Michaelmas Term 2024

Michaelmas Term 2024

ST THEOSEVIA CENTRE FOR CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY

Michaelmas TERM 2024

at St Theosevia House, 2 Canterbury Road, Oxford OX2 6LU

An Ecumenical Centre for Christian Spirituality

‘Our Sister Bodily Death’:

Pastoral Care, Death as Gift, and Memorialisation in West and East Saturday 16 November 10.30 am – 4 pm

Open Study Day with Dr David Boswell, Revd Canon Professor James Woodward, Revd Dr Liz Carmichael

If possible leave message on 01865 310341, or notify david.rytz@exeter.ox.ac.uk  Or just come!

The Holy Land: a Land Contested, from the Old Testament to the Present

Saturday 30 November 10.30 am – 4 pm

Open Study Day with Professor John Day, Revd Dr Liz Carmichael, Dr Brian Klug, Brendan Metcalfe

All welcome, no registration required. Free for students; non-students £5. Tea and coffee provided.

 You are welcome to bring a sandwich lunch. 

Assistant Director of Studies: David Rytz, david.rytz@exeter.ox.ac.uk.  

Website: www.sttheosevia.org

St Theosevia House phone (messages only): 01865 310341. 

From the Director: Revd Dr Liz Carmichael, St John’s College.

liz.carmichael@sjc.ox.ac.uk

                                                                                        October 2024

Dear Friends of St Theosevia’s,

Welcome to this new academic year. We have two quite adventurous Study Days this term, both on demanding topics: the first on death and how we understand and respond to it – can we welcome “our Sister Bodily Death” as gift, as St Francis did? – and the second on the Land that we call Holy, yet which has so often not understood the things that pertain to its peace and ours.

Last term, the sun shone on our experimental Garden Party cum Study Afternoon. It was a convivial gathering, with strawberries and cream, gifts of cake, cucumber sandwiches, and gallons of Pimms – and never was the topic of Salt so absorbing! We explored it from multiple angles, practical, metaphorical and medical. Henry Mayr-Harting vigorously pointed out that, far from being merely simple fishermen, St Peter and his colleagues were quite probably entrepreneurs involved in the extensive trade of salt fish from Galilee! Later in Trinity Term we explored various aspects of prayer and were again reminded of St Teresa’s illustration of stages in contemplative prayer, the ‘four ways’ of watering a thirsty Spanish garden.

This term we welcome speakers from Oxford and beyond. Among them, Rev James Woodward, head of Sarum College in Salisbury, worked for a year as an assistant at St Christopher’s Hospice before ordination, an experience that influenced him deeply. He has written on pastoral care of the dying and a spirituality of death as gift. Then on 30 November we welcome Brendan Metcalfe, a former businessman with extensive experience of the Middle East, who visits and supports Christian communities in that region as CEO of ‘Friends of the Holy Land’. We welcome them and our other speakers. And let us continue to pray for just and lasting peace.

                                                With best wishes,  

LIZ CARMICHAEL

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Free tea and coffee are available at Study Days from 10 am and in the lunch break 1-2 pm. Bring packed lunch, or forage nearby in North Parade. If you can help serve coffee you will have a free place – please leave a message on 01865 310341 or email David david.rytz@exeter.ox.ac.uk.    Please do send a Newsletter Subscription for costs and postage, suggested £5 pa, by cash, or cheque to ‘St Theosevia Trust’, to: Newsletter, St Theosevia House, 2 Canterbury Rd, OX2 6LU. For bank details please ask David.

For the Oxford Centre for Spiritual  Growth (OCSG), see https://www.ocsg.uk.net/ or contact Ben Simpson at info@ocsg.uk.net

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Saturday 16 November 10.30 am – 4 pm

Update for the Study Day this Saturday 16 Novemberchange of speaker:

We regret to bring you the news that that Renée Hirschon is unable to give her presentation on mourning rituals among Greek Orthodox refugees, due to illness. We send her our very best wishes. Renée was due to speak in the afternoon, at 2 pm.

We are very glad however to let you know that the Revd Canon James Woodward, an expert in this area who is visiting us from Sarum College, Salisbury and will speak in the morning on a spirituality of death, has agreed to give two talks, so he will now speak both before and after the lunch break. His second talk, at 2 pm, will be on: ‘Listening to the voices of those who are embracing death.’

Dr David Boswell’s talk at 10.30 is unchanged.

We look forward to welcoming you at this Study Day.

