Happy Easter from CCCS!
It was a great pleasure to have, as a Cathedral Assembly speaker today, The Revd Fergus Butler - Gallie, Vicar of Charlbury. Though this is his main and most important job, he is better known for his books about ecclesiastical matters including a colourful book about Anglican clergy, “The Field Guide to English Clergy” and a newly published book about twelve buildings which tell us a lot about the history of Christianity. I was slightly surprised to see that he had not numbered Christ Church Cathedral amongst them! He writes for a number of national newspapers and is frequently on the radio. He spoke to us about the way in which a week could make so much difference. He had chosen, of course, as his reading, Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We all know how that story ended - with the terrible events of Good Friday and Jesus‘s crucifixion. As he said, a week can make such a difference. But it doesn’t end there, of course. The week ended with the resurrection and it is this that we celebrate at Easter. The events of that week remind us, he said, that God understands those things about life which we find difficult but that even still, there is always hope. That is a wonderful message for all of us in these uncertain times.
The Cathedral choristers are about to live through that week - liturgically I should stress! On Sunday they will follow a donkey through Tom Quad while the priests hold up palm fronds in memory of the palms that were thrown before Jesus as a sign of his triumphant entry in Jerusalem. As the week progresses things get more solemn and on Maundy Thursday, there will be a service to commemorate the last supper the moment before Jesus is betrayed when he eats for the last time with his disciples. On Friday they will take part in Services to remember the crucifixion and then, with the Cathedral full of flowers and gold vestments they will celebrate the resurrection on Easter. I very much hope that some of you will be able to attend some of those Services. Talking of Easter celebrations, the sun did not shine upon the Pre-Prep Easter Hunt. Though we could not go to the garden, at Christ Church there is always a decent alternative and we found ourselves in the mediaeval Chapter House. After some tea and coffee, the children entered and saying two lovely songs for us accompanied by Mr Robards on the guitar. We then had a glorious Easter bonnet parade, the pupils marching round the Chapter House accompanied by Mr Green who played the trombone tremendously, its brazen sound echoing around the mediaeval roof spaces while the nests and eggs and chickens and rabbits bobbed along happily on the top of the carefully constructed hats. It really was glorious occasion.
As ever, I enjoyed my visit to Pre-Prep assembly this morning. I was told about their recent trip to the Cotswold Wildlife Park. I was terrified to hear that they had seen some tigers and imagine my extreme anxiety when I was told by one boy “The lions talked to one another about eating us but decided not to!” I need to ensure that possible consumption by lions is firmly on the risk assessment next time!
It was lovely to see so many of you at the play last weekend. Mr. Richards surpassed himself with his brilliant script. I pointed out to those who attended on the first night that there must be very few schools where a play is written for the pupils by the director himself, and even fewer schools where the songs are written by the director, and even fewer schools still where the music for the songs is written by the Director, and an unimaginably small number of schools where the director has also invented a language. The following day I was told off by one of the pupils. “Sir! You should’ve mentioned that Mr Richards created not just one but two languages for the play. Mr. Richards’ achievements then were even more extraordinary than I had imagined!
The play was based in a school modelled on English principles somewhere in a mountainous foreign land. The Headmaster, known as the Colonel, a figure of considerable extroversion, enjoyed frequent assemblies where he clearly relished haranguing the multitude for hours about his latest interests while wearing a ludicrously colourful tie. I found myself taking notes and wondering if I should adopt this approach! Christ Church has never had a motto but Mr Richards’ school did - a Latin one of course. “Disce Agendo!” Which for those of us, like me, who need a translation means “learn by doing’ . This motto could well be applied to this School. As far as I can see, there has been a huge amount of doing this term which would lead me to suspect that there has been even more learning!
Indeed we had the general knowledge quiz today where the breadth of knowledge was remarkable – showing extraordinary learning. Indeed in the music round, not content with having to guess a composer from a short extract of music, Mr Richards played extracts not by famous composers themselves but by their relatives from which they had to guess the composer. At which other school...
It’s been a truly wonderful term. I hope you all have a lovely Easter break and I look forward to seeing everybody again next term.
