Our visit to Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford

Do you know the mystery of “ Oxford time”? Well this was one of the many things that thirty-five members of the congregation and friends found the answer to when they visited Christ Church Cathedral. (If you don’t know the answer, it is at the end of this article.)

We arrived in the morning enabling plenty of time for other activities before our scheduled guided tour. Some ventured on a sightseeing tour of some of the colleges others indulged in retail therapy while many of us passed a leisurely hour or so on Christ Church Meadow watching the world go by on the land and on the busy river.

We were met by our guides at 3pm, divided into more manageable groups and then made our way around the buildings that form Christ Church. Our guides were extremely knowledgeable and gave us a splendid and very informative tour.

Christ Church is a unique institution. It is not only one of the largest colleges in the University of Oxford it is at the same time the Cathedral Church for the Diocese of Oxford. Briefly, the reason for this dual role goes back to the founding of the college by Cardinal Wolsely. He died before the college was completed and Henry VIII who needed a cathedral for the new Oxford diocese made use of the monastery church already on site, that Wolsely had not got around to demolishing.

Probably, because of its origins, the cathedral is on a much smaller scale than many of its counterparts. This makes for a much more homely and friendly environment but it is no less imposing and moving because of its size. There are some very interesting stained glass, both ancient and relatively modern and the shrine to St Frideswide to whom the original monastery was dedicated. Pilgrims regularly visited the shrine during the middle ages, as St Frideswide was widely believed to perform healing miracles. Catherine of Aragon visited here in a vain attempt to produce a male heir. Our guide commented on just how different the history of this country and its church might have been if her prayers had been answered.

Our next stop was the Great Hall. To fans of Harry Potter, this was a place of great interest as the Great Hall in Hogwart’s school is, if you didn’t know, a copy of this beautiful room. The room was set from a banquet that evening and looked very imposing with portraits of many if its famous old students looking down from the walls. It was then onto the Picture Gallery for a brief look around the many and varied paintings and sketches. On the way we passed the library, which had even more scaffolding around it than our own church and the work being undertaken looked much more expensive.

We then had a short break in the Priory Room where tea and homemade cake were served. After this we wandered around the cloisters again with our hard working guides pointing out points of interest. We then had an exclusive visit to the cathedral shop and the Treasury – an impressive display of silver both from the cathedral and from parishes wishing safekeeping for their more valuable and historic items.

The final part of our visit found us back in the cathedral for Evensong, where we had reserved seats by the choir stalls. Everybody agreed that this was a beautiful and uplifting experience, the choirs singing was superb. This was a very fitting way to end the visit to our own cathedral. This was a rewarding visit helped by the extremely courteous and helpful team at the cathedral who could not do enough to make our visit enjoyable.

Oh, I nearly forgot – Oxford time? Well when the age of steam and railway travel came into its own it was realised that even a country as small as ours had different time zones and, of course, people were missing their trains. It was decreed that everywhere in the country would comply with Greenwich Mean Time. Oxford, being fiercely independent decided otherwise and to this day services at the cathedral begin five minutes after the specified time. So, our 6 o’clock (GMT) evensong service began at 6.05pm (OT Oxford Time). There are no plans to extend this practice to St Michael’s!

 

Ken Amery

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