Late Summer Exhibition

We have now started our second exhibition of the year - this weekend, 28th to 30th August (because Monday is a public holiday in honour of Blessed Juvenal Ancina of the Oratory). This time the theme is "Tell them about the Vestments". We have in the Guild Room a dazzling display of real vestments and accessories, dating from the sixteenth to twenty-first centuries, all of which are at least in occasional use in our Church. In the parish centre is a display of brass rubbings, from England and overseas, showing vestments as worn from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. They include some of the Polish giants not seen in Oxford since 1971. The catalogue explains what vestments are for, and how they are worn.

Open Saturday 10:30 to 5:30, Sunday 12:30 to 5:30, and Monday 10:30 to 5:30.

Admission is free, the catalogue £1.00, and if you would like to take the opportunity to join our development campaign, the information is all there.

Plus the final application document for planning permission is on display between the two models.

Newman Exhibition

Our exhibition of items connected with Newman in Oxford attracted between 150 and 200 visitors - at least we sold nearly 100 catalogues, and we imagine that was one between two. There were some quite distinguished guests as well, including experts on Newman who had never seen some of our items before. Many of the engravings were used for the new edition of "Newman's Oxford" (which is still available from the Lodge or Campaign Office at £5.00, of which £2.00 goes to the Appeal). The other engravings, and the autographs, the bust and the Venables portrait, were illustrated in the catalogue, which is also still available.



We are now getting the next exhibition ready - weekend of 28th to 30th August, church vestments in reality and on brass-rubbings. See you there.

Camino

Despite being clearly warned that the rain in Spain stays exclusively on the mountains, Fr Daniel has set out with a merry band of Young Oratory to walk the Camino di Santiago to Compostella, this being a Holy Year of St James as any fule kno. The Womens' Oratory set them on their way, and are gathering sponsorship for them for the benefit of the Reaffirmation and Renewal Appeal, and there is also a "page" on the "justGiving" site by which you can directly sponsor Fr Daniel, including Gift Aid.

If they return, we will show you evidence of the hardships on their way...

We still, incidentally, have copies of "Walking with God" (by Fr Jerome Bertram), a spiritual retreat based on experiences on a similar wet walk to Compostella in 1983, available here or through Gracewing, who are handling much of Family Publications' old stock. Santiago aficionados take note!

Newman everywhere

AS the Beatification draws near, the Newman theme comes to dominate our attention more and more. We are delighted to see that Jack Valero has his team "Catholic Voices" up and running to deal with interested enquiries from the media. It is less than a week now to the NEWMAN'S OXFORD Exhibition, (see next "post" for details), but don't forget there will be another Exhibition two weeks later, on Vestments. In the meantime, here's a little-known advertisment we found, which sheds an unexpected light on Newman - or does it?  Can it really be he?   None of the biographies even hint at his holiday job as a tea-merchant, but if Mattie of Cranford could sell tea at a pinch, why not he?

Newman’s Oxford: The Exhibition

Over the weekend of 14th-15th August we shall be exhibiting many things connected with John Henry Newman our Cardinal, in the Guild Room and the Parish Centre. The exhibition will be open on the Saturday from 10:30 to 5:50, on the Sunday 12:30 to 5:15; there will be a catalogue available at £1.00, but no admission charge (though if you really insist...)


On show will be the portrait by A.R. Venables, and the bust by Richard Westmacott, very rarely seen, some autographs including “Lead, kindly light”, many prints and engravings, including all those used for the new edition of Newman’s Oxford, and some real oddities. There will probably be tea available as well.

Planning Application press conference

The last stage before submitting our planning application was to hold a Press Conference at the Oratory. We invited the local and national Catholic press, as well as all the local amenity socities, who were well represented. They seemed to like what they saw! The Oxford Times gave us an advance publicity spread, summarised in the Oxford Mail (both 20 July). We showed them the models, and photomontages of how the new building will look in context. Such as the ones we put on the "plans" section of the campaign website. The library attracted interest, particularly the plan to house the Chesterton collection. So here is an aerial view of the library with the roof taken off.


On the same day, rain on the back-filled archaeological trench washed up two fragments of late mediaeval pottery which only goes to prove that somewhere near us there was late-mediaeval occupation. There is nothing now to delay submission of the application, but then it will be a couple of months before we hear anything. In the meantime, the money keeps rollin in...

Digging holes and filling them in again...

One of the pre-conditions for applying for planning permission was an archaeological investigation of the building site. We did in fact know exactly what was there, but had to get professionals in to show us: the foundations of the early Victorian slums; a metre of garden soil, natural subsoil, and the top of the Gravel Terrace which forms the foundation of all Oxford. It was useful for the structurtal engineer to be certain of the exact depth of the Gravel Terrace, because that is a good solid well-drained foundation for our buildings.

Oh, and there was a circular pit cut into the gravel, below the subsoil. Not investigated to the bottom, 'cos it is deeper than we shall want to go, no dating material in the fill, but given that we are in a known Bronze Age ceremonial area with lots of barrows around the Henge Monument, the chances are it's a Bronze Age ritual pit. Possibly a burial. Anyway, it's all filled in now.

The next stage is the press conference before the actual Application.