S MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS, LEAFIELD, OXON   Rural Oxfordshire is writ large north of Witney. Visible from afar, the spire of St Michael’s church dominates the village of Leafield. In 1858 the vicar commissioned a new church, Gilbert Scott [...]

Thurifer considers remembrance   In July 1919 a temporary monument had been commissioned by the government for a victory parade or peace march, as one newspaper put it, pending a decision about the form and character of a permanent national [...]

John Gayford offers a reflection on the Seven Great O Antiphons to the Magnificat in Advent   On the seven days leading to Christmas the Magnificat has antiphons which all start with O. They are all in the 2nd mode [...]

Art   Artemisia National Gallery until 23rd January, 2021   Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653) was born in Rome to the painter Orazio Gentileschi and his wife Prudenzia. Orazio was one of the best painters to be trained by Caravaggio and this [...]

Christopher Smith is looking for his opening line   ‘When I write my novel…’, I occasionally hear myself saying.  ‘When I write my novel, all this is going into it!’, I might say, in the midst of some apparently surreal [...]

It is not just church historians who have much to thank Fr Robert Beaken for with the publication of  his latest book ‘Faithful Witness: the confidential diaries of Alan Don, Chaplain to the King , the Archbishop and the Speaker, [...]

Arthur Middleton on The Rev Richard Hele and True Devotion   Richard Hele is the author of Select Offices of Private Devotion. For Fifty years he was Master of the Grammar School in the Cathedral Close of Salisbury where he [...]

Nicholas Chamberlain preaches at the ordination of Fr Ross Copley to the diaconate   St John’s Gospel, Chapter 1, verse 50 ‘Jesus answered, Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under a fig tree?  You will [...]

The Ecumenical Landscape   From Monsignor Robert Mercer CR   The erudite and gracious John Twisleton wrote (ND October 2020), an Anglican Ordinariate ‘represents some encouraging evidence of Roman Catholic acceptance of Anglicanism’. He is right. The Apostolic Constitution of [...]

Jonathan Baker explores the mystery of the priestly call   Angus, Mike, William, Yaro, dear holy deacons. This is not the ordination day you or I, or anyone else expected. In the light of eternity, the time of waiting for [...]