Hertford year: The Chapel

tinue the strong Hertford tradition. In other traditions, Tom Oakley (Engineering, 2010) displayed superior technique to take the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Race title, and, on a sunny May Day morning, we probably broke the record of how many singers have sung madrigals through the small west-facing window of Hertford bridge.

Hertford Year
The Chapel
Rev. Gareth Hughes (Chaplain)

wonder what one of those time-lapse documentaries would look like if the camera was set up in chapel, gazing down on our year from the organ loft. Our big events with packed stalls would pass in the blink coming to practise music, sit in quiet or light a candle would be the mainstay of about the big events, but heres also to the great cloud of small witnesses. As a chapel in a progressive college, we cannot assume some divine right of existence. Our chapel must prove itself within the overall framework of the colleges present and future life. In both spirit and substance, the chapel has proved itself this year. In the spirit of debate, our visiting preachers have challenged us to wrestle with the big issues of our time. In the sub -

I shall write about the big events,

This year, we welcomed our new Junior Organ Scholar, Nick Graham (Music, 2012). Nick has a passion for conducting year at Hertford, Nick founded the Oxford Consort, which he conducts along with the college orchestra. Our community has also been bolstered by the presence of two associate chaplains. Justine Billett is an ordinand for the Diocese of London at Ripon College Cuddesdon, just outside Oxford. She is a Chemistry graduate who is now reading Theology. The Reverend Jim Matarazzo is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and a minister of the United Church of Christ. He has worked with a number of

but heres also to the great cloud of small witnesses

The choir in Leipzig

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Hertford year: The Chapel

Singing madrigals on May Day morning

organizations on HIV initiatives throughout the world, and he is now writing a DPhil in Theology at Oxford. an embarrassment of riches. On 28 October 2012, the chapel choir performed Samuel Peggs Like as the hart, an anthem commissioned by the Hertford Society in memory of alumnus Brian Galpin (Law, 1940). This and the other pieces and sermons can be heard online at <www.soundcloud.com/ hertford-college-chapel>. Its lyrical singability means that it will be repeated this coming Michaelmas term at our Freshers Evensong. Finalist music student Sam Parsons wrote a haunting version of the same Ke-ayyal taarogh cert. At the end of Michaelmas term, the ting of Christina Rossettis poem In the bleak mid-winter at our service of nine lessons and carols. our liturgical performance of the Mozart Requiem with choir and orchestra on 7 November. The sublime music was the perfect accompaniment to the remembrance of our departed loved ones. In December, the choir went on tour to Leipzig and sang in the Christmas market. I doubted whether a 10 pm Tuesday-night performance of Rach-

maninoff Vespers in February would draw coming September, we are off to Barcelona. Flickering candles, gilded icons and clouds of incense set the scene for senior organ scholar Ed Whitehead (Music, 2011) to conduct the chapel choir in this Russian choral classic. Due to the generosity of the Hertford Society and the current and former principals, we shall be making eight choral awards this coming Michaelmas term, to build a strong foundation for the choir from our most talented singers. For Interfaith Sunday (18 November 2012), we welcomed Shaunaka Rishi Das, Hindu Chaplain to the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Centre Hindu Studies. Shaunaka spoke with both deep insight and gentle humour about the importance of faith in human realization and the need to learn from religions without syncretizing them or reducing them to ciphers for cultural and philosophical arguments. Three Hertford students of different Grabiner (Oriental Studies, 2010) and Eamon Jubbawy (Economics and Manage English, Hebrew and Arabic. Also back in November, it was an honour to welcome transgender people and their friends to the chapel to commemorate

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Hertford year: The Library

Transgender Day of Remembrance, a simple, moving ceremony that had previously been held in little rooms here and there. On 27 January 2013, we observed Holocaust Memorial Day. It was good to strike up a connection with the Bishop of Hertford (suffragan in the Diocese of St Albans), the Right Reverend Paul Bayes, who recounted his experience of visiting Rwanda after the genocide. Dr Paul Coones led a moving performance of Shostakovichs Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor from the cello.

The Library
Dr Oliver Noble Wood (Fellow Librarian)

Flickering candles, gilded icons

The Reverend Jeff Barz-Snell, minister of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, preached on 5 May about the infamous Salem witch trials in his city and the misuse of faith for persecution. He spoke of his experience of the passing of legislation in favour of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and how, in time, the celebration of same-sex marriage has become as joyfully normal as any other wedding in his church. On 2 June, we were honoured by a visit of His Grace Bishop Angaelos, a general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church. He had been due to visit back in Michaelmas term but had the great excuse of being summoned to Cairo for the election of Tawadros II as the new Coptic Pope. Bishop Angaelos spoke about how the ordinary young people of Egypt had made a stand against dictatorship, and about the potential of our students to make a difference for the better in the world. The chapel continues to make its online presence felt with its popular Facebook page (<www.facebook.com/hertfordchapel>), its Twitter feed (<www.twitter.com/ hertfordchapel>) and the repository of recordings of music and sermons on Soundcloud (<www.soundcloud.com/hertfordcollege-chapel>).

and clouds of incense set the scene

fter last years whirlwind of activity collection, and the librarys expansion into the basement of the Old Lodgings, this year has been one of relative calm. The library has continued to run smoothly under the watchful eye of Susans successor, Kirsty Taylor. Ably assisted by this years junior librarians (Dara Latinwo, Rustu Duran, and Eleanor Law) Kirsty has worked tirelessly to improve library provision for Hertford members past and present. Amongst many other things in the last twelve months, she has overseen the redecoration of the library entrance hall, the re and the creation of a user-friendly section of the new, all-singing, all-dancing college website dedicated to library services. Sadly, Kirsty now leaves us to take up the post of Head of Library & Information Services at Green Templeton College. Her time at Hertford has proved all too short, and she will be sorely missed by students and colleagues alike.

Where

The antiquarian books have settled well in the Principals Drawing Room and the the Old Lodgings. Marrying tradition with cutting edge interior design, these rooms bring together the best of the old and the portrait of a former principal hanging in such close proximity to a print featuring Elvis and Darth Vader? As for the books

else could one hope to nd a portrait of a former principal hanging in such close proximity to a print featuring Elvis and Darth Vader?

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