end this first ‘Dean’s Diary’ blend that this role entails: serving a of the person and the ‘bringing without a personal tribute to all the cathedral, college and community. out of latent possibilities’ through Students, staff, undergraduates and improvement and advancement. graduates who have welcomed the Percy I am pleased to say that Pippa (our Family here to the House. The Installation over-friendly bearded collie), has been But there is no development without Service in October was a deeply moving designated and installed as ‘Assistant donation. And a donor is, by definition, occasion. It was a truly humbling service, Dean’, in line with other staff who bring a giver; and a giver is someone who and quite extraordinary to see so many their canine assistants to work. Pippa enables another. Christ Church is rooted there. The next week began in earnest is taking on her new role with some seriousness. Her first act was to enact a new by-law, requiring all squirrels living on Christ Church Meadow to remain in their designated-domicile deciduous trees. Any squirrel seen straying on the lawns or paths is therefore pursued vigorously. None have so far been caught (a relief!), but Pippa’s new role seems to fascinate and amuse the tourists in equal measure.