New Newman's Old Oxford

Our many visitors and pilgrims will be glad to know that the guidebook to the Oxford of Newman is again available. At the same time we are all very sad that our parish publishing house, Family Publications, has ceased trading. Over the years they had benefited the Church enormously in many varied publications, books and pamphlets.

The new "Newman's Oxford" was Family Pubs' last production. It is now available directly from the Oxford Oratory lodge at the same price, £5.00, of which £2.00 will be a direct contribution to the Campaign appeal. It is an expanded revision of our "The Oxford of Newman" of 1995, which was in turn a replacement for Fr Humphrey Carpenter's "Newman's Oxford" of 1966. It is a guide for pilgrims, a souvenir for visitors, and an enticement for those who have not yet been to Oxford. Every site associated with Newman's life in this city is identified and described, and illustrated as far as possible with engravings or drawings actually done at the time. For instance, the cover picture shows the dons processing into St Mary's church for a University Sermon, doubtless one of those delivered by JHN himself. This new edition contains several engravings which were not in the earlier edition, and an expanded text to bring it up to 48 pages, instead of the 42 pages (three of them blank) in the 1995 edition!

For copies, write to the Oxford Oratory Lodge, 25 Woodstock Road, OX2 6HA, with a cheque for £5.00, or come and pick one up next time you are in Oxford! (From overseas we will need to charge postage - will find out and let you know how much!)

Americans in Oxford

Don't forget the approaching week of unusual dramatic cultural and even liturgical events, 3rd to 10th July; begins with a musical festival at the Perch in Binsey (walk across Port Meadow, through buttercups and daisies, see the great crested grebes feeding their chicks as you cross Medley Weir... you can't miss it!) then a transatlantic setting of the Mass at the Oratory on 4th, an organ recital, lectures, guided tours of Oxford, and the Dinner! See the weekly Parish Newsletter for details, until we can find a way of copying them onto this side as well...
update: the crested grebes are not nesting at Medley this year (why not?).  But the In[ter]dependence week is definitely increasing in momentum.  We hear there are to be poetry readings as well as music.   Full details, and how to book, are on the parish website.  That's until we find out how to patch things like that onto this one.  Or till our webmaster finishes his GCSEs.

Starting from the floor

As money comes in we are able to get on with small aspects of the ongoing Church restoration, while progressing with planning permission. Many will have noticed that part of the floor in the right hand aisle has been missing for many years. This is because in Spring 1994 we found the floor was becoming altogether too springy, and it turned out the joists underneath were rotten. So we relaid a large area (see photograph). In the process parts of the aboriginal heating system became visible, with brick walls turning in elegant curves like the foundations for apses of a pre-Constantinian basilica. When the floor was put back, we were unable to match the imitation wood-block. But now it seems it can be done, and we should soon see that part of the floor restored, as well as other patches of flooring which have become unstable. A small feature of the great work, but necessary.

Exhibitionism

Two events coming up in the summer are Exhibitions, displaying some of the curious and rare items in our collections, as well as the plans for how they should be housed.

Over the weekend after 11th August, i.e. Newman's anniversary, the theme will be, predictably, Newman himself. It will be a rare opportunity to see the Venables portrait and the Westmacott bust, as well as the more familiar Richmond etching, other portraits of Newman, the manuscript of "Lead Kindly Light", a signed book and picture, and early editions of many of his books and pamphlets including Tract XC. Also the engravings which were used for "Newman's Oxford" will be on display. The booklet itself is being published this week by Family Publications, and is available from them or from the Oratory lodge.

The bank holiday weekend, 28th-30th August, the display will concentrate on church vestments. Some of the beautifully embroidered vestments used in the Oratory church will be displayed, together with explanation of their origin and meaning. There will also be a display of brass rubbings showing mediaeval vestments from brasses in Britain and the Continent. It is not generally known that the Oxford Oratory houses what is probably one of the five largest collections of brass rubbings in the world, which will also be housed in the new library and accessible to researchers.

So two dates to remember: weekends of 14th-15th August, and 28th to 30th August.

Campaign Newsletter

The latest campaign newsletter is now available online and can be downloaded here.

The Chesterton Library

An important part of our project is finding a permanent home for the Chesterton Library. We are very grateful to the Chesterton trustees who have secured the material with the intention of depositing it at the Oxford Oratory. G.K. Chesterton ("The Man who was Thirsty") left a vast mass of material including his own annotated copies of many of his books, the journals he published ("G.K.'s Weekly" and so on), and lots of original artwork. He used to entertain children by use of a Toy Theatre, which was supplied with a variety of scenery backdrops, and some very bizarre characters which moved on wires. The Theatre itself was lost by Another Library but it is hoped to reconstruct it, and display the scenery and characters in it, possibly even with the occasional performance if anyone can be found to match G.K.'s genius for improvisation.

The collection also includes many personal objects, his hat, his honorary doctoral robes, his walking sticks, his rosary beads, even his typewriter. All on the grand scale.

It is obviously of the utmost importance to keep this material together, to preserve it from the clutches of any foreign power, and to make it available in England for scholars and wonderers to admire and discover. Ultimately we hope the Chesterton Library will have its own space and display area above the Newman Chapel; in the shorter term it may be housed in the main part of the Library.

Rosary Recording from the Oxford Oratory

In August 2008 we made a recording of the Rosary, with organ accompaniment, fifteen readings from the writings of Newman, interludes of Gregorian Chant, and extracts from the writings of Fr Werenfried van Straaten. This was in aid of Aid to the church in Need, which Fr Werenfried founded in 1945 to help Christians in Eastern Europe; now it extends its aid all over the world, including our sister Oratory at Oudtshoorn in South Africa The recording involved Oratory parishioners from four continents, and was done on three successive late nights. It is still available from Aid to the Church in Need, if you want to hear how the Oratory community prays.

And if you want to see what ACN has helped do in Oudtshoorn, see their website too.

A glimpse of our Patron Saint

While we were restoring the Sanctuary in 2008, a trial was made of whether the paintings over the arches on either side could be uncovered. They were done in the 1920s by Gabriel Pippett, and showed scenes from the life of St Aloysius, in roundels, linked up with trailing vines. Unfortunately they were all painted over with heavy emulsion paint in the 1950s. The experiment showed that it is (just) possible to clean the paint off, but it would take a very long time, and the pictures underneath would then need to be retouched. It was estimated that it would take at least two months of skilled restoration work. So we reluctantly decided the little bits we had seen would have to be covered over again – Pippett was a good artist, but not a great one, and for the amount that would have cost we could one day get a great artist to do something better in place of the lost paintings.