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Weekly Email – Trinity 22

Friday 25 October 2024 at 11:45

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High Mass Trinity 22

E&B Trinity 22

Dear friends,

I am pleased to announce a parish trip which will take place in the New Year on 7th February 2025, to see the splendid new exhibition at the British Museum entitled, “Silk Roads.” The exhibition examines the network of trade, travel and intellectual connections that linked East and West through the first Millennium.

“Silk Roads” seeks to show our world has always been a much more connected place than we often imagine. Cross-cultural exchange of various forms is not just crucial to our economic wellbeing, but also contributes to the flourishing of artistic creativity and intellectual discourse.

I am particularly grateful that we have been able to obtain from the British Museum 15 free tickets for this exhibition. They will be apportioned on a “first come; first served” basis. We will meet at the British Museum at 6.00 pm and you can book your place on this trip here on our Eventbrite account. Our visit to the British Museum will finish with the option of dinner at Le Beaujolais restaurant in Soho. The 3 course dinner at Le Beaujolais is £55 per head with parishioners paying for their own drinks.

The exhibition itself is a breathtaking conspectus of the cultural and economic links between a range of regions and periods: early connections between China, Korea and Japan; the nomadic cultures of the Eurasian Steppe; artistic creativity prompting trade between Eastern Africa and the Mediterranean world; right through to archeological discoveries in a far flung island at the very Western reaches of civilisation called Britain.

Amongst this glittering treasure house of artefacts, the influence of Christian culture and the theological debates that characterise its life is complex and fascinating.

We see evidence of early Nestorian life in Asia through evidence of the work of missionaries from Persia in the 700s inscribed on an extraordinary stela found in Chang’an. However, there is also evidence of cultural “cross-pollination” and syncretism. An enigmatic image on display of a bodhisattva-like figure, dating from 800 and found in Dunhuang, has been conjectured to be a Buddhist teacher, a portrait of a Christian cleric, possibly a Nestorian saint, or even a Manichaean image of Christ himself. Layer upon layer of possibility tantalises the viewer as we contemplate the overlapping theological impulses that may have prompted this image’s creation.

[Left: enigmatic C9th image found in Dunhuang, possibly of Christ, possibly of a Christian saint, possibly of a Nestorian cleric. Right: rubbing of a stela dating to 781 found in Chang’an, recounting the history of the Church of the East in the city, from the first missionary called Aluben who arrived in 635 from Persia.]

The skill and craftsmanship found in Christian Byzantium influences artistic creation with immense power as seen through an array of glorious objects. The Christian architecture of 6th Century Eritraea, for example, shows a flourishing indigenous Christian culture, but one influenced by Byzantium through the stone imported from the Imperial Capital to decorate the interior of the churches found there.

The last sections of the exhibition contemplate the cultural crosscurrents that contribute to the culture of Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian Europe. And yet, even here, the influence of cultures hundreds of miles to the East can be found, for example, in the coinage of Mercian King Offa’s reign – in which he mints coins inscribed with his name, but which mimic the Islamic inscriptions of a Middle Eastern dinar.

This exhibition is a fascinating opportunity both to ponder the extraordinary artistic creativity prompted by a period which, in the West, we often regard mistakenly as the “Dark Ages,” and by cultures and places we know all too little about. It also allows us to explore the role of Christian thought, culture and theology within those streams of interaction and connection. I heartily commend the exhibition to you and hope as many as possible will be able to join us for our parish trip.

Fr Peter

Music sponsorship

We are very grateful to Paul Golding CBE for sponsoring the music last Sunday in memory of his mother. We assure Paul of our prayers.

Every penny we receive in sponsorship makes a huge different to balancing our music budget each year. Many thanks, Paul!

In person formation: Epistle of James

Our next autumn in person formation session takes place this Wednesday, 30th October at 7pm. Our speaker is Fr AKMA Adam, a tutor in New Testament and Greek at the University of Oxford, who also ministers at St Helen’s Parish Church in Abingdon. He will lead us in an introduction to the Epistle of James, a particular area of interest in his studies and writing.

Holy Hour takes place from at 5.30 pm for those who wish to join us, and the evening begins with a light supper after the 6.30 pm Mass

Please register for this event here.

We were pleased to welcome as our preacher last Sunday Fr Russ Snapp. You can watch the High Mass for Trinity 21 again here.

Young Adults Pub Quiz

Our Young Adults group will join the pub quiz which takes places this Tuesday 29th October at 7pm at The King’s Arms, Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7QL. Be in touch with Fr Alan if you’d like to join us for this All Saintstide get-together.

How grateful we are to all those who run our parish bar! Each week, after our High Mass on a Sunday morning, and in the evening after Evensong and Benediction, they work so hard to create a place of welcome, fellowship and fun, as we catch up with friends, welcome newcomers, and chat with visitors.

All Saints’ Festival 2024

Eve of All Saints’ Day – Thursday 31st October 2024
6.30 pm: First Solemn Evensong and Benediction
Music: Evening Service in D, George Dyson; Glorious in heaven, Percy Whitlock.

All Saints’ Day – Friday 1st November 2024
6.30 pm: High Mass
Preacher: The Rt Revd Stephen Conway, Bishop of Lincoln.
Music: Missa Sancti Nicolai, Joseph Haydn; O quam gloriosum, Tomas Luis de Victoria.

All Souls’ Day – Saturday 2nd November 2024
12.00 noon: High Mass of Requiem
Preacher: The Revd Reg Bushau.
Music: Requiem, Maurice Duruflé.

6.30 pm Vigil Mass of All Saints’ Festival Sunday

All Saints’ Festival Sunday – Sunday 3rd November 2024
8.30 am: Low Mass
11.00 am: High Mass
Preacher: The Ven Katherine Hedderly, Archdeacon of Charing Cross.
Music: Mass of All Saints, Norman Caplin; Justorum animae, William Byrd.
Followed by a celebratory parish lunch.
5.15 pm: Low Mass
6.00 pm: Solemn Evensong and Benediction, with Te Deum.
Music: Service in C, C. V. Stanford; The fair chivalry, Robert Ashfield; O Salutaris, Bortniansky, arr Norman Caplin; Tantum ergo, Harwood, arr Norman Caplin; Te Deum in G, Herbert Sumsion.