2012 Annual Report - Jesus College - University of Cambridge

COLLEGE NEWS I Jesus College Annual Report 2012 69
Choral Eucharists were celebrated for St Luke, All Saints’ (with Westcott House in
All Saints’ Church, Jesus Lane), All Souls’, Candlemas, Ash Wednesday, St David,
Ascension and the Visitation. I generally preach at these services myself and at the
Sunday morning Eucharist, which continues to flourish with a loyal group of regulars
and a small choir directed by our very talented and conscientious organ scholars Robert
Dixon and Ben Morris. All of these services, to say nothing of the four Choral Evensongs
every week, would be considerably more chaotic without all the work and ministry of
welcome offered by the Chapel Secretaries: Tim Middleton, Jenny Leigh, Daniel Taylor,
Max Drinkwater (all of whom have graduated this year and will be much missed), James
Lofthouse, Ella Johnston, Alex Kite, Jon Sanders, and Sarah Woods, and especially our
Chapel Clerks Hanna Weibye and Sarah Dane. I’m also very grateful for the support of
our two ordinands on attachment from Westcott House this year: PhD candidate Ruben
Angelici and Tripos student Dr Rebecca Lloyd. Jesus continues to be one of the principle
Cambridge colleges for training ordinands for the Church of England and I recently had
the pleasure of attending the ordinations of four of them in Southwark diocese (Catriona
Laing, Ben Brown, Greg Cushing, and Catherine Tucker). Those being ordained
elsewhere included Andrew Whitehead, Mark Scarlatta, and Peter Dobson.
The Chapel trip during the Easter vacation consisted of a week on the beautiful island
of Iona off the West coast of Scotland, famous for being the centre from which
St Columba brought the Christian faith to much of Scotland and Northern England.
The group of nine included postgraduates and fellows as well as undergraduates and
stayed in the very comfortable Episcopalian Bishop’s House, having been hosted by Old
St Paul’s Edinburgh on our journey up. The week had more of the feel of a retreat than
previous Chapel trips, with daily services in the Chapel, hearty walks in the rain, and
evenings around the fire. In the Easter term a group of twelve went by minibus on a
daytrip to the St Alban’s pilgrimage where one of our recent confirmees led the
intercessions at a Eucharist in the Abbey before a congregation of 1500 and the
Archbishop of York.
Mark Williams, our Director of Chapel Music, describes the activities of our choirs
elsewhere, but I would like to pay tribute to all his labours in continuing to develop the
superb musical life of the Chapel. The December choir tour to the Ukraine was
particularly enjoyable and provided a thorough introduction to the College Choir for our
new administrator, Alice Johnson. Another happy occasion was the confirmation of two
of our choristers, Alasdair Austen and Edward Bellett-Travers, with Brittany Wellner,
fiancée of one of our fellows, by Bishop Lindsay Urwin of Walsingham in the Easter
term.
In addition to weddings of present students, fellows, and staff, and not a few old
members, the Chapel has this year seen the baptism of Mia Hurst, daughter of one of the
College Chefs, and the funeral of Sir Alan Cottrell, former Master, who was also
commemorated with a memorial service at the University Church. ■