They're still good chaps
It is a Sunday evening and the boys from Magdalen College School make their way across the bridge, towards the famous college Chapel where they will sing for the fifth time this week. They join with the 20 or so choral scholars, who alongside their academic work are committed to sing almost daily in the grandiose chapel that takes pride of place in the centre of the ancient college.
Founded as a religious institution over 800 years ago, the University still retains many of these ancient Christian traditions, with each college proudly boasting its own Chapel and weekly services. Yet the world into which these traditions have survived is virtually unrecognisable from the twelfth century monasteries from which they evolved. Oxford University in the 21st century is an increasingly modern and multi-cultural institution, in which students embrace a plethora of religious beliefs from around the world, and many profess no belief at all.
Whilst Oxford has adapted, albeit slowly, to the changes wrought by the Reformation and extensive developments since, is there now any place here at all for the Church around which the University was founded? Do religious 'traditions' still play any significant role in the lives of modern students, and would we care (or even notice) if they were discarded?
This is certainly a question that is being asked at St Edmund Hall, at least in terms of the need for a college chaplain, given the recent resignation of Rev Duncan Maclaren who will leave at Easter. Maclaren has worked at the college for the past seven years, and his forthcoming departure has prompted the college governing body to reassess the continued need for such a figure.
Principal Mike Mingos is very aware of the changing nature of college society; whilst Teddy Hall has traditionally had a very strong religious ethos, it now no longer teaches theology at all, and Christianity is far from dominant. Even so, a committee set up to consider the issue has decided to now retain the chaplaincy; a survey of other colleges, students and staff suggests that there is still a significant body of support for chapel traditions, despite the relatively low attendance at the services every week.
Certainly, of those 25 or so students who sing in the college choir, the loss of the Chapel would be a significant loss indeed. Joanne Robertshaw is a choral scholar, and as such is obliged to sing in the weekly service. However, she sees the choir as far more than just a mere obligation, because although not all religious, the musical community within the college would suffer a severe blow were the chapel choir to be disbanded.
Other students see the religious aspect of the service as more significant, and insist that a more secular choir could not take its place. One third year English student, who described herself as "Christian, but not church-going", looks forward to the chance to "take time out and reflect" each week, and sees the role of the Chaplain in providing welfare as a useful one.
Rev Maclaren himself believes that the chapel is the symbolic heart of college life, and it does seem true that many would lament an end to religious traditions in Oxford, even when they do not take an active part. Whilst the majority of students do not regularly attend chapel, for example, the annual Carol Service is always a popular event at Teddy Hall and elsewhere, and the number of old Aularians who return each year for weddings and religious functions in the college is also significant.
In the past, the enthusiasm of such groups to 'convert' their fellow students has aroused a certain amount of animosity. Notably in Somerville, founded as the first non-denominational college, a rival poster campaign was launched last year to combat adverts placed by the Christian Union, which according to one third year student were "misleading" and "sneaky".
The difference between continuing religious traditions in Oxford, and these more vibrant and pro-active groups, seems very much defined in the eyes of many students. Whilst college chapel services are considered an important staple of university life, even by some who don't attend, the 'in-your-face' style evangelism of some other Christian groups is met with far less tolerance. For Goodman, however, they are one and the same: "Only in chapels where Christ is not worshipped as the true Lord and Saviour can any distinction be made".
But college chapels themselves and the more conventional traditions for which they stand remain very much a part of the University; albeit beneath the surface, and alongside any number of varying beliefs, Oxford's Christian roots are very much tangible, even today.
29th Jan 2004