Our Sister Bodily Death”: Pastoral Care, Death as Gift, and Memorialisation in West and East

Stele, sarcophagi, populated tombs, catacombs and relics: memorialisation in the West, from ancient Rome to the Reformation 

This talk traces how Classical forms of tombs and monuments were adopted in the Christian west, and how a crucial difference was introduced with the practice of collecting relics as a central mode of interceding and seeking salvation. Leaving the poor in churchyards, aristocratic tombs are found in the most prestigious place, close to the relics, inside cathedrals and churches. After the proclamation of the doctrine of Purgatory by the 1215 Lateran Council, the dead might reduce their time in purgatory by prayers and good works, and family and guild chapels developed. Post-Reformation, prestigious memorials focused on recording the person’s significant characteristics, good works and devout life. Dr David Boswell read History at Cambridge, did social research at LSE and Manchester, taught at the Open University and did architectural historical research in Malta, Sicily and Leeds for a D.Phil. at York. From 1981 to 2024 he taught architectural history for Oxford’s Dept of Continuing Education.

A spirituality of death: a pastoral reflection on being bounded

Revd Canon Professor James Woodward (Sarum College).

We shall look at what mortality and vulnerability might show us about spirituality and well-being. Imagination, humanity and compassion can feed our spiritual lives to help us to be present to ourselves and others as we face change and welcome the gift of death. We shall draw upon how individuals have narrated their journey into death and point towards how we ourselves might embrace mortality in self and others.

James Woodward is an Anglican priest, theological educator and writer. He became Principal of Sarum College in 2015 after 30 varied years of ministry. From his time at St Christopher’s Hospice before ordination, one consistent theme remains with him – why do Christians find it so hard to consider mortality?

Dealing with Death in Greek Orthodox Practice Dr Renée Hirschon

This talk reflects on the practices surrounding death based on the speaker’s personal experience. During anthropological fieldwork among refugees from Asia Minor in Piraeus in the 1970s, Renée was closely involved in the mourning rituals of three members of the community. Renée Hirschon has extensive experience in Greece, living there and, for 10 years, chairing the new department of Social Anthropology, University of the Aegean. She previously taught at Oxford Brookes, and is now an Emerita Fellow of St Peter’s College.

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Saturday 30 November 10.30 am – 4 pm

The Holy Land: a Land Contested, from the Old Testament to the Present

The Holy Land and the Old Testament Professor John Day

We begin with an outline of the history and geography of ancient Israel/Palestine: the origins of Israel (both people and name), the name Palestine, the 12 tribes and ‘lost tribes’, differing concepts of the extent of ‘the Promised Land’, the significance of Jerusalem, who the Canaanites, Philistines and Samaritans were, why the Jews survived while Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites disappeared; how the Palestinian people relate to the ancient Jews, and how a fundamentalist understanding of the Bible has exacerbated problems in the Middle East. John Day is Emeritus Professor of OT Studies in Oxford, and Emeritus Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. With a PhD from Cambridge and DD from Oxford, in 2014 he was President of the Society for OT Study, and has authored or edited 17 books and written >75 articles & 200 book reviews. He is currently slaving away on his ICC commentary on Genesis 1-11, which he hopes to finish before he is 80!

Where and when is Zion? Dr Brian Klug

Alluding to ‘the end of days’, Isaiah (62:4) prophesied to the people that their land will be known by the new name Beulah [married]. The talk will reflect on what the name signifies for locating Zion, for the relationship of the people to Zion, for the meaning of exile in the here and now, and for the idea of redemption. Brian Klug is Hon Fellow in Social Philosophy, Campion Hall, and Emeritus Fellow of Philosophy. His books include Being Jewish and Doing Justice, Offence: The Jewish Case, and Words of Fire: Selected Essays of Ahad Ha’am (editor).

The Faithful Few – Christian Communities in the Holy Land Brendan Metcalfe, CEO, Friends of the Holy Land

Brendan brings the perspectives of Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land, the founding communities of our faith. Diminished for years, unemployed again for over a year and living with fear and uncertainty, forgotten by the western media and many of the Christian Churches and yet providing pastoral and social support across the whole Palestinian community which greatly exceeds their numbers. Brendan had an extensive career in international finance, 25 years living overseas in Asia, the Middle East (the Gulf States) and the US. Since 2018 he has been CEO of Friends of the Holy Land, an ecumenical NGO working closely with churches in the UK and the Holy Land.