“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3.16-17

The writer to the Colossians reminds us of the fact that from the earliest beginnings, music played a vital role in the life and witness of the Christian Church. It is a commonplace that music touches something vital in the human heart and draws us more deeply into the mystery of God. As George Steiner suggested in his book Real Presences, music enables us to acknowledge and celebrate our intuitions of transcendence: ‘In ways so obvious as to make any statement a tired cliché,……music puts our being as men and women in touch with that which transcends the sayable, which outstrips the analysable.’ Recent studies have demonstrated that there is a direct correlation between interest in the arts and interest in spirituality. Music has a significant role to play in the spiritual formation of our community and much to contribute to our ministry to the city and to the many visitors who come to the University Church each year.

This Sunday marks the beginning of our summer music programme with a series of Choral Evensongs during the month of July at 3.30pm. Please note this change of time from previous years. For many years, the German Lutheran congregation have had their service at this time (and they will continue to do so). In a report published by Oxford City Council, analysis of the footfall in the city centre on Sundays shows that most visitors come to Oxford on Sundays between the hours of 11.00am and 3.30pm (an obvious consequence of Sunday opening hours). Inevitably, most of them have left the city centre by 5pm or 6pm, when we have had Choral Evensong in the past. We want to ensure that our services take place at the optimum time for visitors. Evensong will continue for the Sundays in July, with visiting choirs on July 8 and July 15. In August, we will have a series of Organ Recitals, again at 3.30pm. At each Organ Recital, there will be a brief meditation at the beginning and a prayer at the end.

We have a wonderful choir and we look forward to the arrival of Rob Howarth, our new Director of Music in the autumn. Our life together is characterised by a deep and profound recognition of the spiritual power of music: in drawing us into the fellowship of faith, in enabling us to encounter the living God, and in encouraging our formation as the people of God. For St. Augustine of Hippo, music helped human beings articulate a particular kind of spiritual intensity: “Those that sing praise, not only praise, but praise with gladness: those that sing praise, not only sing, but also love him of whom they sing. In praise, there is the speaking forth of one confessing; in singing, the affection of one loving.” Exposition on the Book of the Psalms 73.1