Chapel Report
This year there have been fewer people in Chapel, but more people joining us for services.
COVID-19 restrictions prevented an in-person congregation for much of the last academic year, but, thanks to the generosity of a Clare donor, we have been able to live-stream Choral Evensong to our College members and across the world. The annual Advent Carol Service, for instance, has now reached far more people than we could ever have squeezed into the Chapel, with over 10,000 views at the most recent count.
The new technology also meant that, for the first time since starting at Clare, my young daughters were able to see what their Daddy gets up to on Sunday evenings.
The front of the Chapel Termcard this Michaelmas bore an image by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Evelyn De Morgan. It personified Hope as the bringer of light and liberation to those are weighed down or oppressed. And there were plenty of tangible examples of hope during the course of the year.
The BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong programme was broadcast live from the Chapel in November – and it was a triumph, even with the Old Court fire alarm adding unexpectedly to the musical repertoire.
Our service for Remembrance Sunday was touchingly beautiful, as we gathered in Chapel to lay a wreath, in honour of members of Clare who had given their lives in war.
The constraints of the pandemic also opened up all sorts of fruitful new avenues in Chapel life. These included Sunday morning Bible studies, explorations of CS Lewis’ The Great Divorce and Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita in our Chapel Reading Group, 5 a special meditative service for Good Friday, and a series of weekly ClareCast videos released throughout Lent Term.
Perhaps most splendidly, the Church of England’s Covidtide prohibition on sharing a single chalice prompted us to liberate a wonderfully exotic variety of goblets from the College’s silver collection, making for a dazzling Pentecost Eucharist.
As the limits on outdoor gatherings were gradually relaxed, it was a real joy to restore the tradition of Tuesday afternoon teas for the students in the Scholars’ Garden – as well as a special morning social for all our Clare staff.
I was excited to assemble a mighty cricketing XI of staff and Fellows, to do battle against the students’ team in late June 8 – see the Last Word for the full story.
It was also lovely to be with our outgoing Decani Scholar, Kirsty Borthwick, as she was ordained at St Alban’s Cathedral.
On other fronts, I began my term in office as one of the University Proctors this year, which involved lots of meetings, dressing up and discussions about Latin. I tried to look suitably stern for the official photo.
I’m hugely thankful to the Chapel Office, the Director of Music and the Chapel Wardens, for all their dedication, energy and resourcefulness over the past year.
There’s a beautiful verse in 1 Chronicles 12, a chapter that gives a long list of the faithful men who came to David and recognised him as king. It describes how from Issachar came those ‘who understood the times, and knew what Israel should do’ (12:32).
This has been a year, perhaps more than any other in recent memory, of seeking to understand the times and to perceive the right things to do. I feel privileged to have been able to navigate all this in the company of so many kind and gifted colleagues.
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